Published: November 15, 2008 09:16 pm      

WVU sends area pottery maker to China as visiting artist

LOCKBRIDGE — Born with clay in his blood, Summers County potter Jeff Diehl recently traveled far away from his home in the hills of West Virginia to Jingdezhen, China, and the Chinese Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute.

Diehl was asked to spend five weeks at the institute as a visiting artist on behalf of West Virginia University, accompanied by his wife Donna.

The institute is one of the few places in the world where traditional pottery making is still alive, and WVU sends art students and visiting artists there each summer.

“It was so bizarre to see all the real traditional methods. It was like stepping foot in a living museum,” Diehl said.

“It’s exactly like it was 1,000 years ago.”

He recalled one specific studio he saw that had only a single light bulb dangling from the ceiling and an electric wheel positioned in the center of the room.

“I felt like I was in a historical re-enactment the whole time,” he said, pointing out that everything except his clothes was historic.

During the trip, the Diehls saw countless unique sights. One thing that blew Jeff away was the massively large kilns.

“A normal American kiln is approximately 5 feet. (In Jingdezhen) there was a 63-meter (around 190-foot) traditional dragon kiln,” he said.

He said a lot of tradition from the Sung dynasty, which fired 1,000 kilns with wood each day, is still alive in Jingdezhen.

There are other differences.

In China, there are 72 different professions in clay-making; in America, it’s typically a one-man show.

“The entire way they approach clay is different,” he said. “There’s one guy that mines the clay, one who mixes, one who wedges ...”

Everything about the Chinese way of making pottery was unique.

During their five-week trip, the Diehls enjoyed visiting the antique market in town.

At 6 a.m. each day, there is an open market with pots for sale, many 1,000 years old.

“Some of these pots were awesome,” Jeff exclaimed.

“Right there was like being in a living museum,” he said, although you have to be leery of “fakes.” Some artists try to re-create pots by rubbing clay on them so they look as if they had been buried. However, Jeff said most of the pots were authentic historical pieces.

Spread all over the ground, regardless of their cost, he recalled one of the most beautiful pots he had ever seen.

“I picked it off the ground and asked how much it was,” he said.

“The guy told me it was a million dollars. “If I had it, I probably would buy it.”

The inhabitants of Jingdezhen produce about 1 million pots per day. For an artist like Jeff, it was astounding to see the streets flooded with trucks transporting them. The site would be any potter’s dream.

“There was raw clay going down one side of the street, a motorcycle driving down the other side with two rods sticking up and pots hanging upside down and guys pulling carts with pots behind them,” he said.

In awe of the clay pots surrounding him, Jeff felt the need to snap a picture of a truck transporting finished pots.

“At that very second I had five different trucks to choose from. They were everywhere,” he said.

The Diehls say that although the Chinese produce over a million pots each day, they would not classify the area they visited as a “sweat shop.”

Jeff said the people of this specific town simply treasure their clay. “That’s all they do. This is their life.”

Jeff’s grandfather and great-greatfather were both potters. As a child, he spent a lot of time watching his grandfather create pots.

Of pottery making, Jeff said, “I really enjoy doing it,” as he pulled a freshly crafted pot out of the kiln.

“This is how it looks when we put it in (the kiln). I make suggestions to the pots on how they should act,” he joked.

“But they have a mind of their own.”

Every time he opens the door of his kiln, it’s like Christmas morning because “you never know how they’ll turn out — every piece comes out unique,” he said.

Jeff says he learned a million different things on his trip to China.

Asked if he inspired the Chinese with his Americanized way of pottery making, he said, “I hope so. They were very interested in what I did.”

One Chinese man in the studio was interested in Diehl’s “rattle mug” creation.

“When you pick up this type of mug, it rattles because of the clay balls in the bottom of it,” Donna said.

Although the man was not in the studio when the Diehls left China, Jeff created a rattle mug for the man and left it in the studio for him.

When asked where he gets ideas for new clay creations, Diehl said, smiling, “You go to China!”

The Diehls will showcase lots of new pottery ideas they brought back from their voyage at their 29th annual Thanksgiving Show next Saturday and again on Nov. 28 from 1 to 5 p.m. each day at the Beckley Woman’s Clubhouse, 202 Park Ave. A full range of decorative and functional pottery will be showcased.

For more information, visit www.lockbridgepottery.com.

— E-mail: jayres@register-herald.com