Sunday, October 25, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Tooo Long! Yixing and its glory
First i am very sorry that it has been sooo very long, Whatever may have been the reasons or excuses, i apologize but i should be back to a regular schedule now.
enough of that. YIXING!!!!! was absolutely fantastic, it was soooo good I will only attempt to describe it. We left 10 days ago, which was wednesday despite what ended up being a 10 hour bus ride that was pretty cramped we all arrived in one piece, it was good, we got there, checked into bed and eventually went to bed.
Thursday: We got going and we had to wait for this man to meet us who was going to show us around the town for morning/afternoon. While waiting we went into a man's teapot shop/gallery, it really is both for these artists. He had some absolutely gorgeous teapot, one stuck out and i asked to see it, he showed it to me and what i found, to me anyway, was one of the most completely complete pieces of art/pottery/ceramics/or object that i have ever seen. Everything was looked at, it was a product of total design, it was absolutely beautiful but of course it had won an award and wanted a piece that was nowhere near a price that anyone i know could afford. That one piece has already started to influence me. That morning the man arrived and showed us one of his boss's personal warehouse's, which was huge, then we saw this ceramic expo, and then went to this ancient dragon kiln which was extremely large, guessing 200 feet long and more than 600 years old and still firing (they were loading it while we were there). RIDICULOUS!! Afterwards we had lunch at maybe the nicest restaurant i have ever been to. Then we went to this Yixing museum which was super great seen soo many wonderful teapots i don't even want to tell you. That afternoon we visited this gallery/shop area where a bunch of people all have shops making and selling teapots. This was the start of the 10's and maybe 100's of thousands of teapots i seen over the course of the next few days. It was a really good day.
Friday: We went another area where there were all of these teapot maker, and their apprentices, making teapot, workshops and galleries, seen a ton more fantastic teapots it was great. We got to see some people making teapots which was really cool. I believe what this place was called is the Number 1 factory but i could be mistaken. The whole area was a total dedication to the tea and the teapot, you could be tea, teapots, tea trays, teapot making tools, anything.That afternoon we went to another market area, with all kinds of shops and what not, this is where my teapot buying frenzy started. That night a bunch of people got Pizza Hut, I went and got some delicious chinese food, and afterwards we found this crazy coffee shop.
Saturday: We got to check out more teapots, it was still really cool, enjoyed every minute of it, and i am still to this day not sick of teapots. What i did notice besides learning to speak to language and try and bargain, because that is what you do, besides learning so much about a good teapot, was that i had seen all of these teapots and i could walk into a room with 1000 teapots and find a dozen or less that i liked, all of this usually within 5 minutes or less. That i found was really interesting to see.
Sunday: Home, we went to pick up some Yixing clay, to be able to make some teapots, and headed home. It was a great trip, trying to decipher what i learned will take time but i am excited about the possibilities.
Things i learned: Watching James Bond movies for the 18 or so hours we were on the bus "MAY" be excessive. Patient is a virtue that i soon hope to be able to add to my work. And Tea will be coming with me to Richmond MN, Grand Forks ND, and wherever else i may end up in the future.
Windows 7: It helps you do more. Explore Windows 7.
enough of that. YIXING!!!!! was absolutely fantastic, it was soooo good I will only attempt to describe it. We left 10 days ago, which was wednesday despite what ended up being a 10 hour bus ride that was pretty cramped we all arrived in one piece, it was good, we got there, checked into bed and eventually went to bed.
Thursday: We got going and we had to wait for this man to meet us who was going to show us around the town for morning/afternoon. While waiting we went into a man's teapot shop/gallery, it really is both for these artists. He had some absolutely gorgeous teapot, one stuck out and i asked to see it, he showed it to me and what i found, to me anyway, was one of the most completely complete pieces of art/pottery/ceramics/or object that i have ever seen. Everything was looked at, it was a product of total design, it was absolutely beautiful but of course it had won an award and wanted a piece that was nowhere near a price that anyone i know could afford. That one piece has already started to influence me. That morning the man arrived and showed us one of his boss's personal warehouse's, which was huge, then we saw this ceramic expo, and then went to this ancient dragon kiln which was extremely large, guessing 200 feet long and more than 600 years old and still firing (they were loading it while we were there). RIDICULOUS!! Afterwards we had lunch at maybe the nicest restaurant i have ever been to. Then we went to this Yixing museum which was super great seen soo many wonderful teapots i don't even want to tell you. That afternoon we visited this gallery/shop area where a bunch of people all have shops making and selling teapots. This was the start of the 10's and maybe 100's of thousands of teapots i seen over the course of the next few days. It was a really good day.
