Less tools and more focus for bringing out the most noble values of porcelain that will make us better people after sitting around the table.
"Fewer tools and more focus for bringing out the noblest values of porcelain that will make us better people after sitting around the table."
It was my grandma. She called me Boya and introduced me to the home rituals around the table. She was not hiding porcelain tableware from herself, saving it for "special occasions." Still, she was using it with love and care. I have a collection with imprints of her dolly named after her, Bosa.
I never took academic education in pottery. It was my passion while being a student of the Chinese language, my salvation when I returned from China after a year, disappointed with how little of the culture I had dedicated my young years had left. It was my guiding light when I worked for a large retail chain listing their products all day.
After ten years of practicing and a couple of give-ups, I was ready for the most beautiful and demanding material: porcelain. It was the point of no return. It is rewarding just to work with it.
Porcelain takes time and focus. It allows a ceramist just a narrow passage that has to be passed at a certain pace. Both too quickly or too slow will make a piece break. That meditative state it brings me to is the reward. Everything else comes as a confirmation.
People's need to gather around the table is their essential need. We don't gather to hear or say anything new but to confirm the old in a new way. We tell stories to accept and overcome the transience. We can do that without porcelain or food or drink on a table. Still, we can enrich the occasion as an accolade to ourselves for the hard work we've put into what we do, our relationships, and endeavors of any kind. Porcelain is solid and fragile at the same time. It is noble not to be flashy but beautiful. Stories become better; katharsis is deeper; we become better people.
In 2012, I started my own brand. That is when I met my husband, and we quickly became business partners. It is easy as we believe in the same. He is in charge of everything but the very production. We have been on the Boya team for seven years, joined by some young collaborators that we are proud of.
I love jazz, Vietnamese cuisine, Nick Cave, Paul Auster, and more.
Since June 2023, Wescover has been our exclusive agent for the USA and Canada.
