The clay pot craft village is on fire at the end of the year
(Baonghean) - Coming to the clay pot craft village of Tru Son commune, Do Luong district these days, many households are lighting up the kilns to make pots. Contributing to the bustling production atmosphere at the end of the year are not only the elderly, mothers with decades of experience in the profession but also young people.
Finding the clay pot village is easier now than before, because right next to the N5 road there is a sign to the village. When asked, the elders in the village said that the pot making profession originated from Nghi Loc district. Long ago, there was a very diligent and gentle girl from that place who came to Tru Son to be a daughter-in-law. But the old rule was also strange, the profession was only passed on to the daughter-in-law, not to the daughter. However, when the girl's mother came to Tru Son to visit her daughter, she saw that life was too hard and difficult, so she secretly passed on the profession.
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Tru Son ceramic products are mainly pots but are quite diverse; there are about 30 types, from large pots for boiling water, regular pots for cooking rice, small pots for stewing meat and fish, pots for boiling medicine... Photo: Ngoc Phuong |
To create a clay pot, the potter uses kneaded clay to form a loach shape, called a roi, to join the parts together. All the tools used to make the pot are just a turntable, a few small pieces of cloth, and thin bamboo strips to shape and smooth.
Tru Son ceramic products are mainly pots but are quite diverse; there are about 30 types, from large pots for boiling water, regular pots for cooking rice, small pots for stewing meat and fish, to various types of frying pans, medicine pots... Currently, craft households have created several new types of products such as orchid hanging baskets, piggy banks...
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Ms. Pham Thi Hoang, 80 years old, has been making clay pots for over 50 years. Photo: Ngoc Phuong |
Currently, Tru Son clay pot craft village is maintaining the most basic features of ancient pottery, not elaborate, light, thin but quite hard. To get the right type of clay for making pottery, Tru Son people have to go to Nghi Van commune (Nghi Loc) and Son Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) to get the type of red, flexible clay suitable for making pottery.
The well-kneaded clay will be placed on a turntable by the craftsman to create the initial rough shape. Once the rough part is finished, the pots will be skillfully trimmed to make them smooth and then dried in the sun before being fired. Tru village pottery products are fired outdoors with the main firing materials being reeds, gardenia leaves, pine needles, eucalyptus leaves... because these leaves have oil, so when burned, the ceramic color will be shiny and beautiful.
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The process of peeling to complete a pot before firing it. Photo: Ngoc Phuong |
To get a batch of quality pottery, the most important step is still the firing stage. A batch can fire about 300 clay pots. When placing the pots in the kiln, people initially place them upside down, the small ones inside the big ones. But after burning for about 15 - 20 minutes, they will take the 2 - 3 outer layers of pottery and place them upside down. Next, the outside is covered with a layer of straw to form a kiln shell to retain heat. After about 4 - 5 hours of continuous firing, the batch of pottery will be completed... To have the product "cooked evenly", the craftsman must know how to regulate the fire; the time when the fire is strongest is usually the last 30 minutes of the firing stage, which the craftsmen often call "upper fire".
Currently, the main season for making clay pots is from September to December of the lunar calendar every year. Around Tet, people usually cook 2 batches per week. On normal days, after about 10 days, each family will produce a batch of pots.
In recent years, many restaurants, hotels and traditional fish braising villages have developed, so Tru Son clay pots are used in many places.
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The hardest part is firing the pot, the fire must be constantly adjusted; the fire is strongest at the final stage of firing... At the end of the year, the villagers are even busier, the furnace fire is always burning brightly. Photo: Ngoc Phuong |
Currently, the whole Tru Son commune has about 60 households making pottery, mainly concentrated in hamlets 10, 11, 12, 13. On average, each month, the craft village makes tens of thousands of products and has brought a stable source of income to the households here.
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Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thao in hamlet 10, Tru Son commune brings goods to the collection point for sale. Photo: Ngoc Phuong |
Mr. Nguyen Thuy Chinh - Chairman of Tru Son Commune People's Committee said that the commune is far from the district center, people's lives still have many difficulties, but with the efforts to overcome difficulties in the new rural area, local authorities and all levels and sectors are now taking steps to build and restore the traditional "clay pot craft village".
