MaryW

I'm in the lounge in Perth and about to head off to South Korea. Flying with MAS for the first time in years. We will stay at Incheon tomorrow night and then head down to Gangin for the Celadon Festival ( porcelain) I'll try and report as we go but I understand wifi might be a bit tricky where we are - I'm just using a little iPod so will be brief as it tends to write what it wants not what I'd like!

Marija

Have a great trip Mary!

dogster

Smart move, Mary - you got outta town just before the Hanuman whirlwind arrives. Phew. Your immortal soul has been saved.

Now have a great time and report back when you can. Sth Korea has never been on my list of must-go places, so I'm hoping you'll change my mind.

MaryW

Thanks Marija and Dogster. I'm eating ice-cream in the lounge in KL so far MAS is good and better than Thai has been lately

I'm very sorry to miss Hanumans visit as I'm sure he will need re-educating about Aussies after the weekend! Of course it is WA that he is visiting and we are a superior breed.

As for South Korea , Dogster, I'm really surprised that a festival that features a"housewives song contest" is not a huge drawcard for you

hawaiiantraveler

Have a wonderful trip MaryW! We will be in SK this November so anxiously awaiting whatever you have to report. Isn't the Arirang festivals held about this time of year? I just saw a report on CNN that had the NK's all dressed up and celebrating.

Aloha!

thursdaysd

Have a wonderful time! I'll arrive in SK Oct 10th, so like HT, I'm eager for your report.

mohan

Dear Mary, Would you be so kind as to take some pictures of the ceramics and post them? Thankyou.

Smeagol

Looking forward to your report.
have a great trip.

MaryW

Hi all,

We arrived safely in Seoul and immigration and luggage etc was fairly quick and efficient. They only had 3 immigration booths open for foreigners so it was a little longer than it might have been but still out in under an hour.

Stayed the night in a very basic hotel in Incheon and met up with the other potters who were going to the Celadon Festival. There are 20 of us from around the world plus a few hangers on like my Roo Basher - he is being my official photo taker and baggage handler. Friday we took a coach down to Gangjin - some 5 hours drive down the highway. Couple of stops at rest areas which have lots of food etc and also at a nice restaurant for lunch. Stopped at Mokpo for the Maritime Museum which has a lot of Celadon pots from the 12th century.

Now in Gangjin - hotels fairly basic but meant to be the best in town. I can't complain as the city are putting us up and feeding us etc for the week. The Celadon Festival itself is wonderful - it runs for a full week and is very well attended - many many people each day. I wish we had such support for ceramics in Australia. The Festival is giving us workshops in local techniques by the very best potters in the area/field and they really are something else. They have also exhibited our work wonderfully.

So apart from the heat - extremely hot and humid we are having lots of fun. Maybe not for everyone - well probably only for potters.

I'm at the Festival at the moment but can't get wifi anywhere else at the moment so probably won't be able to post again for a bit.

Mohan - I will post photos when I get home - won't be till end of August. So far we have taken literally hundreds but many are of interest only to other potters.

So bye for now.

dogster

Glad you're there and having fun, Mary. Take some pictures of the 'Housewives Song Contest' for me.

thursdaysd

Thanks for checking in. Glad you're having fun - are you actually pottering?

rhkkmk

we await more info and of course the pics

MaryW

Sorry for delay in getting back but wifi has been a little difficult. Now have just a few minutes in the business centre of an hotel in Daegu. The Celadon Festival was great but the second to last day of our stay was a bit wet - we got hit by a typhoon. Not too bad just a big storm. The Festival was decorated with thousands of little celadon bells hanging in the air - they were really lovely. Fortunately only a very few came to grief - testament to the strength of the ware. They were expecting about 500,000 people to attend over the week and that was for a bad year because of weather.

There are at least another 8 centres for ceramics of similar size in the country and many smaller ones. The whole population is very aware and interested. There are many activities to engage children and they learn from an early age. We are now traveling around and even the entrances to the toll booths have lot of ceramics! Most universities have exceptional courses and turn out many very good potters - trouble is that now there is a bit of a problem for them to get jobs. Some of the work the elementary school children are doing is quite amazing too!

