They use clay with a light yellow color, moderately smooth. They have their own traditional soil treatment techniques. The potter is a woman. They shape ceramic products without a turntable, using only simple tools according to traditional manual methods. The tool to shape the product is just a table and a small piece of rough cloth. By slightly bending down, the legs move around the table, the worker uses his hands to shape the body of the product. Finished brushing, they let it dry naturally. The product shaping and shading tool is very simple. The burning materials are straw and firewood. They are open-fired and have high technology in taking advantage of the wind direction as well as preserving heat. Products include two groups: cooking utensils and containers. Today, they create a variety of products to sell to tourists, such as statues, flower pots, so on.

Pottery, process of making pot, dish, jug, vessel, vase and other containers with special prepared clay.

Sayong clay is a material for craft making of the traditional pottery in Malaysia. The pottery work crafted as a water vessel adapting the form of pumpkin/bottle gourd is called Labu Sayong. Further inspired by the nature, the decoration on Labu Sayong body used the flora and fauna as main motif. Such motifs that can be found as ornamentation on the labu sayong are designs based on local flowers (bunga tanjung, bunga pecah empat), spices (clove, star anise) and leaves (bamboo shoots). It is even believed that the drinking water stored in the labu sayong has certain health properties to cure common ailments like cough and fever. The beautiful workmanship present in each labu sayong can be attributed to the fine skill of the craftsmen as well as the high quality of clay used in the process. These days, the traditional pottery is crafted as a decoration and souvenir.

Traditional pottery art in Bhutan is known in Dzongkha as Dza-zo and the artisans are Dza-khem; in Kurtoep dialect they’re known as Phreng, art, and Phreng cho-khan, artisans. Dza-zo traditional form of pottery falls within the scope of recognized traditional Bhutanese arts and crafts. Today, traditional artisans in Gangzur village in Gangzur village block, Lhuentse district continue to make Bhutanese pottery. The nearby village of Maenjabi in Maenbi block formerly practiced the art, but over the past twenty years lost its artisans to age and migration for work. Archaeological evidence shows that ceramics have been important from the time of early settlement in Bhutan. Earthen pots were used as household items in the absence of utensils made of copper, bronze, and iron as we know them today. With the visit of Guru Rinpoche to Bhutan in the 8th century, handicrafts were introduced to Bhutan, including Dza-zo pottery, which was then propagated by Drubchen Thangthong Gyalpo (1361-1485) and Rigzin Pema Lingpa (1450-1521) in the 14th and 15th centuries. The tradition of handicrafts reached its peak in the 17th century when Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel (1594-1651) took personal interest in arts such as Lhadri painting, patra engraving, tshem-zo embroidery, chag-zo blacksmithing, and troe-zo silversmithing. He reinforced the practice of these artisanal skills including pottery. Traditional pottery was first practiced in the villages of Rinpung in Paro, Wangbarma in Thimphu, Shar Goenkha in Wangdi and Gangzur in Lhuntse district. From these places, the skills and knowledge have been passed down from generation to generation until today.

Glazed tile and ceramic household stuffs or wallboards of several colours and motifs made by firing the pulped clay soil are called “çini”. Çini-making means the craftsmanship shaped around traditional Turkish art of çini since 12th century with its own specific production and adornment techniques like “minai”, “luster”, “polishing”, “underglaze”. Çini craftspeople generally have used “underglaze technique” since 16th century in their production pursuant to the prescriptions they prepare with their traditional production knowledge about nature. In this technique clay is pulped. Having shaped, the clay is lined and dried. Next, it is fired in çini ovens smooth surface called “biscuit” appears. Patterns prepared by drilling on the paper with openwork technique are transformed to the surface with coal dust and the outer contours are drawn by hand with black paint and brush. Later, patterns are dyed with dyes prepared according to the prescription. The surface of çini is covered with glaze and after it is fired at 900-940°C the çini-making is completed. Among çini adornments generally geometric shapes, plants and animal figures symbolizing cosmic thoughts and beliefs are used in different colours. Using red, cobalt blue, turquoise and green on white or navy blue background is the characteristic feature of traditional çinis. The basic element that characterizes the art of çini is traditional craftsmanship manifested in the applications and the knowledge transmitted from generations to generations about the supply of the raw material, preparation of dyes, production and usage of the tools, firing process, adornment techniques and aesthetics.

