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Reviving Chu Dau Village's ceramic crafts - Page 2
Return of the craft
The excavation attracted attention from the media and the general director of Ha Noi Trade Corporation who decided to invest in a project with two goals: reviving the craft to honour its history and building a trademark for village products so residents could make more money.
The corporation started in 2001 to build the factory with a total investment of VND24 billion, but it wasn’t until 2003 that the factory came into operation, said Nguyen Van Luu, director of the ceramic factory working under the corporation.
"Infrastructure (like roadways) was poor at that time. It really delayed our progress at the village even though we did receive support from local authorities," Luu said.
Then came the series of setbacks. The volume of clay needed to make decent amounts of production wasn’t available and local residents, who the factory was supposed to hire, knew nothing about making ceramics.
"We started to recruit skilled craftsmen from all over the country but still put a priority in hiring locals," Luu said, adding that 80-year-old Vu The Cuu was on their recruiting list.
Clay had to be transported from the neighbouring district of Chi Linh and Dong Trieu in Quang Ninh Province.
On the bright side, the factory already had their design models from the artefacts dug up; the broken pieces were analysed for exact solutions to help mixers with their formulas.
Leaders of the corporation and the factory worked with scientists to ascertain the mixture in Chu Dau ceramic and its layer of coating.
"The green colour used for flowers on Chu Dau ceramics is unique. Recovering the colour was difficult," Luan said. After all the money, time and effort invested in the process, the colour is still not an exact replica of their ancestor’s mixture.
The factory director said two glazes claimed to be unique to Chu Dau Village were also revived. One was a glaze made with a special glutinous rice husk; the other from circle crackle glaze. The two were very fine in colour – at least three colours in normal conditions – and look their best in natural light.
The first products got out of the gas and coal kilns (instead of wood and charcoal) were exported to Spain in May 2003.
Since then the factory has recreated most of the designs it got from excavations for both domestic and international customers.
Their products have reached 29 markets in Asia, Europe and North America with factory production doubling year after year.
"But the major target of villagers being the ones resuming the craft is still ahead," Luu said. "The real recovery is the remaking of the craft by local people while the factory is just a jumping-off point."
The corporation started in 2001 to build the factory with a total investment of VND24 billion, but it wasn’t until 2003 that the factory came into operation, said Nguyen Van Luu, director of the ceramic factory working under the corporation."Infrastructure (like roadways) was poor at that time. It really delayed our progress at the village even though we did receive support from local authorities," Luu said.
Then came the series of setbacks. The volume of clay needed to make decent amounts of production wasn’t available and local residents, who the factory was supposed to hire, knew nothing about making ceramics.
"We started to recruit skilled craftsmen from all over the country but still put a priority in hiring locals," Luu said, adding that 80-year-old Vu The Cuu was on their recruiting list.
Clay had to be transported from the neighbouring district of Chi Linh and Dong Trieu in Quang Ninh Province.
On the bright side, the factory already had their design models from the artefacts dug up; the broken pieces were analysed for exact solutions to help mixers with their formulas.
Leaders of the corporation and the factory worked with scientists to ascertain the mixture in Chu Dau ceramic and its layer of coating.
"The green colour used for flowers on Chu Dau ceramics is unique. Recovering the colour was difficult," Luan said. After all the money, time and effort invested in the process, the colour is still not an exact replica of their ancestor’s mixture.
The factory director said two glazes claimed to be unique to Chu Dau Village were also revived. One was a glaze made with a special glutinous rice husk; the other from circle crackle glaze. The two were very fine in colour – at least three colours in normal conditions – and look their best in natural light.
The first products got out of the gas and coal kilns (instead of wood and charcoal) were exported to Spain in May 2003.
Since then the factory has recreated most of the designs it got from excavations for both domestic and international customers.
Their products have reached 29 markets in Asia, Europe and North America with factory production doubling year after year.
"But the major target of villagers being the ones resuming the craft is still ahead," Luu said. "The real recovery is the remaking of the craft by local people while the factory is just a jumping-off point."
