Over glaze workshop

Some of us went to an overglaze painting workshop right outside of the sculpture factory. They had amazing skills. While in the show room I asked the attendant if I could take one of the postcards and she gave me a tote bag with a really nice catalog of the work being made there. I felt bad because not only did I have no intention of buying but I had to leave after a short time to meet some of the staff at Jingdezhen univ to play Basketball.

Basketball was awesome and I will play next week, maybe I will remember to take some photos.

Big space movable walls

I have been asked to come up with a movable wall design to be built for the big space. The staff wants to be able to divide the space into different uses. Chen Chen and I went looking for materials and prices. It was an interesting experience going to building supply stores in China to say the least.

Design studio Factory Trip

trimming slip cast teapots

Dryden, the design studio manager, going over plans and contracts with factory manager.


They were expanding the factory and cementing a new part of the floor, they were just pouring it right over the trash and this guy was stuck in the middle.



on the way to the factory






I went along to another factory trip, we went to a few. Our final stop was 15 minutes outside of town at this enormous factory where the design s

Ling ling's Birthday; A Karaoke Extravaganza

Ling Ling, the manager of the coffee shop and gallery, had her 24th birthday and it was her wish to go to Karaoke. Now many of you know I enjoy the Karaoke, making an ass of myself in public is usually a pretty fun time. Chinese karaoke is different, instead of singing in front of all the strangers who come out, your party gets its own room and you sing to each other. The place we went to was massive! there were so many rooms for karaoke parties it was unbelievable. what is even more unbelievable is that in the taxi ride there the driver asked if America had similar karaoke streets? That's right, the whole street was lined with shining neon karaoke bars, literally a whole street.


Here is a video of Ling Ling singing a traditional Chinese song, don't be fooled by the video she can sing very well. it was really dark so you can't see very much. so also posted is a photo with flash.

Tuesday night Dance Party

Had to walk to the ATM on a Tuesday night and we cam across a regular site in the Jingdezhen night life, synchronized dancing! It strikes me as quintessentially communist to have large groups of people in multiple areas of the town dancing to the same songs in unison. I tried to take a video but it was too dark.

Design studio Factory Trip

A factory shard pile.




In the design studio there is a large order of vase forms to be made for the Peninsula Hotel. The client wants traditional Chinese vase forms with are deco designs painted on them. Dryden, Carola, who was looking for large vase forms with lids, and myself went to The Wanning Da Factory (assuredly that was spelled incorrectly) to find vase forms that were over 52 centimeters tall. The client has very specific vase forms in mind. At this factory you can purchase the slip caste forms to use theem how ever you wish.

Clay reclaiming factory. Below is a video of thier reclaiming machine.

Design studio project

A few days ago I posted pictures of the thrower who came in to throw the top section of a vase form. After the two pieces are bone dry the trimmer comes and assembles the composite pieces together and trims them into the desired shape. Here are some photos of us going over the designs and of him at work. Also posted is the design I made from the photo the client sent the design studio.

The Lake

On Sunday, to beat the heat, a few of us went to the lake that is a 20 minute car ride out of the city. Carola's assistant arranged the car ride for us. It has been incredibly hot here the past few days. It was great to get out to the water, about 20 minutes after being there though the thunder rolled in and on our walk back to the car it poured on us. It was very cold and refreshing, we got back to the PWS and it hadn't rained at all and was still incredibly humid.




We had to walk through the rice field trails to get out to a good spot.

Living on the edge

I went with Carola, a designer from Holland, and her assistant to go swimming in a river 20 minutes bike ride outside of Jingdezhen. There were a lot of locals swimming but i wouldn't put my head under. It was very clear and the water flowed into town not out of.

Wei min Factory

Pictures of the Wei Min Factory.

Working in the design studio

I have been passed along a project in the design studio. It is a vase form that a client wanted made 70 centimeters tall. I worked from an original picture, sketched it out on the computer and had to make all the corresponding adjustments in scale. We decided to have the base press molded and the top form thrown. Here is the computer rendered form and a picture and video of the thrower we hired to come in and make the form.

Sanbao Dinner setting

A Few of us went to Jackson Lee's Sanbao Artist residency and restaurant to see Chase's work he made the past two months. Chase is a grad student at Texas Tec Univ.

Working in the design studio

Dryden, the director of the design studio, asked me to help with the prototype for a large design project the studio is working on. This is the test run of a vase that will be in the Peninsula hotel in shanghai. Latex was applied to create the three rings and then a clear glaze was sprayed on. When the latex was removed the edge of the clear was rough and wavered. My job was to clean up the the edge so it was a smooth continuous line and the paint in the blue glaze where the latex had been. The piece is still green ware porcelain so it took extra care in cleaning and handling.

Monday morning antique market

I made it just in time to Meet Takeshi, the PWS director, at 7:45 in the morning to go to the Monday morning antique market. The chain on my bike broke so I took a motorcycle taxi into town. every cloud has its silver lining (motorcycle taxis are still the coolest). The market is right next to the Super Walmart! It was a weird juxtaposition to see Chinese goods new and so old so close to each other. Takeshi was an amazing guide at the market, he knows a lot about pottery and what dynasties the originate from. Takeshi also bought the amazing piece of carved wood in the photo I posted. It is an incredible example of wood carving, there are phoenixes, flowers, scrolling filigree and it is carved hallow, this photo is definitely worth enlarging.

Beijing Opera

Here are some photos of the Beijing Opera. The camera lens got some moisture on it while in my pocket. The Weather here is like Florida only they don't have pools and air conditioning everywhere.