Ha Thi Vinh, Director of Quang Vinh Ceramic Co., Ltd. (Quang Vinh Ceramic), is the 15th generation of the Ha Huu family, with a tradition of making ceramics in Bat Trang village, Gia Lam district (Hanoi).
From a young age, Ha Thi Vinh was passionate about the quintessence of the pottery village of her homeland, that passion grew over the years, and then she burned with determination to bring Bat Trang ceramic products to the world.
Since 1989, Ha Thi Vinh boldly built the My Hanh Ceramics export cooperation group with the desire that the ceramic products of Bat Trang craft village not only have bold artistic and aesthetic values but also show the soul and quality of the Vietnamese nation.
Quang Vinh Ceramic Co., Ltd was established to replace the cooperative group in 1994. In 2001, Quang Vinh Ceramic invested in a factory in Mao Khe, Dong Trieu district, Quang Ninh province to expand production to meet market demand.
From a cooperative group with only 6 members initially, until now Quang Vinh Ceramic Co., Ltd. has 2 factories producing ceramic products with over 300 employees.
Particularly, the production facility in Dong Trieu (Quang Ninh) was expanded to 30,000m2. The parent company in Bat Trang (Hanoi) has invested in building the Vietnamese craft village elite center on a plot of 3,300 square meters, commonly known as "Bat Trang Museum of Ceramic".
In Quang Ninh, Quang Vinh Ceramic has distilled the quintessence of the ancestors of Bat Trang traditional pottery village nearly 1,000 years old, combined with the traditional pottery village of Dong Trieu to build the second factory of Quang Vinh Ceramic.
Thus, Quang Vinh Ceramic now has bases in 2 famous ceramic production sites in Vietnam.
Until now, Quang Vinh Ceramic Co., Ltd in Bat Trang commune has more than 30 years of production and business activities in ceramics. The difference that makes the success of Quang Vinh Ceramic is that 90% of the market is exported to foreign countries. Quang Vinh Ceramic products are sold in 20 markets worldwide in fastidious areas such as Europe, America, Australia, Japan, and other countries.
Not only that, but the products of Quang Vinh Ceramic also bring the soul and quintessence of Vietnam by inheriting their ancestors' traditional craft while investing and applying advanced science and technology, modern equipment for manufacture with a team of engineers trained abroad.
To improve the product value of conquering the market, in 2019 Quang Vinh Ceramic has 5 Hanoi People's Committee products evaluated and classified OCOP products.
In which, there are 4 products with 5 stars including: the red lotus ceramic dish set; the swallows and lotus flowers set of ceramic pots and cups; the dragon and phoenix ceramic dish set; the set of ceramic dishes with swallows and lotus flowers.
The 5-star OCOP products of Quang Vinh Ceramic are now born with carefully selected input materials, carefully researched and mixed, through high-standard, high-quality raw material processing equipment almost identical in quality.
The 5-star OCOP product of Quang Vinh Ceramic is manufactured using kaolin raw materials from Phu Tho. After removing impurities, it is shaped and then burned at a temperature of 1,350 degrees Celsius, helping the color not fade and bleach. In particular, fine art porcelain products are also burned to reduce so they are not poisonous to users.
This makes the product with high density and hardness to ensure that it is eligible for use in restaurants and hotels if dishwashers and dishes are used. This sets it apart from some of the lower-quality products on the market.
That is because Quang Vinh Ceramic is one of the enterprises with a clear and bold sense of technology investment. Accordingly, the unit has pioneered applying a gas furnace system to production for both factories. From a gas furnace 4m3, Quang Vinh has 6 gas furnaces of 22m3 and 1 gas furnace of 6m3. Significantly, Quang Vinh has just invested in a 12m3 gas furnace with the most modern high-speed forced-burning technology in the ceramic industry today.
Every year, Quang Vinh Ceramic has invested hundreds of millions of dong in scientific and technological research activities, focusing on research and innovation of products and research on materials for production.
Many topics and projects of the company have been successfully researched to create high-value products and won many scientific awards in the fine art ceramic industry.
Not only has advanced technology, but ceramic products here are also produced manually. This makes the products that come out of the oven full of culture due to the workers' skillful hands and creative minds. The products are unique with high art and are considered symbols of the traditional craft Vietnamese system.
In addition, the diversity is also reflected in the culture of each product, bearing the characteristics of the place where the product is produced, which is markedly different and heterogeneous, with other units having the same art porcelain products.
To do that, Quang Vinh Ceramic owns a team of experienced designers who are formally trained at prestigious universities specializing in ceramics, able to change designs and designs continuously, serving customers to high-end customers.
Products manufactured by Quang Vinh Ceramic are always environmentally friendly, have no harmful substances, guarantee consumers' health, and are controlled by the ISO 9001: 2015 Quality Management System and system ISO 14001:2015 environmental management.
"Having 4 sets of 5-star OCOP products is not the end goal of Quang Vinh Ceramic. From raw materials with each story and traditional image of the nation, the company will build more high-end product systems, which may become 5-star products in the upcoming time", Ha Thi Vinh shared with Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper.
