Pictures in Pottery Town

Off to Pottery Town with, hopefully my newly found photography skills, a few other fotography fanatics and our teacher!

Pottery Town came into being when the State government gave 60 potters a 30 - year lease on a piece of land. On this piece of land the artists have grown their art, their homes and their lives. They produce pots, urulis (flower/petal baskets), diyas (lamps), water pots, idols of Ganesh and more......

Hey -ho, hey-ho, it off to work we go......... well thats what these statues reminded me off but they are Idols of Lord Ganesh, being made for the Ganesh festival later in the year, when they will be consigned to the bottom of a river!

Except for the Ganesh's, everything else was made on a wheel, with incredible speed. As one little diyas was made, it was sliced off the top of the mound of clay on the wheel and put aside, the next one already under way:

Thousands of lamps, pots etc. were lined up in the sun to dry before they made it to be fired in the old stone kiln.

This guy made 1,000 pots a day. He was in a tiny upstairs room and our taking pics didn't seem to disturb his concentration in the slightest. We saw the whole cycle from the clay being made form dirt and water, being mixed by hand or tread by bare feet (a bit like grapes I guess!) to the completed pots for sale. Some in our group tried their hand on the wheel and their feet in the clay. I stayed behind the camera.

I bought a couple of urulis, one of which is now on our front door step with petals floating in. The smell as you walk into the house is gorgeous. The one I bought is the one in the pic below.

Now, I just have to upload my pics for review and critique!!!