Places:

Jingdezhen – Day 28 on the Silk Road by MGB

Monday, 1 May 2017

▲ Our MGBs lined up in front of our hotel in Jingdezhen

▲ Jingdezhen as been a centre for Chinese pottery and ceramic works for nearly 2000 years. There are constant reminders of that history from shops to sculptures of ceramic workers on the bridge across the Chang River or this one of a worker carrying pots to or from the kiln, overlooking People’s Square in the centre of the town.

▲ My Australian artist friends Alexandra and Leigh Copeland work in Jingdezhen each year. So does Roger Law, the English creator of Spitting Images, the four of us in this photo at the Sculpture Park where many ceramic artists, Chinese and foreigners work. You’ll find a number of connections to Alexandra Copelands ceramic works or to the Afghan carpets they deal with on this site.

We visited the antique market, across the road from the sculpture park. It’s a good place to search for ‘Commie kitsch’ from the Mao era.

▲ Local ceramic artists sell their work in the Creative Market which is also here. Like these swimmers.

▲ Or you can rest your chopsticks between these little ceramic breasts.

▲ In the ‘Mao Factory’ busts and complete statues of The Great Helmsman are prepared for firing.

▲ A load of pottery – some of Alexandra’s pieces in the top right corner – prepared to roll into the kiln. The kiln master, in the check shirt, calculates the charge on a cubic measurement basis and you pay, cash on the nail. Leigh reported that he didn’t have much English but ‘tomorrow’ came over well and every now and then he had to report: ‘uh oh.’ Something had gone wrong.