Turkey 2016

The Pottery Making Craft of the Cham people in Bau Truc Village, Phuoc Dan town, Ninh Phuoc district, Ninh Thuan province is a pottery production craft village with a long tradition and is typical not only in Vietnam but also in Southeast Asia. Bau Truc Pottery has existed since the end of the 12th century until now, this is considered one of the very few ancient pottery villages in Southeast Asia that still retains the primitive production method from thousands of years ago. The Traditional Pottery Making of the Cham in Bàu Trúc Village is done by hand, with the main materials being clay and sand taken from the village. The Traditional Pottery Making process of the Cham people includes many interconnected stages. The first is choosing and taking the soil. The treatment of the soil before making pottery determines the quality and efficiency of the product after firing. After taking the soil, people break it into small pieces to filter out the impurities, taking only the yellow clay and then incubating it to keep it soft. Taking a sufficient amount of clay, the Cham woman gracefully kneads it until it becomes soft, then places it on a large jar to create a block. The ceramic product is completely handmade, “shaped by hand, without a turntable.” The artisan walks backwards around the pottery-shaping table and uses the unique Cham pottery-shaping technique of straight strokes (different from the horizontal strokes in pottery villages that use turntables). After that, they use a “circle” to brush around the body of the pottery, then use a wet cloth to wrap around their hands, and rub the outside of the pottery until it is shiny. Next comes the step of decorating the pattern. After shaping, the product is left in the shade for 24 hours, then rubbed thinly and continued to dry for another 7 days until completely dry, before being fired. Thanks to this, the product will be “ripe” thoroughly and will not crack. The product is fired in the open air after being crafted. Depending on the conditions of sunlight and wind, combined with the process and technique of spraying colors (extracted from cashew nut oil, dong tree ...) will produce products with characteristic colors such as red-yellow, pink-red, gray-black, strange and beautiful brown streaks, clearly showing the ancient Cham culture. Products serving daily life, decoration and beliefs, religions such as: ceramic vases, tea sets, animals, reliefs ... Natural colors through the firing and incubation process. Each Cham ceramic product shows the style, craftsmanship, and ingenuity of each craftsman. In addition to household ceramic products, Bau Truc ceramic craft also promotes the development of decorative ceramics, fine art ceramics, souvenir ceramics with aesthetic content, giving high economic value such as: decorative ceramic lamps, night lights, flower vases, water bottles, teapots, vases, water towers, .... The Traditional Pottery Making of the Cham in Bàu Trúc Village contains the secrets and ingenuity of the craftsmen, creating products imbued with the cultural identity of the Cham people. The Pottery Making Craft of the Cham people in Bau Truc Village plays an important role in the economic, cultural and social life. Pottery products are indispensable in the daily life of each family and in the cultural beliefs of the Cham community. With its unique values, the Traditional Pottery Making of the Cham in Bàu Trúc Village has been recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage (in 2017), and this Heritage has also been listed by UNESCO in the List of "Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding" (in 2022).

Viet Nam 2022

Phù Lãng pottery making was taught to the villagers by the founder of the craft, Mr. Lưu Phong Tú, around the Trần dynasty, 14th century, and has developed to this day. The primary products are pottery with brown glaze and related colors. Product types include religious ceramics, household appliances, and decorative items with the outstanding feature of using the embossing method in the form of bubble engraving, also known as double engraving, with natural, durable, and unique glaze color; The shape of the ceramic is rustic but strong and very bold in shaping sculpture. The production process is specialized with worker teams: furnace team, broaching team, pattern team, enamel team, and cleaning team. The stages include selecting soil and treating clay; shaping on a rotating table (household ceramics and fine art ceramics) and shaping by printing on wooden molds or terracotta molds (worship ceramics); tick, scrape products; glazing (the material used to make glazing is the ash of forest trees, ash as white as lime; currently we use ash from ironwood, bamboo, wood, lime, crushed pebbles, white alluvial mud); fired with wood to create scratches on the ceramic surface (temperature 1000 degrees Celsius, for 3 days and 3 nights continuously). Products made of Phù Lãng ceramics are lustrous, have an echo when tapped, and come in a variety of eel skin tones, including light yellow, dark yellow, brown, and yellow-brown. There are 3 main product lines: altar ceramics (incense burners, altar stands, tops), household ceramics (vases, jars, pipes) and fine art ceramics (paintings, flower pots, vases, animal-shaped kettles). The soul of Phù Lãng ceramic products is created from the rusticity of this eel skin glaze.

Uzbekistan is the place where the richest heritage of ceramic art is preserved. Nowadays the interest of the representatives of the contemporart traditional and untraditional ceramic art to the history of ceramic is increasing. In terms of execution technique it is divided into two types, i.e. unglazed and glazed ceramics. Though, unglazed moulded ceramics has more ancient origins. Since the end of the VIII – beginning of the IX century glazed ceramic wares emerged and got widely spread in the cities of Mawarannahr. During the IX-XII centuries glazed ceramics resembled a true artistic perfection and were of high quality. In the XIX century major schools and centers of ceramics got formed on the territory of present-day Uzbekistan. In the past, masters (potters), producing ceramic wares were called "kosagar" (a master skillful in creating flat and small wares like "kosa" (a bowl)) and "kozagar" (a master skillful in creating high and big wares like "koza" (a jug)). At present, this kind of classification lost its significance because some masters (potters) produce both small and big ceramic wares (i.e. jugs, vases, etc.).