Sorry for brief report so far - I'll probably have to wait until I get home to do things properly.

Dogster. Sadly I missed the Housewives song contest due to the typhoon and a workshop I couldn't miss. They did however have some nice vases and pots walking around!

Thursday - yes I am here to "potter" There is an international exhibition of invited potters which has been wonderful. They have also run workshops for us in the Korean techniques - truly wonderful potters - and we have had to do a bit of demonstrating. Westerners demonstrating at a Korean festival draw the cameras like flies - so we have all had a dozen cameras in our face all the time we are working. The Festival organizers have been exceptional and treated us really well.

Bob - photos will follow but there are hundreds so I will take a bit of time to sort them out first. The country is quite beautiful - very mountainous and lots of rivers - many having lovely weirs built on them.

We are off today to Mungyeong, a Tea Bowl village - has about 500 potters in that area along so obviously won't be visiting them all. We stay tonight near Icheon (Not Incheon) which is another very large centre a couple of hours out of Seoul.

thursdaysd

Thanks for the report, MaryW. So glad you're having such a great trip - and also to hear that the scenery is as good as I was hoping!

I remember reading that the Japanese learned pottery techniques by kidnapping Koreans, so I can imagine they turn out some wonderful pieces.

LAleslie

Weir. New word to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weir

Let's also have some photos of your pots, Mary.

Also new to me but not to Aussies: the Melbourne mafia. Reading all about fresh slaughters, conveniently pegged to the U.S. opening of a movie about the mobsters called "Animal Kingdom", opening to raves here.

indianapearl

I'm glad you're enjoying SK and especially the celadon. My mother's ashes are encased in a Korean celadon urn (replete with cranes) from our trip in 1998 and we keep her on the mantelpiece in our living room. She gets to go to lots of parties!!!

Where else will you visit in SK???

Nywoman

Glad you are enjoying SK I really liked it a lot and can easily see myself returning.

SeeHag

Nice to hear a SK trip report. I am a pottery fan and look forward to your photos.

MaryW

Managed to lose a post yesterday so hope this stays put.

Thursday you're right about potters being taken to Japan around 1590. They took some 2000 potters and many more scholars etc by force and this founded much of Japans industry.

Indiana you mothers ashes must be very comfortable.

Mungyeong was very beautiful despite the rain. They shoot a lot of movies in the mountains. Lots of apple groves as well as potters.

Stayed overnight in a skiing area. Nothing to recommend about the hotel but lots of restaurants serving rabbit and pheasant which was good.

We went on to Yeoju. If anyone goes there try to visit the ceramic museum. The display changes of course but the current one is stunning. It's on ceramics for living. So things like tableware and decorative items. Truly fantastic.

Also visited the Mok-a Museum. It's a complex of a wood carver mainly specializing in Buddha. He is a national cultural treasure and his work is really good. We had tea with him and he gave us each a copy of his book. Additionally he sat down and did an ink drawing in each copy. He just looked at us and drew Each drawing was very perceptive. Had lunch at the small restaurant in the complex. It serves vegetarian temple food which was good.

On for yet more ceramics with master potters and into Seoul last night.

That's enough for now and I hope I don't lose this post. Please excuse any of the odd words as this little iPod has a mind of it's own and often decided to substitute !

MaryW

Well I'm now at Incheon for the flight home - MAS via KL to Perth. We had 6 nights in Seoul. Visited the National Museum which has a great collection and the Leeum (samsung) museum. Both worth a visit and both buildings are interesting.

We stayed in Insadong so close to lots of galleries and teahouses and actually very easy to get around from there. Walked down to Lotte - a fair way but okay. It is however very hot and humid and I think worse than Bangkok for the same time of year.
I'll get my thoughts together over the next week and put the good and bad we had up for those of you traveling soon. Photos will take a little longer as we have thousands to sort and I've got a lot of work to get done in the next couple of weeks. Such is the joy of having a break when you work for yourself!