on TAIPEI Kil'n time in Taipei - Community Services Center

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il× n ti e in aipe
TExT & IMAGES: INGE NIELSEN
chances are if you've lived in Taipei for any
length of time, you have made it out to Yingge
to view the ceramics displayed in the museum
there. Maybe you have even wet your hands
and turned your own bowl in one of the pottery shops
nestled between the stinky doufu stalls on the old street.
Few people however realize that Taipei also offers places
for the curious newcomer to pottery.
Huayan (’flower rock’) Pottery Studio, Mr Zheng
Deyong's workshop near Qilian MRT station in Beitou,
is one such place. A diamond in the rough, it’s a twenty
square-meter, pleasantly cluttered room that contains
five potter's wheels, two kilns and several other heavy
machines. Here, beautiful pieces of ceramics are
produced in a continuous stream.
Mr Zheng says he set up the studio twenty years ago
after graduating from art college “to make a little pocket
money before heading off to England to study ceramics,
and I have been stuck here ever since.” In his early days,
Mr Zheng started off taking commissions for tea sets,
sinks and other pieces, but he found that “being holed up
all alone for up to two weeks in a row was unhealthy”
and he then began taking in students. Over the past
twenty years, he has taught hundreds of people, children
and adults alike, among them many foreigners and many
who were complete newcomers to making pottery.
an oPen mind
Mr Zheng says he is often asked what kind of pottery
he makes. “I always answer: I make all kinds! I think
those people who specialize in just one design or another
are often following a certain fashion trend. I try to
keep an open mind. I can make anything!” Indeed, Mr
Zheng's work table is filled with a plethora of shapes:
traditional teapots, modern sculptures, vases, Japanesestyle
wine goblets, coffee mugs and plates.
Though he says he enjoys all aspects of his work, from
wedging the clay to pulling and firing the pieces, he
devotes a considerable amount of time to experimenting
with glazes. All his glazes are lead-free and the result of
24 june 2010