Vizag potters: idols of clay, immersion in debt

The artisans in this AP city usually earn the most during the festival season – starting with Ganesh Chaturthi today. But they have not received a single bulk order for Ganesh idols and other products so far this year

August 22, 2020 | Amrutha Kosuru

A melting pot of lockdown losses
and • West Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi

A melting pot of lockdown losses

The Ganpati festival starting this week, then Durga Puja and Diwali, were peak seasons for potters in Delhi's Uttam Nagar. Now, they are looking at a period of poor sales, as are potters in Kachchh and West Bengal

August 17, 2020 | Srishti Verma

Sitting idol in locked-down Kumartuli

Business has come to a standstill in Kumartuli, Kolkata’s historic potters’ colony, with almost no demand for Maa Durga idols and other statues. Artisans, vendors and labourers are looking at a season of huge losses

July 09, 2020 | Ritayan Mukherjee

Feet of clay: Chhattisgarh's potters, locked down

In Dhamtari town, potters missed their peak summer sales season due the lockdown, when making and selling pots became difficult. Despite markets now opening in Chhattisgarh, they are facing an uncertain year

June 15, 2020 | Purusottam Thakur

Bengal meets Baroda to sculpt Ganpati idols

Migrant artisans from West Bengal blend idol-making styles in Vadodara, where some, like Tapan Mondal, run signature workshops, while many also work as farm labourers, house painters or in other jobs

September 17, 2018 | Ujjawal Krishnam

Firing the last of the pots in Rasulpur Sohawan

In Bihar's Vaishali district, Sudama Kumbhar is still firing the oven though many potters in his village have moved to other work, defeated by rising costs and cheaper alternatives to their hand-made clay items

June 25, 2018 | Shubha Srishti
Kapashi’s wheel of changing fortunes
and • Kolhapur, Maharashtra

Kapashi’s wheel of changing fortunes

PARI volunteer Sanket Jain aims to traverse 300 villages across India and, among other stories, produce this feature: a photograph of a rural scene or event and a sketch of that photograph. This is the first of his series on PARI. Draw the slider either way to see photo or sketch in full.

January 2, 2018 | Sanket Jain

Women at the wheel in the Nilgiris
• The Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu

Women at the wheel in the Nilgiris

Among the Kota of the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, only women can practise pottery. The craft’s strong religious roots have kept it alive, and attempts to commercialise or modify the traditional products are being debated

November 27, 2017 | Priti David

A quarter million hours of pottery
Sanket Jain • Kolhapur, Maharashtra

A quarter million hours of pottery

Vishnu Kumbhar’s family members in Kapashi village of Kolhapur district have been potters for 15 generations. But their rare skills are seldom recognised and they receive no support from the state to keep this great old tradition flourishing

August 17, 2017 | Sanket Jain

Scraping the bottom of the pot
and • Kalahandi, Odisha

Scraping the bottom of the pot

The potters of the Kumbhar community of Kalahandi are slowly leaving their traditional occupation. Dwindling demand and low prices have forced them to also sell metal utensils, double up as agricultural labourers, or migrate in search of work

June 5, 2017 | Abhijit Mohanty

Music, high on pot
• Erode, Tamil Nadu

Music, high on pot

A suspended mud vessel in the home of a family of pastoralists in Tamil Nadu’s Erode district has a most curious function – and hardly a traditional one

January 16, 2017 | Aparna Karthikeyan

Journey through Kumartuli
and • Kolkata, West Bengal

Journey through Kumartuli

At the centuries-old potters' colony in Kolkata, artisans work through the night on the clay idols that they will soon send out to the city for Durga Puja

September 12, 2016 | Sinchita Maji

When Meenakshi beats a pot 3000 times

Eight kilograms of mud that make a beautiful music in Manamdurai, Tamil Nadu

March 8, 2016 | Aparna Karthikeyan
A potter’s tale: 100 and counting
and • Jūnāgadh, Gujarat

A potter’s tale: a 100 and counting

'I lived with the art and I will die with the art’

July 24, 2015 | Gurpreet Singh
Baked earth
• Bankura, West Bengal

Baked earth

In this film, a third generation potter, Buddhadeb Kumbhakar, from Panchmura village of Bankura district in West Bengal, talks about his work and life

July 22, 2014 | Kavita Carneiro

Kumbharwada: a slice of pottery from Kachchh

Highly skilled potters ​in Dharavi talk about the techniques and troubles of their trade

July 22, 2014 | Payal Kapadia and Anushka Shivdasani Rovshen

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