Friday: We went another area where there were all of these teapot maker, and their apprentices, making teapot, workshops and galleries, seen a ton more fantastic teapots it was great. We got to see some people making teapots which was really cool. I believe what this place was called is the Number 1 factory but i could be mistaken. The whole area was a total dedication to the tea and the teapot, you could be tea, teapots, tea trays, teapot making tools, anything.That afternoon we went to another market area, with all kinds of shops and what not, this is where my teapot buying frenzy started. That night a bunch of people got Pizza Hut, I went and got some delicious chinese food, and afterwards we found this crazy coffee shop.
Saturday: We got to check out more teapots, it was still really cool, enjoyed every minute of it, and i am still to this day not sick of teapots. What i did notice besides learning to speak to language and try and bargain, because that is what you do, besides learning so much about a good teapot, was that i had seen all of these teapots and i could walk into a room with 1000 teapots and find a dozen or less that i liked, all of this usually within 5 minutes or less. That i found was really interesting to see.
Sunday: Home, we went to pick up some Yixing clay, to be able to make some teapots, and headed home. It was a great trip, trying to decipher what i learned will take time but i am excited about the possibilities.
Things i learned: Watching James Bond movies for the 18 or so hours we were on the bus "MAY" be excessive. Patient is a virtue that i soon hope to be able to add to my work. And Tea will be coming with me to Richmond MN, Grand Forks ND, and wherever else i may end up in the future.
Windows 7: It helps you do more. Explore Windows 7.
One of many
This is one of the pieces from the last stop we made on the trip which home to this very famous teapot maker/ artist
Hair washed
In china, for 4 1/2 American Dollar you can get your hair washed which includes a from the arms up massage, ITS AMAZING
Lunch in Yixing
We went to lunch with this man who was showing us around parts of yixing and he is the #2 for this extremely famous teapot maker named Ge Jun
Ceramic Expo
This is just part of the section from Yixing, they had works from all over the entire country
Monday, October 12, 2009
WE WANPHOTOS AND YOU TO SHUT UP!!!!
Sunday: I do aim to please as always and i had such an awesome trip to Sanbao the little working ceramic village that i uploaded all these photos for you guys. The plan as far as i knew was to bicycle to this village look around and come back. The Trip was so amazing we went past Sanbao (A WAYS!!), up the mountain(in 40 minutes) and down(less than 2 MIN'S!!, straight down hill, probably should have died) to this big reservoir that is pretty dry because lack of recent rain, to this little vilage and back again. Everything was great I am going to go back to the reservoir and spend a whole day there. Everything was amazing check out the photos!!!
Today/Monday: I spent the whole day and went to a shop where Mr. Zhan was working and watched him throw (and drank coffee), trying to fill in some gaps that i currently have in my abilities. When looking at the photos keeping in mind that he only threw for 5 hours, thats it. It was really good.
Rest of the Week: This will probably be my last post until i get back from Yixing which we will be leaving for Wednesday morning until sometime Sunday. Its going to be amazing, this is the home of the handmade teapots, I will take lots of photos and videos and explain everything from there. Have a great week and you will hear from me in 5 days!
Holla, Kurt
P.S. Sorry if the photos are out of order
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Today/Monday: I spent the whole day and went to a shop where Mr. Zhan was working and watched him throw (and drank coffee), trying to fill in some gaps that i currently have in my abilities. When looking at the photos keeping in mind that he only threw for 5 hours, thats it. It was really good.
Rest of the Week: This will probably be my last post until i get back from Yixing which we will be leaving for Wednesday morning until sometime Sunday. Its going to be amazing, this is the home of the handmade teapots, I will take lots of photos and videos and explain everything from there. Have a great week and you will hear from me in 5 days!
