The photos are from Saturday’s RAS tour to Icheon, Gyeonggi-do, the home to many of Korea’s best traditional ceramic artists. I’m still learning to use the new camera, so my pictures don’t begin to do the work justice. The level of artistry is just amazing.
Icheon has been the center of Korean ceramics for several hundred years, as the area is apparently the site of abundant good materials for making clay. You can learn a bit more about the history of Korean ceramics here.
It was so interesting to see so many professional artists, many of them second- and third-generation craftsmen, in a country where so much emphasis seems to be placed on going to a top university and then on to a career as a doctor, lawyer, or businessman. Yet, Korea has very strong artistic cultural traditions, seen in the preservation of several intricate traditional arts, crafts, and traditional music.
