Kaveri Bharath sits with a tray of earrings she’s just finished making, puzzling over how much to price them. Growing up, she “always baulked at the idea of silent rooms and exams”. That quite explains her choice of pottery as a career. A product of Sishya, Bharath always knew her calling was in the arts. She dabbled in theatre for a bit, where she met her future husband (an actor) before realising her passion lay in pottery. She studied wheel-thrown and glazed stoneware pottery under Ray Meeker and Deborah Smith of Golden Bridge Pottery in Puducherry for two years. “Indian pottery has always traditionally been terracotta or other kinds of earthenware, till Persian pottery came with the Mughals. Ray and Deborah are pioneers of glazed studio pottery in South India. They have trained a substantial number of studio potters in India today,” she says. Bharath’s encounter with clay led her to various exploits, from spending a fortnight in a remote, picturesque artists’ village in Nepal learning indigenous pottery techniques, to conducting art and culture tours around South India for American artists as part of an initiative by the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, in Snowmass, Colorado. She initially set up a small studio in her own backyard, apart from teaching pottery to students at her alma mater. Her eyes light up as she explains the intricacies in the craft of pottery, right from the constitution of the clay to the effect of firing. “Pottery is not just about the wheel. That is one technique among many. Pots can be hand-built too. Slabwork, coil-building, paddling, and pinched pottery are some of the various techniques that can be employed in pottery,” she says. Bharath’s engagement with pottery extends well beyond the wheel, and she loves everything to do with wood and fire. “It’s fascinating to see how the movement of the fire affects the design on the pots. The melting ash within the kiln also leaves a mark on the glaze of the pot. It’s a costly process, in terms of time, effort, as well as money, but it is all worth it in the end, because of the final product. Pots depend on the kind of clay, the kind of wood used in the firing, and the hours of firing,” she says, while she describes her passion for the mechanics of kiln construction. An expert of sorts in the area, she has built all sorts of kilns around the city, including a gas kiln at The Spastics Society of Tamilnadu and a wood-fired one in DakshinaChitra on ECR. She finally built a soda-fired kiln for herself at The Farm, on OMR, and a studio that she calls, ‘The Pothole at The Farm’, which holds the distinction of being the first crowd-funded kiln in the country. Using crowd-funding platform Wishberry, Bharath was able to raise most of the Rs. 4 lakh needed to build it, and it serves as a resource for students or independent potters who wish to fire and glaze their pots. Right now, she’s busy making pots of various shapes and sizes, platters and other bric-a-brac for all the people who donated during the campaign. Moving on to other issues around pottery as an art form, she echoes other artists who rue the slow death of indigenous art and crafts. “Traditional pottery is a dying art. Today, you’d be hard-pressed to find a potter under the age of 50, in Tamil Nadu. Back in the day, festivals like Aadiperukku recognised and venerated potters, who were supported by the villagers to make the terracotta horse to donate to Ayyanar, the village deity, all of which is being replaced by concrete or plastic now. Potter communities need to thrive for the longevity of the art form. It is a hard art to learn as an adult. Most urban potters are not from traditional potter families, whose skill sets are different, and the craft is not intuitive to them,” she says. “However, there is a rising awareness, especially in urban centres, about hand-crafted ceramic ware and a growing demand,” she continues. “Although there is a strong pan-Indian potter community, it can get pretty lonely in Chennai,” says Bharath, because the existing potters are more into sculpture than traditional pottery. “Sometimes, I head to Pondy just to feel like I’m not the only mad one doing this!” Weekend fun Bharath holds walk-in pottery workshops every Saturday and on alternate Sundays at Pothole at The Farm, Semmencheri, OMR. She also teaches wheel-thrown pottery on weekdays, both at Pothole at The Farm, as well as at her rooftop studio in Srinagar Colony, Saidapet. Summer workshops Smoke-fired pottery workshop from May 1 to 7 and a Raku Glaze workshop from May 29 to June 4. @At The Farm Semmencheri Both are open to anyone over the age of 12. Participants must be moderately fit. Participation is limited to 10 per workshop, on a first-come first-served basis. Mail pothole@kaveribharath.com for details or call 9884144693

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