Quyet Thanh - Ancient pottery village by Day River

For Quyet Thanh residents, pottery is not only a livelihood, but also a cultural underground flowing throughout the history of the village. Through many changes, despite ups and downs, the pottery craft here is still kept alive, with love for the profession, with the diligent hands of many generations of artisans.

Unlike famous pottery regions such as Bat Trang, Huong Canh or Chu Dau, Quyet Thanh pottery uses local yellow clay. This type of soil is especially flexible, contains many minerals, and when fired gives a characteristic dark brown color.

High adhesion and good heat resistance help the products to be durable, suitable for making household items and worship items.

To get a complete product, a craftsman must go through dozens of stages, lasting many days, even weeks, including preparing the soil, mixing the soil, shaping the soil, drawing, glazing, drying and firing.

In Quyet Thanh village, many production facilities have invested in soil filtering and hydraulic pressing machines to improve the quality of raw materials. However, many stages still retain their manual nature, especially the shaping stage.

On the traditional turntable, the craftsman uses both hands to adjust and combines feeling and experience to create the desired ceramic shape. The job seems simple, but in reality, it requires patience, an aesthetic eye and skillful hands.

After shaping, the product is left to dry naturally, then painted with glaze or glazing according to each ceramic line. The firing stage is a big challenge. The fire must be even, the temperature must be standard, and the time must be just right, otherwise the finished product can easily crack, split or deform.

Quyet Thanh ceramic products such as ceramic vases, flower pots, teapots, wine jars, etc. all have a simple, familiar beauty - suitable for the countryside space, and at the same time have high applicability in modern life.

Many local families have three or four generations attached to the profession, considering ceramics not only a means of livelihood, but also a source of pride, a priceless heritage left for the future.

According to artisan Lai Van Tien, in the context of merging administrative units and opening up new development spaces, local residents see this as an opportunity to promote the development of the pottery profession. Quyet Thanh has many advantages when it is located near prominent tourist attractions, very suitable for developing a model of a craft village combined with experiential tourism.

In addition, it is also necessary to have connections with other craft villages in the region to create a value chain, an expanded craft village space. For example, it is possible to combine with other rattan, bamboo, horn, or handicraft villages to create more diverse and unique product lines - serving the needs of tourist gifts.

In the midst of modern life, Quyet Thanh pottery still retains its traditional source. The hands of craftsmen still breathe life into the soil every day, extending the history of this craft village that is more than 500 years old.