26Sep

Unique Go Cong ceramics

After 2 years of settling in her husband's hometown (Bordeaux, France), in 2005, Ms. Phan Thi Thuy Mai (34 years old) "persuaded" the artist Francois Jarlov to return to Vietnam to realize his dream of making ceramics right in his hometown and became the owner of Dong Gia ceramics (Vinh Binh town, Go Cong Tay district, Tien Giang).

Explaining why she made ceramics, Ms. Mai said that since ancient times, her hometown has had very famous craft villages such as Bat Trang, Lai Thieu... making ceramics by hand and mixing traditional glazes. But then these craft villages gradually faded away and now few potters are willing to mix their own glazes, but instead use pre-mixed glazes from China. "Unlike industrial glaze, if you mix green, it turns out green, if you mix red, it turns out red. Fire-changing glaze is mixed naturally according to a traditional recipe. For example, the cup before firing is the yellow color of the clay. But after 9 hours in the kiln at 1,300 degrees Celsius, it will turn purple or blue,” said Ms. Mai.

“First is the shape, second is the skin”, first is the beautiful shape, the unique glaze, then the soil. For example, the blue color of Dong Gia pottery is created by the chemical interaction between iron oxide and titanium plus heat, called fire-changing glaze, the color is created by the glaze, not by the color. The difference also depends on the kiln environment, firing temperature, firing time and chemical composition of the glaze. Even the same type of glaze but different soil also gives different colors. Ms. Mai gave an example of a vase. Also with fire-changing glaze, you can make another one with a similar shape, but the color, pattern and drip are not exactly the same. The advantage of Dong Gia pottery is that it is fired at 1,300 degrees Celsius, so the soil has thickened. Therefore, after a long time of use, the glaze is still not chipped, when you tap it lightly, you can hear a very clear clinking sound.

But to make precious glaze requires a long research process. Like jade glaze, the more you use it, the more beautiful it becomes like jade, sometimes it is dark green, sometimes light green. When drinking tea, it makes the tea color more beautiful. Ms. Mai said that in the past, in Vietnam, there was a type of tea-based glaze, green but slightly yellow. Tea-based glaze is easy to make, but to get to green glaze is very difficult, especially sky blue because there is only one type of feldspar that can make this type of glaze. Today, you can buy feldspar that gives this green color, but later, buying feldspar mined in another location will not make the same glaze. That is why some types of glaze are lost.

According to Ms. Mai, handmade ceramics may not be perfect, but they are more human and over time will become antiques with cultural value and quintessence of human beings. As for industrial products, although round, they are made by machines, in mass production, and even if they break, it is not a pity because you can buy another one.

Because of this awareness, she followed the manual direction, producing fire-changing glaze, so her family's products are always different because of their uniqueness and high competitiveness. For example, there was a customer who really liked the square teapot made of Tianmu glaze and gave a brown color, and wanted to order 2,000 of them, but complained about the high price and went to find another place. But in the end, this customer had to come back because other places could not make the glaze with a very strange color never seen before like Dong Gia's. "If we only produce to sell at a cheap price, at some point the resources will be exhausted, and our children and grandchildren will have nothing to eat," Ms. Mai explained.

Starting with a small kiln, at first, Ms. Mai and her husband had to go all the way to Binh Duong to buy insulation bricks imported from Malaysia to build the kiln. There are special materials for manual mixing that are very difficult to find on the market, such as field stone, which she had to go all the way to Hanoi to buy. Then silicate, iron oxide, copper oxide... each item is bought in each province. Many times, after buying and transporting it home, we are both amused and annoyed because we bought… fake goods!

“The surprising thing is that the clay taken from the Dong Thap Muoi region of Tien Giang when making jade glaze produces very beautiful ceramics, especially brown and purple. From the initial success, we hope to expand production to create a product line typical of the Mekong Delta, using soil from Tien Giang, so that when talking about Dong Gia, tourists will know that it is made in Go Cong”, said Ms. Mai.