Join the great contemporary Korean potter, Kang-hyo Lee, as he makes moon jars from start to finish.
Kang-hyo Lee’s moon jars are not just beautiful ceramic objects: they are spiritual reflections of the natural world, alternately calm and contemplative, dynamic and dramatic.
Born in Seoul in 1961, Kang-hyo Lee is widely regarded as one of the finest Korean potters working today. His work is rooted in the major Korean ceramic traditions of Onggi pottery – voluminous storage jars originally designed for holding fermented food – and Punch’ong decoration, where white slip is layered and brushed over dark clay.
Perhaps the most beguiling of his many beautiful forms, however, are Lee’s moon jars, a type of pottery that inhabits a special place in the history of Korean ceramics.
In his moon jars, however, the decorative process is slowed to a serenely meditative pace. Scratched and splattered slip-marks echo dappled moonlight between woodland trees; blushes of peach and cream-white reflect the luminescence of a full-moon in the early evening sky.
Both quiet and vital, powerful and with presence, Lee’s moon jars are the intimate results of his search for a beautiful life.
