Ichon Pottery Village

Ichon is a small city close to Seoul (not to be confused with Inchon -- where the airport is). Within the city there is a pottery village created because of one very old man. This man started researching a 1000 year old Korean method of making pottery. He had pretty much figured it out and started making the pottery in that style before the Korean war, but then during the war all his work was destroyed. As soon as the war ended he began his work again, and now you can find new examples of the old style pottery all over Korea. All of that work is fired in traditional style kilns that are heated using wood fires (below).

Ichon is also well known for have many modern examples of pottery. I visited the town this past Saturday and enjoyed looking at the beautiful works of art.

This giant (~2' 6" diameter) plate has a very traditional Asian scene on it and it is worth about $3000.

This giant vase (more than 3' tall) had this amazing dragon all over it.

This vase had a very cool glaze on it -- but it was also the most expensive glaze ever. All the pieces I saw using this glaze cost over $1000. Behind it the one with the green glaze is one of the traditional celedon pottery vases that the area is famous for.

I loved this. Those plants are real and the frogs are coming out of the picture -- they are 3D -- very cool.