“It's an image that always warms my heart whenever I return home at the end of a long hard-working year,” said journalist Vu Khanh Tung, who took the photo. Tung, who is son of Artisan Vu Duc Thang, has now taken over his father’s position as the director of Bat Trang Museum.
“My dad was grateful to my mother for always supporting his decisions and letting him follow his passions,” Tung said.
Tung never expected that it would be almost the last photo he took of his father, two years before his sudden death on a winter afternoon in 2016 in an elevator accident right in their home, which also serves as a ceramic museum and a pottery workshop. The witness of that tragic accident was none other than his wife, Phung Thi Thinh.
“I once worried if my mother would get over such difficult period of time” Tung said, but it turned out that he did not fully understand his mother. After days of being almost bed-ridden following the shocking loss, Thinh tried to suppress the grief and started working to complete her husband’s unfinished work on the Bat Trang Museum and bring the family’s business back on track as he had planned.
She had to cope with numerous challenges, including the intention to leave the workshop among veteran craftsmen and the sharp decrease in the numbers of visitors and orders for products from business partners.
Many people advised Thinh that pottery is a difficult craft, particularly for an amateur like Thinh. Although she was born in a family of ceramics practitioners in Bat Trang Village, she didn’t follow the family’s tradition but decided to become a teacher and later quit the job to support her husband’s business.
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Late People's Artisan Vu Duc Thang.
Setting aside people’s thinking that she could not succeed in the craft of ceramics, little by little, Thinh has kept trying to do her best.
With great patience and strong determination, Thinh started to thoroughly learn the techniques involved in producing handmade pottery, including painting, engraving, firing, and designing.
She is also open to learning new things and is willing to carry out experiments and work on orders from her son, from collaborating with actress/designer Tran Nu Yen Khe in designing high-end decor products to creating a tulip vase for the setting of a movie.
More than five years after her husband’s passing, with the support of her children, her efforts have been gradually rewarded. The Bat Trang Museum, the first private ceramics museum in the famous craft village of Bat Trang, is about to be built on an area of nearly 1000 sq.m with the design of accredited architect Tran Quoc Khoi Nguyen.
In addition, a website at battrang.museum was launched as a digital information platform about contemporary ceramic art in Vietnam and Bat Trang traditional ceramic village in particular.
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Works on display at ‘The Bat Trang Ceramic Boots – An Inspiration from Italy’ art exhibition.
Notably, an art exhibition entitled ‘The Bat Trang Ceramic Boots – An Inspiration from Italy’ is taking place at Casa Italia in Hanoi, introducing the public to a collection of ceramic boots created by the late People's Artisan Vu Duc Thang for the first time.
The full collection includes 12 boots which were made in ceramic and embossed with traditional Vietnamese motifs. The powerful creativity, unique skills and delicate ceramic techniques of Artisan Vu Duc Thang are exquisitely represented through a delightful blend of classical Vietnamese elements and colours with Italian elegance and style.
The boots are set in 12 poles at the exhibition, drawing inspiration from Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa.
The exhibition, which is held under the sponsorship of the Embassy of Italy in Hanoi, will be running until May 3 at Casa Italia, 18 Le Phung Hieu Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, from 9am to 10pm daily.
