Inspired by the scent of the earth

It was a period when most people would prefer to chill. But not for Vijul, who had just quit her stressful job in an IT firm. She had a few weeks to go before she would take up her next job. Yearning to do something between the two jobs, Vijul wanted to keep herself creatively engaged to let go of the stress. That’s when she stumbled upon pottery. “I signed up for classes and found that they not only taught me to be patient but completely relieved me of the stress. It was relaxing and very tactile,” explains Vijul, who found the art of kneading the soil and shaping it into aesthetically appealing objects thoroughly engrossing.

“You actually end up looking at something you have made with your hands, something that is tangible as opposed to computer work,” she adds. Vijul hopes to give a larger form and meaning to her hobby as a potter along with a group of like-minded people. She recalls how nervous she was when she sat at the wheel for the first time. “You make mistakes and plenty of them but you learn how to craft something beautiful and learn to be patient,” she says.

Khushboo Rathi has just completed her architecture and always wanted to learn pottery. “I was always artistically inclined. I would paint and transform the most simple, mundane things lying around into something beautiful. The joy and satisfaction you get when you have created something with your own hands is inexplicable,” she states.

Khushboo also feels that pottery is a great stress-buster. “It takes a lot of stress off you. You aren’t bound by time or deadline. This is precisely why you find a lot of people taking time off to do this on the side. It’s thoroughly rejuvenating,” she says.

It’s not only professionals who have come together. Even students and homemakers have found poetry in the art of pottery. Laxmi, who lives on Kanakapura Road, says pottery gave an extra dimension to her hobby of making terracotta jewellery.

“I always enjoyed working manually and my stint with pottery has added to this knack of mine. I am now armed with new techniques that I can apply to my routine,” says Laxmi who has also introduced her little daughter to pottery.

Even if you don’t end up making a perfect shape, you have still used your hands to create something unique, believes Karishma who has played around with the pottery enough to believe that it leaves a positive impact on one’s well-being.

“When you are at the wheel trying to make something, you can put all your feelings like anger, joy and patience into it. All this will reflect in the final product,” shares Karishma.

She says nobody ends up making a beautiful pot right at the start but every time one makes something, he or she will only be inching towards perfection. A few other women like Gandhimathi, Shruthi , Archana and Sree are also actively involved in pottery and say that it not only gives expression to their creativity but also fuels their imagination.

(For details of the club, call 9972710343.)