We went to a pottery village last Saturday. The whole village is shop after shop after shop of pottery. It's the only industry there and it's amazing to see the whole process being done all around you. Because of the rich clay soil in the Hanoi area, pottery has been made here since the beginning of time. The kids and I went to an exhibit on Vietnamese pottery at the Smithsonian last fall. It got me all excited to get here and see the wares...I love pottery! This is a photo of a guy in his shop. He was sitting on his little stool washing each piece by hand before he carefully packed them in the baskets with straw. We'll definitely be going back to this shop. Oh, another great thing about Vietnamese pottery, they don't use lead in the glazing process, so it is food safe all the way around.
