Khứ Hồi is a set of ceramic paintings designed at the Temple of Literature, will be a wonderful souvenir for reducing the source of non-recyclable materials when using broken pottery shards in the Ban Trang pottery village. It not only regenerates these materials but also conserves the traditional beauty of a pottery village with a hundred of year history. The product is a two-way street that can be recalled from the past and back into the present when using lotus flower images and tortoise steles in the Temple of Literature. The contribution to the trend of sustainable design as well as recalling the feeling of culture, tradition beauty of the craft village and fond of learning of Vietnamese people.

"This project centres itself on the theme of 'awakening to tradition' and considers ceramic traditions in relation to issues of the sustainable reuse of materials. This project explores the ways in which the studio waste of the traditional Bat Trang ceramics village could be reused to develop new designs suitable for contemporary use. Bat Trang ceramics was considered, as culturally they signify the spiritual and philosophical values that are embedded in Vietnamese society through Confucian thought. In particular, the five virtues of kindness, decorum, uprightness, wisdom and faithfulness are emphasized in Confucian teachings.

During this project, Ngoc will be researching and testing how Bat Trang pottery shards can be re-purposed in the context of connecting people to traditional values that are expressed through the culture of the Confucian Temple of Literature, which promotes valuing and connecting to scholarly knowledge. She is working towards developing wall pieces which can act as a souvenir for visitors of the temple.

During this mentorship, Ngoc has been working through the process with art, craft and ceramics academics Tammy Wong Hulbert, Jennifer Conroy Smith and Mark Edgoose. In the coming months, Ngoc plans to undertake an Internship in Hanoi, where she will be able to undertake research at the Bat Trang ceramic village and also mosaic studios to contribute towards her understanding of the relationship between the design process and material technologies,"

(Tammy Wong Hulbert)