Meeting Korean Potter Mr Hong Seong Il

I first spied and fell in love with Mr Hong's teawares when I chanced upon them on Tea Urchin's webpage, and then found his Instagram account. So when the time came to visit South Korea, I was determined to seek him out and make his acquaintance! He was very kind to agree to meet me!

Mr Hong lives about 5 minutes away from the famous Boseong Green Tea plantation, where he runs Nosan Clay Studio with his wife Lee Hye Jin.  We had lunch at a traditional korean restaurant near by and then off to Nosan Clay Studio we went.

Nosan Clay Studio is a bright and cheery light-filled space, a beautiful place to nurture creativity for a ceramic artist. His tearoom is beautifully decked out with gorgeous teaware!

Laying eyes on the shelf beside the table, one can immediately tell that Mr Hong is a tea lover. Teapots, Gaiwans, Houhins, Katakuchi, tea caddies, all items that a tea lover would love to possess!

One will immediately notice that his teaware were small, exactly the sort suited for brewing tea with the Kung Fu style. That would allow tea lovers to taste changing flavours each multiple steep.

Over tea chat, Mr Hong shared while brewing Chinese Oolongs and Korean Green teas that his favourite tea is the Wuyi Mountain Cliff teas. As a student of Chinese Tea, he ponders about the sizes of his teaware and clay+glaze choices. He would bring his teaware to drink with his tea teacher and tea classmates to investigate how his teaware and various teas would interact differently.

His tea-teaware exploration conclusion: He found that the stoneware pots are better for darker teas and his Porcelain pots are more neutral. His buncheong teapots with transparent glazed applied inside are neutral for all teas too.

As we were drinking tea, we were interrupted by a series of thuds. That was my introduction to the resident cat. She tumbled in half way during our serene conversations, hot in pursuit of a..... mosquito! Which I don't think she caught! While you may think she was a clumsy cat for a ceramic studio, she actually managed to nimbly seat herself at the window  sill without knocking over any tea ware, as seen in the last photo! However, she has since gone missing, much to the distress of Mr Hong, who has been waiting for her return. Let's hope the dear kitty will return!

The time came for me to depart. Meeting a potter who is a tea lover as well made the meeting extra special, and Mr Hong and his wife Hye Jin were such kind hosts! I know Mr Hong looks serious in photos here. Don't be fooled! And I am sure Mr Hong's instagram followers will agree  as well - in real life he is as whimsical as the tea ware he produces. So getting a piece of his beautiful teaware is like getting to know him a little! Do check out our web store with his items! (we only have 3 teapots left for now!)