Miki Shim, October 2023
When I look at the photo below from the group exhibition in Yeoju, I cannot help but to be little emotional looking back at the time spent with this group people who put their trusted in me to guide them on a 12 day tour of Korean ceramics in South Korea. I have never produced one of these before. And for some reason, they met me in Seoul for this clay journey.
Living Waters, DoBan Group Exhibition, Yeoju, South Korea, September 2023
My husband, Lance, named this tour “Miki’s Spectacular Korean Ceramics Tour!” A build-up to which I didn’t know I could deliver when I launched the registration in May.
Looking back, we had many hurdles and detours, negotiating the twists and turns of coordinating many moving parts, some expected and some completely blind-sided.
But, through it all, it was spectacular!
Back Story:
At the end of summer 2022, Lance and I traveled to Korea to visit family and friends. Lance’s first trip and, while this is a return trip for me, first time with a ceramics focus. With a little help from friends, I was able to see, visit and experience the heart and soul of Korean Ceramics first hand. See their work, processes, the life and the business of pottery.
When I returned home, I wanted to find a way to share this with others. Instagram photos and posts only skim the surface of the real experience. Setting up a tour was not the first thing that came to mind. The logistics of moving with a group more than 4 seemed a bit crazy!
After brewing the thought for a few months, I decided to gamble with crazy and started the planning process by floating the idea with Lance, recruited an assistant and lined up a few artists in Korea. First registration arrived within day of launching the announcement on Instagram in April, and sold out 15 seats by May. By June, 16 people plus me and my irreplaceable assistant and friend, Kyungle Han, are confirmed to hang with me in Korea for
12 days, starting on the last day of August.
The numbers:
3 hotels for 12 nights in 6 cities on 6 tour buses for 18 people eating 36 meals taking 12 local city bus and transit rides to see 2 demos and 3 workshops by 8 local artists and topped it off with a 10 artist group exhibition in Yeoju. Not counting the taxi rides, the thousands of steps logged and cups of coffee at Cafe Galapium in Ulsan.
The people:
Some were 20 year veterans of ceramics, some just had 6 months of experience. A Raku artist, 3 woodfire artists, a writer, a sculptor, a ceramics tool manufacturer, architect, software engineer, moms, in-the-middle-of-a-career-change professional, a mechanical engineer, studio owner, doctor, tea master, a National Intangible Cultural Asset or 3, product engineer, x-ray technition, ER nurse, a business coach and a few ceramics instructors. All connected by clay.
Behind the scenes:
Negociating the ever changing landscape of last minute location changes, transportation logistics and meal planning were the hardest to navigate. Luckily, I had a fluent speaker to help me make the phone calls for reservations, argue the charges and figure out how to pay the large sums of money the bus company wanted…in cash. But I had the good fortune of an amazing group of people who were ready to move with the changing current of waters that, to me, seemed like the rapids. The full itinerary has been posted on my website: mikisr.com, so I will not go into the details of our tour, except to mention that we changed the venue of the woodfire workshop at the last minute due to a family emergency.
Cultural exchange:
Since moving to the SF Bay Area in 2012, I have broadened my network of ceramic artists around the world though personal experiences. This has allowed me the opportunity to create a cultural exchange program connecting the local ceramics community to the ceramics around the world to inspire, provoke thought and to make friendships. I have found that clay language is universal.
Our tour group met for time in Seoul, at the hotel’s lounge for a breakfast buffet of Korean and western style foods. It’s always interesting what ends up on the plates and how the flavors get mixed intentionally, or not. We sat 4 to a table, getting to know eachother a little, trying to memorize the names and faces with whom we will be spending the next 12 days.
Fast forward the end of the trip, to 18 Californians and one Michigonian standing on the steps at Seoul Station, trying to hold back tears, arms flying to make sure everyone gets a hug, and promise of a reunion event of Miki’s Spectacular Korean Ceramics Tour 2023 very soon. This is a rerun activity of when we parted from MoonDoBang, DoBan artists of the Yeoju exhibition, and woodfire team of artistis: Kim JaeBum, Kim InTae, Kim YoungSoo and Shin YoungTaek.
In a brief amount of time, we have made life long friendships.
I’m looking forward to the next one… September 2024?
Korean Artist Studio Visit, Demo and Workshop
Kim Yikyoung Ceramics, Porcelain, Seoul
MoonDoBang, Porcelain, Bundang @moondobang
Ohbuja Pottery, Onggi, Yeoju @heejunonggi
Kwak Kyungtae, Onggi, Icheon @kwakkyungtae
Shin YoungTaek, Buncheong, GeoChang @youngtaek_shin
Kim YoungSoo, Naked Raku, Yeoju @young.soo.kim
Kim InTae, Educator, Woodfired Stoneware, Ulsan
Kim JaeBeom, Woodfired Stoneware, Ulsan @firewood_gama.jaun
Cities Visited
Seoul
Icheon
Yeoju
Bundang
Ulsan
Busan
