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Fired up to paint-your-own pots
By Xu Wenwen |
December 7, 2009, Monday
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Print Edition
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A distinguished china statue sculptor has opened Hangzhou's first paint-your-own pottery studio. It is attracting many amateur DIY customers who demonstrate remarkable creativity and flare. Xu Wenwen throws a pot.
A cozy paint-your-own pottery studio where you also can get coffee and cookies is the place to make a personalized holiday gift.
Shangcai Pottery Studio on Kaiyuan Road, which opened in October, is affiliated with the Contemporary Ceramics Studio Association of America. It's one of more than 2,000 studios worldwide and uses imported products.
The atmosphere is cozy, the lighting dim and warm, the music pleasing. Shelves are filled with interesting china wares to buy, or to paint for yourself.
A counter serves coffee, hot chocolate cookies that can be enjoyed while seated in comfortable chairs.
Painted china tiles are embedded in the floor, a china flowerpot sits in a small decorative toilet, bright blue ceramic stools are reproductions of ancient Chinese stools.
The 200-square-meter store sells unusual china pendants made by professionals.
Customers can choose among many pieces of white unfinished china wares in different styles. The decorations on some finished pieces are charming and childlike, made by children, and other children's work is very delicate.
Here you don't need to knead the clay and shape a pot; that's already been done for you.
Shangcai Pottery Studio offers unfinished wares, lead-free paints, many sizes of brushes - and guidance from professionals.
The customer outlines a design, then colors it with paint. The staff then glazes and fires the piece.
"No one needs to worry about what to paint or if they can paint well," says studio manager Lai Chenshan. "Idea books offer a mountain of pretty but easy patterns. Seals can make imprints and you can make decorative prints with your own hands."
He showed many gorgeous finished pieces made in very simple ways. A mug is decorated by two handprints made by a couple, each wrapping a hand around half the mug. A plate decorated with purplish-red litchi is made with a spherical sponge dipped into dye. A vase with a texture of dark and light blues is made by blowing a mixture of paint and detergent through a straw and making bubbles on the surface.
There are also fanciful shapes to appeal to children, like a "witch's cup" with protruding nose and eyes and a coin bank shaped like a hamburger.
The staff are professionals who also instruct.
Christian Dehn, art supervisor from headquarters sent to Shangcai, has worked in different fields of art and gives free weekend classes.
The idea of the business is simple. One price covers everything: a small vase bigger than an egg is 58 yuan (US$8.50), a regular-sized mug 88 yuan, a 30-centimenter-diameter plate is 168 yuan.
Works by professional ceramists are on sale, including unusual pendants.
Glazing and firing takes at least two days. The studio fires up the kiln once every five days. The temperature is 1,000 degrees Celsius and firing takes around seven hours. Pieces then cool for 24 hours. Customers are notified when they can pick up their work.
"The work of amateurs sometimes surprises us professionals as they often are bold in their use of color, while we may be more restrained and traditional," says the owner, Xiong Wenying.
"We're excited to see what customers' fresh creations emerge from the kiln."
Xiong was born in Jiangxi Province, famous for its Jingdezhen ceramics, and studied at the China Academy of Art in Beijing.
After graduation in 1999, he went to Shiwan, Guangdong Province, which is famous for its china statues and other china art. There he met US ceramists who inspired him to take new directions.
"I didn't earn a cent in Shiwan," he recalls. "I produced china on my own and lived a simple life on the money I earned during college."
He was getting worried as he had used up his savings, then some American artists saw his work and arranged for a solo exhibition at a museum in Wilmington in the US state of North Carolina.
His show got a lot of attention, then an art center in Wilmington wanted to sell his work and offered him a job teaching china statue making.
Since then, Xiong has taught at both a North Carolina art center and the China Academy of Art, frequently flying between China and the United States on academic exchanges.
In 2004 Xiong first encountered paint-your-own pottery in a new studio in the North Carolina art center and was intrigued.
"This kind of art is close to people and easily popularized," he says.
When he returned to China in 2008, Xiong gave up his teaching jobs and poured all his energy into a studio. His wife, Jade Fu, gave up her journalist's job for French media.
The couple chose to make a new beginning in Hangzhou because of its affluence, culture and relaxed atmosphere.
The studio has been open for more than one month and has produced more than 350 DIY china pieces, far beyond expectations.
Xiong and Fu now are in discussions about opening studios in Hangzhou Tower and in Shanghai. They are preparing an exhibition of customers' work.
"It will be magnificent to see vibrant mugs, dishes and statues displayed together," says manager Lai.