With a highly qualified and well-trained team, creating quality products is not too tricky for Quang Vinh. The ceramic company wants to focus on the art of each product. According to Ha Thi Vinh, the traditional art on each ceramic product can touch the buyer's emotions.
Sharing about OCOP, the head of Quang Vinh Ceramic said that this is a good program, not only a movement but also has helped the economy of craft villages turn to a new page.
"In the past, subjects in craft villages had to self-advocate and find business directions according to their own experiences, whether the market liked it. Now, thanks to the OCOP program, the products of the craft village are cared for, meeting the criteria and requirements of the market in terms of both technique and art," emphasized Vinh.
Accordingly, in addition to good quality, safety, and high art, traditional products need to be associated with good stories and touch customers' emotions.
Therefore, the craft villages' subjects must unite to upgrade from input materials and production processes to packaging. Thereby helping subjects improve their knowledge and skills sustainably and self-improvement capacity to match the market's competition.
With 4 sets of products, Ha Thi Vinh shared that they can be considered as scientific research topics, finding the right match between ceramic bone and ceramic glaze, helping the product to withstand high combustion temperature, creating the highest degree of durability, whiteness, clarity, lightness, and color.
Constantly emitting an attractive fragrance and never be mixed with other "stinky" things, the lotus flower comes to life with many meanings.
Lotus is also a flower symbolizing the beauty of the body and soul of Vietnamese women. The meaning of the lotus flower is associated with the image of a Vietnamese woman in a graceful ao dai, with a conical hat on her head and hands holding a bouquet of lotus flowers, making viewers feel fluttery.
Along with that, the vitality of the lotus has similarities with the virtues of Vietnamese women, who endure hardship, sacrifice, and humility but are also solid and outstanding.
Quang Vinh Ceramic's red lotus ceramic set has brought the soul of the lotus flower into each stroke. Anyone who has seen a picture knows that the soul of the painting lies in the strokes, and the soul of the painting lies in the interaction of the color layers with each other and with the background of the painting.
Ceramics is a rigid material, but the image painted on ceramic still has the embossment of the painting. To mix ceramic paint colors, not every artisan can do it. At Quang Vinh Ceramic, the colorist must be someone with many years of experience in the profession so that when mixing ceramic paint, the craftsman will mix the color with the earth to the degree that he wants the color in the kiln to melt and spread, absorbed into the glaze or the soil core of each product. Flowers are painted with a brush on ceramic. After firing, the flower branch is in the glaze, not just on the surface.
No one can not fall in love with a set of white enameled bowls and bowls painted with lotus flowers. Lotus paintings are hand-painted with each of the most elegant strokes. The viewer will feel a little scent of lotus. Pottery with Vietnamese beauty will forever be treasured.
Sometimes we still wonder what it means to be "Vietnamese" and where is our identity and aesthetic position. Is the pride of a Vietnamese person only in the matches, dishes, and games, Pho or classical architecture or not? Perhaps, the inner beauty of Vietnamese culture is revealed delicately and humbly by the lotus - the national flower in the hearts of every Vietnamese.
The lotus flower has long become a noble symbol in Vietnamese aesthetics, present in more than thousands of thousands of works that Vietnamese people have made. However, the natural beauty of the lotus flower lies in its secrecy - sometimes manifesting, hidden, tender, and delicate, as if there was a secret light radiating from behind the delicate flower petals.
As for the swallow, the swallow is a bird with a small and beautiful shape, flying gently and gracefully with a flexible tail, very friendly to humans. Since immemorial, the swallow has become an animal that carries good luck in people's minds, symbolizes spring, and is likened to love.
To show the true beauty of the lotus flower and the Vietnamese heart, combined with the traditional blue and white color of Bat Trang ceramics, Quang Vinh Ceramic has breathed life into the "lotus swallow" product set, both delicate and elegant. Remain close to nature and daily life.
30 years have passed, Quang Vinh Ceramic is still persistent with the dream of finding the true beauty of Vietnam. The wish is to revive the nation's oldest and most beautiful traditional crafts, to continue writing the way for them so that Vietnamese aesthetics can gradually become beautiful, moving, and admirable not only in the hearts of Vietnamese people but also around the world - as it deserves.
The dragon in the East and Vietnam is a beautiful image, a symbol of greatness, holiness, and eternal vitality... The image of the dragon is very familiar in the Vietnamese mind having the custom of worshiping Lac Long Quan. Whenever it comes to "Children of the Dragon, grandchildren of the Immortal", Vietnamese people feel proud and proud.
During the Tet holiday, Vietnamese people often give each other a set of dishes in the shape of dragons and phoenixes to wish each other a happy and prosperous new year. The blue and white color combined on each product is also the traditional color of Bat Trang ceramics.
Authors: Dinh Tung - Ba Thang - Huong Giang
Photo: Dinh Tung - Ba Thang
Design: VAN