Gangjin Celadon Festival

Well all the roads I end up on anyway! The first thing I did on my summer vacation was head down to the southern part of the country to the Gangjin Celadon Festival. This area was (and still is) the center of Celadon ceramics during the Goryeo Dynasty (918- 1392)

Here is a nice tea set with a celadon glaze. This type of glaze was invented in China, eventually spreading to Korea. The color can range from green to gray depending on the amount of iron oxide and the type of clay being used.

They also had other ceramic exhibits. Here are a pair of pit fire bowls.

A bowl with a flower pattern and a lighter celadon.

Here is the festival grounds. The area still has working potters even when the festival is not going on.

There were also some folk demonstrations going on. The carver invited us to try and carve the pole.

Maybe this can be my new hobby!

Even Erik got to try.

The guy really liked him and wanted his picture taken with him.

Here is a picture of a pot before it is fired. This is called sanggam, and is a famous Korean decorative technique. You can see on the right how they carve out the designs in the clay. Then they fill in the carved area with white and red clay. I don't know how they get the inlay so perfect, but it is amazing!  You can see a finished pot with a celadon glaze here.

Right before the bus came, I spotted a kiln from across the road. Even though the bus was coming soon, I had to go see it. It was hard to get a good picture because it was so big.

After a long, hot day of looking at a bunch of pottery, Erik and I found a hotel. I had to take a picture of these terrible robes in our room because they were just so ugly and we were laughing at them all night.