Shiwan Pottery - Trace back to five thousand years ago

Many sand earthenware, soft and hard earthenware decorated pieces have been unearthed from the Beiqiu Relic of the New Stone Age excavation in Hedang, Shiwan. The decorating patterns include string, trellis design, leaf, ladder- shaped trellis, frogs, etc.. According to the carbon 14 dating by the Beijing Archaeological Studies Office, these pieces were made four thousand nine hundred to five thousand years ago. This archaeological finding has overturned the saying that Shiwan's Pottery Industry was moved from the north in Song Dynasty. An historical perspective has a poetic appreciation of "Shiwan tile, the best in the world". The surviving dragon kiln "Ancient Nanfeng Kiln", symbolizes the outstanding technique of Shiwan pottery.

Ancient Nanfeng Kiln - Firing for five hundred years

To open the mysterious mask of an old dragon kiln, to show the legend of an ancient ceramic town, to extend the dragon's life of five hundred years, the history of Nanfeng ancient kiln is worth studying and researching.

Ancient Nanfeng kiln was built during the Zhengde years of Ming Dynasty (1506-1521), a rare dragon kiln with a history of almost 500 years that is still in use for making ceramics nowadays. It is now the Key Culture Relic Unit of Ancient Kiln in Guangdong Province.

For nearly five hundred years the flame has never died out, with constant production. Thus the kiln has been kept completely without any damage, which is rare in China. It is the oldest dragon kiln left in China and the important cultural protection site of Guangdong Province.

The opening of Nanfeng kiln faces the south. The far end is under the green shade of banyan trees, which brought cool breeze in summer, so the kiln was called "Nanfeng" as it meant as "south breeze". During the long years, the production had never been stopped for repairs. The present chimney of the kiln was built in modern times. The kiln has a total length of 34.4 meters. There are 29 rows of fire holes (5 for every row) on the kiln. It is said that one fire for each row totals 29 fires. The fire hole is used to stoke with wood during the firing. There are 4 doors on the side of the kiln, for the loading and removal of products.

Arts of Flame - Mysterious and unpredictable

The composition and heat given out during the wood firing bring limitless changes to the clay and glaze.

The dragon kiln is divided into upper, middle and lower sections with three levels of temperature, low, medium and high, varying from 900 to 1300 degrees Celsius, and operated and controlled solely by the kiln master, to fire different kind of earthenware.

To maintain the reducing atmosphere, the kiln master controls the duration and degree of heating and the changes during firing, making decisions only by his discerning eyes and operating according to changes of circumstance. After firing for 20 hours, and waiting until the kiln cools, it is then ready to open. The resulting produce is in dazzling colors including blue, red, white and green.

Review the whole course of pottery making, which reflects the hardship and intelligence of pottery makers.

Shiwan Ceramics

The old Shiwan Ceramic Town at the kilns twenty miles south of the city of Canton in Guangdong province. This is the most famous city in China in creating ceramic products nearly 500 years. Most of the National Master-pieces and Museum pieces created there have been being collected in the national museum and by collectors all over the world.

Shiwan Ceramics was shaped in Tang and Song Dynasty (618-906AD) and flourished in Ming and Qing Dynasty.

The main products such as artistic ceramics, ancient garden ceramics, Spanish-type roof tile, western-style roof tile, stone-resembled tile, stone-porcelain tile, artistic garden tile, etc. are famous worldwide, especially statues. There a professional team of art masters has inherited and developed the outstanding tradition of Shiwan ceramic techniques ranging from lively earthen figures, statues and animals with thick and earthy ceramic glaze, to modern ceramics of plain, elegant and fresh patterns, thus forming its own unique artistic style and making Shiwan ceramic techniques extraordinarily splendid.

The artistic ceramics of Shiwan are divided into four types of figures, animals, micro-sculpts and daily utensils, of which the figure ceramics is granted the national Golden Medal in three consecutive times, the animal ceramics is granted the Hundred Flowers Medal and Silver Cup Medal, micro- sculpt and daily utensils are granted Quality Product Medal of Guangdong Province. Following the principle of "quality product" is based upon elaboration, each piece of ceramics with "signs" of the art masters is produced via six complicated procedures (including design, plaster molding, pouring slurry for figuration, amending cog, glazing and burning).

To see today's Shiwan Ceramic Lady Figurines