Pottering around with feats of clay

An Ahmedabad artist has given hope to migrating potters with her clay company
Rekha Gupta  with her products(Photo | Udayashankar S)
Rekha Gupta with her products(Photo | Udayashankar S)

What started for Rekha Gupta a decade ago as a modest social enterprise to help some potters has now become a thriving business in clay products retailed as light-weight microwave-safe scratch-proof crockery. She also has a successful business in clay tiles with traditional motifs.

Rekha says the idea of becoming a potter came from her husband, Girish Gupta, a tourist guide. “My husband told me that potters he visited with tourists were migrating out of their colonies to new areas in search of opportunities as their traditional utensils were going out of date,” she says. “He thought we should learn more about clay crafts to be able to help these potters make contemporary products. We began learning pottery from the potters.”

During their experiments, they found that clay from the Ganga basin blended well with local materials to make cups and mugs instead of the thick-walled water pots that the potters in Ahmedabad were making. Says Rekha, “I started with a few pieces. Some of my clients began to replace china crockery with the fine light-weight cups, mugs and vessels made under my label Infinity Pottery. We also studied the composition of pottery pieces at Harappan sites such as Dholavira and Lothal, with lab data from archaeologists, and I brought out a range called Dholavira Pottery.”

By 2006, Rekha was producing thousands of pieces. Along with clay tableware, she started making clay tiles. One of her popular series had Harappan seals. She employs 13-14 families of artisans for much of the year in the field for clay crafts such as terracotta tiles, tableware and gift articles. About 100 artisans earn part of their livelihood from her products, and do not need to migrate. The pieces are retailed at handicraft exhibitions and emporiums.

While exhibiting in south Gujarat, she came across Warli paintings. “Tribal groups such as Warli in the Gujarat and Maharashtra Sahyadri hills make rudimentary wall paintings using circles, triangles and squares to portray a variety of scenes... hunting, farming, dancing, ritualistic. This interested me and I began to use these as motifs for my clay products, also drawing them on paper, canvas, tiles, plaques, walls and other media,” she says. “This became popular and a USP for my products. I am happy that I have been able to contribute to the life of artisans by promoting clay crafts in the contemporary market.”

Rekha is excited about the scroll she has created on the life of Lord Krishna. “I am painting Indian epics and religious talks in the basic graphic vocabulary of the Warli tribal groups. The scroll of Lord Krishna will be the longest Warli-style painting in the world,” she says. “I am looking forward to using more Indian traditional art forms for products of Infinity Pottery.”

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The New Indian Express
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