If all goes well, exhibitions will become monthly events.
Address: 78-8 Kaiyuan Rd
Hours: 10am-11pm
Tel: (0571) 8702-8191
A cozy paint-your-own pottery studio where you also can get coffee and cookies is the place to make a personalized holiday gift.
Shangcai Pottery Studio on Kaiyuan Road, which opened in October, is affiliated with the Contemporary Ceramics Studio Association of America. It's one of more than 2,000 studios worldwide and uses imported products.
The atmosphere is cozy, the lighting dim and warm, the music pleasing. Shelves are filled with interesting china wares to buy, or to paint for yourself.
A counter serves coffee, hot chocolate cookies that can be enjoyed while seated in comfortable chairs.
Painted china tiles are embedded in the floor, a china flowerpot sits in a small decorative toilet, bright blue ceramic stools are reproductions of ancient Chinese stools.
The 200-square-meter store sells unusual china pendants made by professionals.
Customers can choose among many pieces of white unfinished china wares in different styles. The decorations on some finished pieces are charming and childlike, made by children, and other children's work is very delicate.
Here you don't need to knead the clay and shape a pot; that's already been done for you.
Shangcai Pottery Studio offers unfinished wares, lead-free paints, many sizes of brushes - and guidance from professionals.
The customer outlines a design, then colors it with paint. The staff then glazes and fires the piece.
"No one needs to worry about what to paint or if they can paint well," says studio manager Lai Chenshan. "Idea books offer a mountain of pretty but easy patterns. Seals can make imprints and you can make decorative prints with your own hands."
He showed many gorgeous finished pieces made in very simple ways. A mug is decorated by two handprints made by a couple, each wrapping a hand around half the mug. A plate decorated with purplish-red litchi is made with a spherical sponge dipped into dye. A vase with a texture of dark and light blues is made by blowing a mixture of paint and detergent through a straw and making bubbles on the surface.
There are also fanciful shapes to appeal to children, like a "witch's cup" with protruding nose and eyes and a coin bank shaped like a hamburger.
The staff are professionals who also instruct.
Christian Dehn, art supervisor from headquarters sent to Shangcai, has worked in different fields of art and gives free weekend classes.
The idea of the business is simple. One price covers everything: a small vase bigger than an egg is 58 yuan (US$8.50), a regular-sized mug 88 yuan, a 30-centimenter-diameter plate is 168 yuan.
Works by professional ceramists are on sale, including unusual pendants.
Glazing and firing takes at least two days. The studio fires up the kiln once every five days. The temperature is 1,000 degrees Celsius and firing takes around seven hours. Pieces then cool for 24 hours. Customers are notified when they can pick up their work.
"The work of amateurs sometimes surprises us professionals as they often are bold in their use of color, while we may be more restrained and traditional," says the owner, Xiong Wenying.
"We're excited to see what customers' fresh creations emerge from the kiln."
Xiong was born in Jiangxi Province, famous for its Jingdezhen ceramics, and studied at the China Academy of Art in Beijing.
After graduation in 1999, he went to Shiwan, Guangdong Province, which is famous for its china statues and other china art. There he met US ceramists who inspired him to take new directions.
"I didn't earn a cent in Shiwan," he recalls. "I produced china on my own and lived a simple life on the money I earned during college."
He was getting worried as he had used up his savings, then some American artists saw his work and arranged for a solo exhibition at a museum in Wilmington in the US state of North Carolina.
His show got a lot of attention, then an art center in Wilmington wanted to sell his work and offered him a job teaching china statue making.
Since then, Xiong has taught at both a North Carolina art center and the China Academy of Art, frequently flying between China and the United States on academic exchanges.
In 2004 Xiong first encountered paint-your-own pottery in a new studio in the North Carolina art center and was intrigued.
"This kind of art is close to people and easily popularized," he says.
When he returned to China in 2008, Xiong gave up his teaching jobs and poured all his energy into a studio. His wife, Jade Fu, gave up her journalist's job for French media.
The couple chose to make a new beginning in Hangzhou because of its affluence, culture and relaxed atmosphere.
The studio has been open for more than one month and has produced more than 350 DIY china pieces, far beyond expectations.
Xiong and Fu now are in discussions about opening studios in Hangzhou Tower and in Shanghai. They are preparing an exhibition of customers' work.
"It will be magnificent to see vibrant mugs, dishes and statues displayed together," says manager Lai.
If all goes well, exhibitions will become monthly events.
Address: 78-8 Kaiyuan Rd
Hours: 10am-11pm
Tel: (0571) 8702-8191
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