NANTAO + TAICHUNG _ SEPTEMBER 11–13

 September 11, 2024

The day started on a bus headed to Nantao, where we stopped at Yoshantea and learned about the teas grown in Taiwan and traditional and modern processing methods. As an avid tea drinker since I was young, I really enjoyed learning more about the local tea scene and gaining insight into the theory and technique behind it. My favorite tea, bug-bitten black honey oolong, is from Taiwan, so I was really excited to visit a place that produces it. In addition to the wares, it was really interesting to see traditional tea making tools from an industrial design perspective, especially the roller and its moving parts.

After lunch we visited a bamboo factory called Feel Good where we saw how they process and manufacture various bamboo products such as mugs, toothbrushes, and knitting needles. However, a personal favorite was a bamboo bike frame with resin-cast twine joints. It was also really rewarding to see the various manufacturing steps, from sanding to spraying and laser engraving, and to know that I understood all of them. We then visited a woodcarving studio called Chenswood, where they had beautiful hand carved items such as trays and hairpins. This was probably my favorite visit of the day, as it had a much more artisan craft feel to it than the more standardized feel of the other two shops. While there’s a place for both, I personally aligned and appreciated the warmth and personality of the woodcarving studio the most.

We then checked into the Star Hostel in Taichung, a super cute and well decorated rooftop hostel with lots of workspace and gorgeous views of the city. Walking around Taichung for dinner, I really loved just how much personality and character all the shops, restaurants, and buildings have. I would’ve loved to have had at least a day longer in Taichung to explore.

September 12, 2024

Our first stop of the day, the National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute (NTCRI) has been one of my absolute favorite things we’ve done this whole trip. The highlight for me was the first building and exhibit we saw, featuring intricate hand-woven bamboo vases, beautiful bamboo furniture, and more. The weave created stunning patterns and a lot of the furniture had really elegant and consistent form language throughout their designs, creating beautiful patterns with both their positive and negative space and shadows. In another building, we saw workshops for various traditional artisan crafts we’ve seen over the course of this trip, including ceramics, indigo dye, lacquer ware, and more. 

We then went to a restaurant that served locally-sourced food, heard from the owners about their mission, and then snacked on some desserts that Winghi’s uncle got for us before heading to another bamboo workshop. At this workshop we learned how to bamboo weave a small vase, which was much more time consuming than any of us anticipated. However, I really love working with my hands and it felt very peaceful for me to get to sit down and work on a craft for a while. While touring their facilities, it was fun to recognize some tools. They had a lot of really beautiful products like chopsticks, mugs, boxes, and more in their studio that made me really appreciate the simplicity and elegance of working with the material, not against it or trying to hide it. Additionally, the countryside was simply stunning, and as always I loved the lush mountains and dense greenery that surrounded us.

September 13, 2024

Overall, our trip to Nantao and Taichung was really inspiring, as we saw tons of beautiful craftsmanship that really resonated with me. The beauty, warmth, and feel of natural materials such as wood and bamboo made me want to work with them more in the future and the character and personality of the city and towns we stopped in felt much more human and less sterile than much of what I see (or maybe just what I am used to seeing has lost its appeal) in Seattle. While it was a few very busy days during which I did not sleep much due to having to do work both nights, I felt very creatively-refreshed, as it was renewing to gather inspiration from real life and not Pinterest. After presenting our ideas in class, we brainstormed some more and garnered some great insights into our topic, and I’m looking forward to continuing to develop our project!