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Popularize Bien Hoa’s traditional pottery products

(News Portal – Dong Nai) - Bien Hoa pottery products have been well received for hundreds of years. For those who love pottery, Bien Hoa pottery always differentiate itself from others through these factors: clay, glaze and fire. 

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Transporting pottery to the kiln to prepare a new batch 

Impression of the riverside pottery village

Hundreds of years ago, Bien Hoa pottery thrived along the Dong Nai River in what is Tan Van ward today. At that time, pottery developed extremely well and became known as Tan Van Pottery Village. Each ceramic product here is always made by potters who have put into it their enthusiasm, creativity and passion along with professional responsibility, to create product lines of black and white clay pottery products.

Bien Hoa pottery products are made from the main ingredient which is clay. There are two main types of pottery: black clay and white clay (white pottery). Among them, black earthen ceramics are often naturally fired without glazing, while white ceramics are often used for decoration, covered with glaze to create quite elaborate decorative patterns. Today, Bien Hoa white ceramics can be fired in traditional kilns or modern gas kilns. However, to have black earth ceramic products, it is required to fire the ceramics in a traditional wood-fired kiln. The traditional pottery kilns in Tan Van in the past were made according to the tilt kiln specifications, shaped like a dolphin, with a length of several dozen to hundreds of meters. Both sides of the furnace body have stoking chambers (places to put firewood along the furnace body).

For traditional ceramics, firing is an important step that determines the success or failure of the batch. Therefore, to have a successful batch of pottery, kilns often have their own team of firemen to watch the kiln, adding or removing stoking chambers along the body of the kiln in the most reasonable way. According to the firemen, the process for a batch of pottery is completed from the time the raw pottery (unfired pottery) is placed into the kiln until it takes about 1 week to leave the kiln. After the pottery are placed in the kiln, they will begin the drying process in the kiln for about 2 days by burning wood at the end of the kiln to increase the heat in the kiln to dry the clay. After the pottery has been completely dried, the fireman begins the work of lighting the first kiln, starting the ceramic firing process. During the ceramic firing process, the temperature in the kiln must always remain stable at around 1200 degrees Celsius. The unique thing is that the entire ceramic firing process does not require any technological equipment but completely relies on the eyes of the firemen. The color of each ceramic product is not the same because it depends on the location of the fire, near or far, or the fire that only flashes briefly on the product produces a completely different color.

Each batch of pottery will consume about 20 tons of firewood and produce many different types and sizes of ceramic products. According to Mr. Tam, pottery enthusiasts who love Bien Hoa pottery due to it is fired on a fire furnace, creating unique and strange colors. Recently, when tourist groups came to visit, they are very interested in handmade ceramic making. Mr. Tam is planning to combine both a pottery facility and a playground for children and tourists to visit and experience pottery making.

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Black clay ceramic products after completion 

Maintain the reputation

Over time, along with state regulations, ceramic facilities have to relocate to industrial clusters for centralized production with environmental control. However, according to some traditional ceramic facility owners, it costs around 30 billion to build a traditional gum kiln today. This is too large a number compared to the scale of operations as well as the profits for businesses.

Nowadays, there is not much traditional pottery making, while the main use for these products is decoration. Bien Hoa ceramic products are popular both domestically and internationally. In particular, black clay ceramic products today are often supplied to the Central and Northern markets or exported to European and American countries...

Today, to meet regulations as well as convenience in production, many establishments use industrial furnaces to produce ceramics. Although it still retains its unique features, the shimmer and diversity of colors on a ceramic product is no longer the same as using a traditional kiln because modern kilns are very precisive, while handmade kilns depend on the fire inside the furnace.

Bien Hoa traditional pottery was originally produced to serve the daily needs of people's lives, such as vases, jars, ... To have a Bien Hoa ceramic product, in addition to raw materials, the criteria for creating ceramic products with basic colors must go through stages, from the printer, glazer, fireman to the product finisher. ​

Author: Nam Huu

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