Holla, Kurt
P.S. Sorry if the photos are out of order
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Hammermill
This is a water-powered Hammermill and its used to pulverize the Kaolin that Jingdezhen and the surrounding areas are known for
Saggars
They make these saggars for pots but mostly for this material that they put inside of the side and fire to a certain point
Up Hill
More on the way to the destination. I estimate we biked (one way) anywhere from 5 - 10 miles on and down mountains
Restaurant floor
In Jingdezhen you can find Ancient porcelain shards all over the place yet this is still impressive. They went and got all these ancient shards, all of which are at least a couple hundred years old but more often six or more hundred and they are using them as tiles
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Salty, Smoky, and Sweet: 10 Top Bacon Recipes
Today i had a great day, went to the art fair which is every saturday a whole bunch of students and artists exhibit their work and it is for sale, it was the first one that i had been to and it was really quite fun and interesting. It was a really good work day and i am excited to get back into the studio tomorrow, it will be great.
Tomorrow in the morning we are going to ride bicycles to this local ceramic village called Sanbao will check that out, have lunch their and will get back to the studio after that, i am very excited, it should be amazing as always and i will post tomorrow.
Lastly i will be catching up for the next week or so on pictures and videos that i want to post from earlier, i just received a bunch of stuff from other people that i will be posting, so keep that in mind. As always, Kurt IN CHINA!!!!
P.S. i thoroughly enjoyed this when i saw this and wanted to share it
http://www.delish.com/recipes/cooking-recipes/top-bacon-recipes?GT1=47001
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Tomorrow in the morning we are going to ride bicycles to this local ceramic village called Sanbao will check that out, have lunch their and will get back to the studio after that, i am very excited, it should be amazing as always and i will post tomorrow.
Lastly i will be catching up for the next week or so on pictures and videos that i want to post from earlier, i just received a bunch of stuff from other people that i will be posting, so keep that in mind. As always, Kurt IN CHINA!!!!
P.S. i thoroughly enjoyed this when i saw this and wanted to share it
http://www.delish.com/recipes/cooking-recipes/top-bacon-recipes?GT1=47001
Hotmail: Powerful Free email with security by Microsoft. Get it now.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Another wonderful day
The photos that i took and posted are pretty much self explanatory. Today we went to the big vase factory and of course it was super ridiculous as it is in China. There were these work shops in this place and the major part of the factory was no longer there is what Aaron said however it was still really good. Everyone of these super huge gi-mongo pot were hand decorated thrown and trimmed. They attach all of the sections together when the pieces are bone dry. Also there was this place where they were making small pieces as well, little hand decorated teacups and what not, translucent and gorgeous. The trimmer with the amazingly immense pile of trimmings. BY the way, i can officially dry trim so i am very excited about that! The pots that are put together with scaffolding yet not one machine to move these pieces around, all moved with straps and manpower, extremely crazy. I also went to the mold maker today to try and make a press mold of a new idea that i am trying to resolve, we will see how it works, but the mold looks beautiful, so we will see, if it works i will definitely take some photos. Tonight we went to the artist lecture at the Pottery workshop, an Australian lady whom did work about the Israel Palestinian conflict stuff. It was good and interesting, and of course free beer afterwards. HOlla from China! Kurt
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Guy On Moped
Check out that guy on the moped, i know that they carry everything on these things and also drive like maniacs but that is ridiculous
View from Mountain
This place is absolutely beautiful, everything i see here is magnificent, just another view up the mountain
A good morning
These are all sections of bigger pots, they will all be trimmed and then assembled bone dry
Trimmer big vase factory
this man was trimming what i think were sinks, just check out that pile of trimmings, if just one person back in the states collected all of his trimming for an entire year they would be hard pressed to equal this from one morning
Big Vase Factory
This is at the big vase factory, check out those pot compared to that door frame and yes it is a full size door frame
Thursday, October 8, 2009
My New Wheels and Mr Jin's finshed pots
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Saturday, October 3, 2009
Chinese Store
20090928001845
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86
Holiday Excitement
20090930210950
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86
FISHING IN CHINA!
20090930032735
Originally uploaded by napoleondd86
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