Fired the old way, in Ulsan

The kiln takes three days to cool. Until then, no one knows which pots survived and which cracked in the heat. It is a craft that refuses to be rushed.

Onggi is one of the oldest ceramic traditions in Korea. The clay is local, dug from a hillside outside the city, dried and wedged by hand before it ever touches the wheel. The potter has been doing this since she was nineteen.

The firing is wood-fuelled. The temperature climbs slowly over two days. On the third day the mouth of the kiln is sealed and left to cool without intervention. What comes out is what comes out.

The dark patches on the surface are not flaws. They are where the fire touched longest.