Enjoy pottery experience at Icheon Ceramic Festival

A child paints on a vase that underwent firing during last year’s Icheon Ceramic Festival in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. / Courtesy of Icheon Ceramic Festival organizer

By Kim Rahn

The nation’s largest ceramics event, the Icheon Ceramic Festival, will open on April 24 for a 24-day run.

Under the theme of “Ceramics Tinged with Color,” the 29-year-old festival will present various programs offering visitors a chance to experience pottery crafts at Seolbong Park in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, through May 17.

Adding to the already established popularity, this year’s festival will have a larger number of educational programs than previous years.

Learning through fun

Many family visitors come to the festival, so the festival organizers have prepared programs where children can experience how to make pottery.

Celadon master Haeju Eom Ki-hwan, who was born and raised in Icheon, tells about the history and development of the region’s pottery industry. He shows the process of ceramics making from preparing clay and making pottery by spinning a potter’s wheel to putting them into the kiln to bake them.

The 30-minute storytelling and lecture from Haeju is available twice a day for free.

A one-night, two-day lecture and pottery making program is also offered. The fee differs according to types of lodging, with various types available.

Celadon master Haeju Eom Ki-hwan, left, lets a boy try preparing clay for pottery making during the ceramic festival last year. He will hold training sessions about ceramics making this year as well.

A dozen other masters and many more young ceramic artists also demonstrate their craftworks-making to visitors here and there at the festival venue.

Many other programs are available for those who want to make ceramics themselves.

Visitors can make dishes or other objects with clay from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with participation fee of 5,000 won. In a separate program, they can also make vases or pots using the potter’s wheels and engrave paintings or letters on the pots. Then the festival organizer will bake them and send them to the visitors two months later by parcel service. The participation fee is 17,000 won.

They can also paint pots and dishes that underwent a biscuit firing. After the painting, the dishes have to undergo baking and the organizer will send them home by parcel service,as well. The participation fee differs according to the types of the dishes, ranging from 8,000 to 30,000 won.

Visitors can also create their own designs with special paints on fully baked ceramics. The fee ranges from 8,000 to 15,000 won.

A workshop program is held with 15 ceramic artists from nine countries. They will have seminars and workshops with Icheon’s young artists on May 6-7.

The festival is also a good chance to buy ceramic ware at reasonable prices.

Some 130 independent pottery studios in the region will participate in the ceramic market that will be held on the festival venue.

All sorts of ceramics will be available with good discounts. An exhibition of ceramics created by artists from China, Japan and France will be also held.

Other things to do in Icheon

The festival is held with the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale, which runs from April 24 to May 31. One of the biennale’s three venues, Cerapia, is located within Seolbong Park as well, so visitors to the festival can easily look around Cerapia for the biennale exhibition.

Yeongwolam, a small temple made during Silla Kingdom (57 B.C.-A.D. 935), is located near the park. There are a gingko tree that is presumed to be more than 600 years old, and a rock-carved Buddha that is listed as a national treasure.

Icheon is a famous producer of rice, with the clay from rice paddies being often used for ceramics. Rice from the region was sent to the king since long ago as the quality was recognized.

So there are numerous restaurants selling “hanseongsik” (traditional multi-course meal) with rice from the region.

For those wanting a unique rice agricultural culture, Jachaebanga Village is recommended. “Jachae rice” was a special kind of rice raised without rice planting process in the paddy. It was also sent to the king. Farmers used to sing a song during work, called “jachaebanga,” and the song has been passed down by word of mouth.