handicraft

History Behind Southwestern Arts: Pottery

Earth, water, and fire are the elements of pottery. Many Native potters believe creating vessels are an opportunity to bond with the land and with the past. Clay vessels have been made for storage and household use in Indigenous Southwest societies for nearly 2,000 years. Pottery is a complex art form to master. It requires learning a complex series of tasks and knowing how materials will react to firing.

An audio described version of this video is here:

Those Famous Blue Chinese Bowls Come From This Town

These bowls, called linglong (玲珑) porcelain, used to be everywhere in the West. And they all come from this one town in China.

We visited one of the last factories that still makes this style of blue and white porcelain, and deciphered the symbols that cover the bowl.

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Written and Voiceover by: Clarissa Wei
Produced and Shot by: Nathaniel Brown and Clarissa Wei
Edited by: Nicholas Ko
Animated by: Ray Ngan
Special Thanks: Dolly Li, Nicholas Ko, Hanley Chu
Mastered by: Victor Peña

Music: Audio Network

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