The Heyuan Shanyin Studio

Huang Wenhua (黄文华) and Huang Yue (黄玥) are the husband-and-wife team behind Heyuan Shanyin (和远山隐) in Jianyang. Their studio brings together Jian Zhan making, hand-carved calligraphy, Song poetry, tea culture, custom vessel design and both wood- and electric-kiln firing.

The couple married in early 2018 after working away from Jianyang. During their return for the wedding, they became increasingly interested in the local Jian Zhan industry and soon left their jobs in Beijing to build a life around the craft. Huang Yue established the Heyuan Jian Zhan Culture Company during this early period. As the project developed, Huang Wenhua became founder of the Heyuan Shanyin Jian Zhan Life Experience Hall and Huang Yue its principal. Together these stages show the studio developing from an entrepreneurial project into a broader making, teaching and cultural-experience space.

Huang Wenhua · 黄文华

Huang Wenhua, born in 1991, is a Jianyang maker and a student of Wu Zhoufu (吴周福). He learned the complete working cycle from clay preparation and throwing through trimming, glazing and firing, gradually developing a practice that includes traditional bowl forms, custom vessels, relief decoration and larger display pieces.

Huang Wenhua is a representative inheritor of Jian kiln/Jian Zhan firing techniques, one of Nanping’s recognized folk-art figures and a technical expert in Fujian’s light-industry sector. He is specifically recognized as a Jianyang District representative inheritor of the firing tradition.

Wood Firing & Electric Firing

Huang works with both wood and electric firing. In 2021 he was photographed preparing wood fuel, working at a traditional kiln and using an electric kiln. During a 2025 wood firing, the kiln reached roughly 1260°C, the stage at which wood feeding becomes rapid and continuous.

Because Heyuan uses more than one firing system, the method of an individual piece depends on that specific work rather than on the artist name alone. Huang has also emphasized local mineral clay and mineral glaze and publicly demonstrates throwing, trimming, glazing and firing as part of the studio’s educational work.

Huang Yue · 黄玥

Huang Yue, also known in English as Grace, is an artist, studio principal and tea-culture practitioner. She is identified as 手刻书法建盏首创者, the originator of Heyuan’s hand-carved calligraphy Jian Zhan approach, and is also a Song-style diancha practitioner, senior tea artist and an outstanding alumna of a Chinese porcelain study program.

By 2022, Huang Yue was carving Song-poetry text directly into Jian Zhan surfaces with a knife. Her role therefore extends beyond studio management: writing, poetry and tea culture become structural parts of the vessel design rather than decoration added after the fact.

Calligraphy, Poetry & Tea Culture

Huang Yue’s carved work brings together two forms strongly associated with Song culture: Jian ware and poetry. Her carved poetry series include 永遇乐, 定风波 and 虞美人. She has also written about tea practice; her article 《点茶的传承发展研究》 (“Research on the Inheritance and Development of Diancha”) was published in Ceramics in 2023.

In 2018, Huang Yue worked closely with Wu Zhoufu, visiting his workshop, discussing designs and helping develop the jointly presented work 和合·如故. That collaboration predates the later Heyuan Shanyin experience-hall identity.

Contemporary Studio Work

Recent studio work expands beyond glaze alone into relief and sculptural surfaces, including floral and lotus relief, cloud-pattern carving, figural relief, and calligraphy combined with bamboo decoration. Heyuan’s current categories also include wood-fired work, calligraphy series, private commissions and larger display pieces.

Within the studio, Huang Wenhua focuses on forming, trimming, glazing, firing, material selection and kiln work, while Huang Yue’s practice centers on hand-carved calligraphy, cultural design, Song poetry and diancha. Some pieces combine those roles and are best understood as collaborative Heyuan studio work.

Marks & Identification

Huang Wenhua’s normal underside maker mark appears consistently on both standard pieces and custom commissions. A custom vessel does not necessarily carry a custom mark. Huang Yue’s carved poems and longer inscriptions, meanwhile, should be distinguished from maker or studio marks because the writing may be part of the decorative composition itself.

Recognition

Huang Wenhua’s 《野·秋》 received an Outstanding Award in the 2021 Zhengyan Cup competition. By 2025, Huang Wenhua was publicly recognized as a district-level representative inheritor of the Jian kiln/Jian Zhan firing technique.

References