Phu Lang Village pertains to Que Vo Province that stays far from Bac Ninh Township about 10 kilometres. Phu Lang lies on the bank of Cau River along with many piers which carry people to and fro all the day. The geographic name Phu Lang perhaps appeared from the late Tran Dynasty and the early time of Le Dynasty. At this time, there were three hamlets in Phu Lang: Middle Hamlet, Upper Hamlet and Lower Hamlet.
The profession of producing pottery has existed at this village for a long time. In the old days, the forefather Ly Phong Tu of this village is delegated to go to China as the King's envoy. He learned this profession from China and then came back to the country and instructed for other people. At first, it was taught in the residential area at the both sides of Six Heads River. After that, the profession came to Van Kiep land (Hai Duong Province). In the beginning of Tran Dynasty (the 8th century), it was popular in Lang Trung Village.The materials to make pottery products in Phu Land are the clay having light pink colour from Thong Cat Village, Cung Kiem (Viet Thong Ward). People brought clay back to Phu Lang by large boats. After many steps of processing, the clay becomes smooth and pliable and then is shaped by the hands of the craftsmen with the help of turning tables.
The main products of Phu Lang's pottery used to be jars, pots, terracotta kettles, flowerpots and oblong earthenware containers used for reburial. Nowadays, when people gradually forget about those pottery objects, the artisans together with their refined hands and ardour for pottery making are trying to restore and preserve the traditional profession of their ancestors. The contemporary generation of the famous craftsmen includes the artisan Vu Huu Nhung with the products called Nhung's Pottery and the artisan Thieu with familiar Thieu's Pottery. They have been bringing the soul for the terracotta, inventing and developing the quintessence of the pottery occupation with the arts of making cubes and patterns. They have made more various products than in the past such as pottery picture, vase, tea-set, thurible, decorating pottery, pottery tile, etc. All those products are preferred by not only domestic but also foreign customers.
Different from Tho Ha Pottery, Phu Lang Pottery is covered with a glaze layer that has patterns with eel's skin-colour which looks refined and beautiful. Today, Phu Lang Village's craftsmen also created more colours for those pottery products from natural stuffs: red, black and white. That makes the products more plentiful in terms of product's models and designs.
Similar to Bat Trang Pottery (Gia Lam) and Tho Ha Pottery (Bac Giang), the graphic depicting method for products having round section is polishing. All the objects are put on the manual turning tables. Working around the turning tables requires three people (usually women): one only polishes; one another rotates the table; and the last one running around. The one rotating the table is also responsible for roll terracotta into round poles to be polished. The one who runs around the table takes care of whipping terracotta and bringing the products to dry outside after finishing the stage of polishing. For small products, it just needs to have two people: one polishing and another revolving the table. After being shaped, the stuffs are left until when you touch it without feeling sticky. At that time, the craftsman will start to wrestle with it by shoving, punching and thrusting inside the stuff to give it a shape and then dry it again. And if there is a slit or rift on the product, people will resolve it by mending it with fragmented and smooth soil.
The last step of the finishing stage is to scrape the product after it turns white. Later on it is enameled with a layer of glaze to create colours. The materials to make enamel are: trees' ashes (using the type of tree whose ashes look like lime or cigarette ash); quicklime; gravels crushed; and white alluvia. When the product is still wet and humid, the artisan will use a feather duster to spread a suitable and thin layer of glaze on the product and dry it the last time. After enameling and drying, the product has an opalescent colour. Producing enamel used to be a technical secret of the craftsman in the old time.
After being enameled, spread colour and dried, the stuff is arranged in piles and put into the kiln. Even the way people arrange the products in the kiln must follow the most saving principle due to the limited space in the kiln.
The prominent feature of decorating Phu Lang's method of emergent embanking with the form of carving. Phu Lang people often carve bas-reliefs with following familiar topics: Four supernatural creatures, young lion, crane, tiger-faced, Palindrome, lotus petal, sea wave, and so on. With terracotta products that are mass produced like civil pottery, Phu Lang people rarely decorate on it. However, Phu Lang Pottery has an advantage of their enamel which has natural colours and is strange but durable. The products' shapes are plain, ordinary yet strong, contain a primitive beauty of soil and have bold lines of sculpture. Nowadays, pottery that is normally used in the common religion of Phu Lang is still present in a number of historical relics at the area of Red River Delta like temples and pagodas. In these years, Phu Lang has released many new models which are suitable for various demands and aesthetic tastes of consumers. Furthermore, the market for Phu Lang's pottery has spread widely from the mountainous provinces in the North to the Middle-South of Vietnam. With a team of skillful craftsmen, Phu Lang has found itself a firm stand in the pottery market both domestically and overseas. The model of modern fine art pottery besides the traditional ones will be the direction for the development of Phu Lang Pottery in the future.
Source: Vietnam Simple
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