02 - Kristin + Zoe

08.27 national palace museum and Yongkang

outside National Palace Museum

On Thursday our group rode in cars to the National Palace museum. We got a special tour of the museum, complete with headphones to hear our guide. She led us through various exhibits, including ceramics, bronze metalwork, carvings, and a few paintings. We spent a lot of time in the impressive ceramics exhibit, viewing pieces of rare Chinese ceramics. The Jadeite Cabbage was a favorite of many on this trip, and although it was smaller than some of us expected it was certainly exciting to see in person. We also had a group lunch at the top floor of the museum in the restaurant and took a few pictures outside in the garden. Then, we met up with the NTU students to drive to Yongkang.

apartment in Yongkang

While in Yongkang, our project groups split up and explored the streets. A couple groups wandered into Yatang Tea House, which was recommended by Meichun, and talked to the owner about tea and culture. Other shops included some high end clothing and goods shops, which featured many interesting product designs. There was also a beautiful sunset on this day, which many of us took pictures of.

8.28 pottery museum and painting Friday was one of our most anticipated days on our Taipei itinerary: Visiting Yingge Ceramics Museum and painting our own cup set at Tai Hwa Pottery. Or, maybe Erin (who works at two pottery studios and whose IxD projects are often inspired by ceramics) really helped hype it up for everyone. At both locations, the students learned about the significance of ceramics in Taiwan and the high level of craftsmanship that functional design requires.

glaze exhibition!

At Yingge Ceramics Museum, many students noticed how thoughtful the museum’s exhibitions were designed. We started on the first floor, learning about the origins of clay, traditional techniques, and the variety of glazes throughout history. Our class floated around in multiple pods, all wandering and reading the pieces at their own paces. As we all traversed the second and third levels, the exhibitions became more and more experimental.

experimental piece

In the afternoon, we drove to Tai Hwa Pottery. There, we saw the ins and outs of the studio: employees painting methodically on vases, carts and carts full of drying clay. We were then led to a well-lit room with tables, prepared beautifully with our incoming cup sets we were about to paint. For the next hour, the room was full of different characters. Most students calmly painted, finishing early and enjoying their post-painting meals our directors prepared. Some painted with the vigor only a competitive athlete should have, finishing up in a frenzy at the very last second. We all left happily, leaving our ceramics to be fired and later delivered back to us.

our pottery!!

8.29 presentations Presentations for our projects with NTU!! Everyone did amazing and it was so inspiring to see the different directions everyone took this project in! Even in such a short amount of time the results were impressive and all the groups had cohesive and well executed designs. The awards ceremony came with personalized gifts from the professors that included our Chinese names, which we were so excited about!! After, we had a final lunch with the NTU students :( However, for many groups it wasn’t a final goodbye as we hung out and said our goodbyes later. We learned a lot and had so much fun with these students, and we will miss them!