It is always a good idea to listen to your gut feeling and sometimes even better to act on impulses. I did a similar thing today, leaving behind my city to go and learn about the art of blue pottery. It was beautiful and a rather unpredictable ride for an hour thanks to the changing skies.
As soon as I reached my destination, I was given a warm welcome with a cup of tea which obviously marks the highest standard of welcoming in my books lol :P After some chit chat with the family (who were all masters of pottery) , I was taken through the entire process and hard work with which this craft is done.
The initiation of the process is with ingredients such as quartz stone, glass, katira gum, and fuller's earth mixed to form a powder and then into clay like form. It's almost like making tortillas! For example, a dough is flattened and formed into the desired shape after which is put to dry in the open. Once dried, they are filed by hand to smoothen the texture and dipped in white paint to give them that extra glow.
An incense stick stand (left) and it's preparation mould (right)
They are then hand painted with copper dust which changes color after being glazed in fire. They are in the fire for almost 5-6 hours and left there for almost a day for cooling. The brown copper dust is what becomes the blue after firing which is why it is known as blue pottery! They had an insane line of products and collection, whatever I could imagine was already present.
I was a little scared just by seeing the size and power of this hot kiln which melts glass!
The family also hosts a lot of workshops for students and visitors. This piece was made by a group of Nepali potters a few weeks ago! I was also surprised to know that a rural area such as this gets orders from places like The Netherlands!
The sky was too beautiful to not take a picture and luckily the weather supported big time! I think I might visit this place again in the future and maybe even get some hands on experience!
Keep Creating
Lots Of Love <3