Today was Korean Independence Day, (hail, the once-a-month public holiday!) and I boarded the bus with Cara, Stephenie and Suzie bound for Icheon, home of Korean pottery both ancient and modern. (If Adam and Elisa have gone there FIVE times, its got to be good, right?)
Icheon is famous for its traditional Goryeo and Joseon porcelain. We got to the Icheon Pottery village and started wandering around the 300+ pottery shops and exhibitions. Then we got fortuitously recruited by some brave Koreans and followed them to a back room where the pottery was being made. I got to play with a wet wad of clay on the wheel, which I find extremely therapeutic (beat that clay! pretend it is your enemy!) I decided to make a curvaceous vase with some help from my very patient Korean potter-teacher and I think it turned out rather nicely.
After making the vase, I etched a Korean-ish design onto it and added some paints for color. It will now be fired and delivered. Since all the instructions were in Korean, I really have no idea what color it will come out when its finished. (Black flowers and pink leaves weren't exactly what I had in mind?) We had lunch at a delicious traditional Korean restaurant in the village and then did some more pottery window-shopping. I bought a set of three miniature Korean jade-colored vases, which I think are lovely. No use buying any of the really big porcelain pots, unless you want suspiciously heavy carry-on luggage on the plane! (Apparently people have been smuggled out in some of the human-sized kimchi pots...)
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