We moved into our Studio home in October last year and began immediately renovating the space into a workable atelier. What started as a hopeful idea of a three-month project, slowly morphed into a full year saga. There were many a night we had to gently remind ourselves that the journey is the adventure. Our … Read more
In Soufflenheim we unexpectedly found ourselves some second hand ware carts. They clearly needed some maintenance and so began the grueling task. To return them to their former glory we sanded, power hosed, and applied a much-needed coat of rust proof paint. Finally we even coated the metal rods with heat-shrink tubing to provide a … Read more
We returned to Europe and almost immediately set about procuring raw materials for our own studio. However, we were also looking for inspiration, ideas and even tools and/or equipment. Yannick’s opa tipped us off to a historical pottery village in nearby Alsace. Oblivious of what to expect we arrived in Soufflenheim to discover quite literally … Read more
We took a few (rainy) days to relax and acclimatise in Leh and soon heard of a locally famous pottery village named Likir. Undoubtedly as soon as the rains passed we packed our bags and hitched a ride to Likir. The old village lies nine km’s off the main highway and most transport drops you at … Read more
Sanjay Gupta and Ayushi Rastogi are a dynamic potter team who make pit fired burnished vessels and artwork. We met very early into our Indian journey but because our plans were already set for South India we left, but vowed to be back to work alongside them. Upon our return to Dehra-Dun we quickly rekindled … Read more
We connected with Neelma of Happy Potter after she invited us to visit her studio. Since we were taking a train from Bombay to Delhi, Ahmedabad fell conveniently on the way. We were looking forward to meeting a city studio potter after all our months spent at traditional potteries. The Happy Potter Studio is a sweet … Read more
We took an overnight train to Bombay (from Hyderabad) and arrived in the early morning hours. A cup of tea and a hot shower later we collapsed into bed for a late morning snooze. Bombay was primarily a personal detour but we decided to visit the Sir JJ School of Art while we were here. … Read more
We hopped on a local bus from the University straight to Bandarawatte, Biyagama. With a hand drawn map of the route, from the local bus terminus to the Pottery Museum and government run Production and Training Center of Clay Article, we were thankfully able to find this slightly hidden space. It is located along the … Read more
After lunch we began the raku firing with two students and the rest of the department looking on in glee. The glaze test samples were loaded into the outdoor raku gas kiln, sealed and the gas was ignited. We stood around discussing the various raku techniques the students had already experimented with for approximately 40 … Read more