Finished Porcelain Pottery from the 2011 North Carolina Potters Conference

A few days ago we drove over to the Randolph Arts Guild on Sunset Drive, to see how the porcelain pieces turned out that Bruce had thrown for the Master Chinese Painter that visited Asheboro, NC this past March, 2011. The Chinese Over-glaze Master's name is Feng Shangjin and was born in Jingdezhen City. He began at the age of 15 apprenticing with Master Wang Yunquan.

This year's annual North Carolina Potters Conference brought together an amazing group of Chinese ceramic artists, all with their own individual ceramics skills. In China the ceramic artists learn and hone a certain part of the ceramic process. This is a bit different than the American Studio Pottery, in that here we for the most part have a hand in each part of the process. From developing the clay body, throwing/finishing, glazing, and firing we have developed our own tradition here in the States. In China the individual learns how to perfect a skill and works on that particular part of the process full time. Very interesting to learn how other cultures continue on with the tradition of pottery making.

The conference included 5 Chinese demonstrators, knowledgeable speakers (Carla Coch and Li Chao), translators, and conference coordinators (Shoji Satake). It was quite a success, and a large endeavor for the Randolph Arts Guild. Through the dedication of the volunteers and the staff of the Arts Guild, this conference went smoothly and brought a lot of information to us, the potters and others participating in this wonderful event.

If you would like to check out the previous blog posts that we did about Bruce throwing the pieces, we have listed them below and linked them to the specific blog posts.

Porcelain for Chinese Master Over-glaze Painter February 7, 2011

Glazing Porcelain Pots for the NCPC Conference February 28, 2011

What is White? March 2, 2011

Below is Feng Shangjin, the Master Overglaze Painter working on one of Bruce's rimmed bowl. You can see what he is painting on the t.v. screen above his head.
Here he is beginning to paint the vase using a large plate as his mixing palette.

Xie Zhenghua is the Master Slab Builder. He was born in Jingdezhen City and has worked as a master slab builder for over 10 years. Not too many people like to learn this technique because it takes much longer to finish one piece in comparison to throwing.

Zhan Shaolin is the Master Thrower. He was born in Boyang County, Jiangxi Province. He has worked on throwing jobs for 16 years winning many awards in the process. He has demonstrated the capacity to throw two tons of clay in a day making over a thousand pots of various sizes in that time. We say WOW. We maybe throw a few tons in a year.

Feng Weina is the Master Underglaze Painter. She was born in Jingdezhen City and is part of the faculty at the School of Art and Design at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute.

Dai Guangyu is the Master Trimmer. He was born in Jiujiang County, Jiangxi Province. Dai has worked as a trimmer for 10 years, and his excellent work has been well recognized.

I wanted to show this picture because I loved the way he used the mop brush to make the pot wet again. Using a brush like this looks like it would be better on larger pieces than the sponges that we use.

He must make lots and lots of trimmings. I wonder of there is a trimming collector that reprocess all of this clay for him?

The pottery crowd was large as usual. This is a well attended conference, and is very popular among all levels of potters. Get ready to sign up for next years 2012 NC Potters Conference. There will be 6 total potters. John Glick, Cynthia Bringle, and our honorary 2011 Clay Cousin, Jack Troy, will be coming back next year to demonstrate at the conference as well. Each one of these potters will pick an up-and-coming young potter to also demonstrate at the conference. The NC potters conferences are usually scheduled around the first weekend in March.