weekend gate away

Invite for Open House
Unique weekend plan
for
Potters and Others
You are invited to an open house at
Potters Place
the garden studio of Shalan dere,a studio potter,
to
PLAY WITH CLAY
enjoy the garden, the ambiance,destress yourself,
forget you are in the maddenning city of Mumbai
dabble in clay,make whatever you want,
Shalan will be around too so you can get to know all about pottery /ceramics
and
JUST CHILL
all this at no cost unless you want to fire your creation!!!
SO,
what are you waiting for??
17th, 18th and 19th
11am to 6 pm
LETS HAVE FUN
call 9773095005

Regularly to repeat on evey second tuesday of the month

Hi Everyone

Resolution at the last month of the year, BLOG REGULARLY!!!!
OK, wonder where I should start as I have travelled a lot in last six months and have loads of stories to tell. May be I should start with today and then go back 6 months,covering present and past simultaneously.
last whole week is been cleaning, reorganising the studio, and a lot has been achieved. Shifted the kiln in the extreme right corner,and VOW, so much space!!
It will be fun to work with so much more space. Also I can host a larger group in "OPEN HOUSE"

Yes, there is an open house at my garden studio,potters place, on the 17th,18th and 19th of December,any time between 10.30am to 6 pm.All of you, potters and others are welcome to enjoy the ambiance,play with clay, create,try the wheel.... .......no cost,JUST COME.
Like the Idea?? then come over,lets have fun and forget the mundane  day to day routine.

Now the past,in the month of July we had a family get together at Lake Tahoe, everything around us was like a picture postcard. the shades of blue,green and their combinations you see with pure emerald!!! Its beyond words!!
We did have a great time,
more to come soon,see you at the open house.

STORY OF A POT [GOSHT EKA MADKYACHI]

I love to make really BIG pots, they are handbuilt,coil by coil, and take min of 8 to 10 days to get it all nice and pretty. Its a lot of effort and patience.
Its the challenge that I love and that makes the hard work all its worth.
So when I got an enquiry to make 25" by 25" pot,I went all out for it.
The shape was explained to me and enough time was available to take on the project.
Merrily I started building it coil by coil, checking and working on the shape, size, contours....
This method takes time as you have to go up in small bits,not all at a time, you get to say 6 inches and let it dry to hold the shape but wet enough to take the next layer of coil. So the progress is slow. Judgement comes with practice and few disasters.
took me over two weeks to finish the piece.

Then the client wanted a bit of a change,very tricky and better not done, I was sceptical,but had to give in.[hindsight its a mistake and lesson learnt hard way]
We bisque fired the pot on complete drying[almost 12 days],it was sleepless night for me before we opened the kiln,WOW,The pot came out fine,I thought it was great and I was wrong in expecting some disaster in firing.
So next step, I glazed it and we reloaded it in the kiln.
I asked the Kiln God for safety of the pot but there was still some funny feeling inside me.
we took a very slow firing, did not open the kiln till it cooled completely,and then....
Can You See What Happened???
This Is the real test of a potter
To be able to take such a disaster ,accept it ,analyse it and try to learn from it. Or else you cannot go on. Its the most heartbreaking thing to see your creation turning into pieces,it takes a long time to get over such shocks,but I think the survivor's instinct in us that makes us go on,
The challenge really is this and not in creation!!!!!