Wheel of life

Sharada Gopalan, (34), an artist and potter based in Bangalore likes to credit  the beauty of her creations to nature. “Nature has always been a dramatic source of inspiration for the designs, textures and forms of my potters. I have lived on beautiful school campuses, surrounded by lush greenery, for most part of my life. The element of fire also plays an integral role by giving each pot which I make its unique combination of colour and texture — something that cannot be replicated,” she says.

Having studied in The Valley School Bangalore and Rishi Valley School in Madanpalli, Sharada says she attended art classes at a  young age, which got her interested in pottery. Near one of the schools was a small pottery studio that was run by two women who were trained at Golden Bridge Pottery (GBP), Pondicherry.  “Watching them at work gave me an insight into the potential of  the medium,” she says.

Sharada would often visit their studio and soon began her first lessons under their watchful eyes.

Sharada later joined Gramodaya Sangh, an organisation that was started 45 years ago by S K Mirmira, a ceramic technologist to support local potters.

Following the stint at Gramodaya Sangh, Sharada joined GBP in Pondicherry, where she met Ray Meeker and Deborah Smith, whom she describes as her “guiding forces”. Her two years at Golden Bridge Pottery were rigorous and gave her the confidence to set up an independent workshop. 

Sharada is today an expert in various pottery forms from across the world. After finishing the course at GBP, she set up Ceramics Studio at the Art Village on the Valley School campus and spent a few years working as a freelance artist/potter.

Following this, she spent a year at Brockwood Park school, England where she first got into teaching, offering pottery as a course to junior and high school students. Sharada also taught pottery as an after-school activity for a term at the American British Academy, Muscat (Oman).

Between 1997 and 2006, Sharada set up a pottery studio at the campus of The Valley School, Bangalore, specialising in creating a range of functional and decorative utilitarian pottery. Her work so far has been experimental with forms, surfaces, textures and colours. Currently she is in the process of setting up a studio and a kiln, where she’d like to test local materials.

“I like making functional utilitarian ware — pots that can be used in everyday life,” she says.

Breaking the mould

In India, traditional pottery has been a male bastion. The men work on the clay at the wheel while the women bake the finished product and prepare the mud for the potter. I ask Sharada about her first-hand experience of working with traditional potter communities and she says, “There is no denying that there is a clear-cut gender division of labour. In rural India, women work at the wheel. I have worked on the traditional potter’s wheel for a few months while I was in Bhadravathi and it was quite exhausting initially.”  

‘Gender is no issue’

“We city folk who choose to take up pottery fall into the category of studio potters. Terracotta or earthenware pottery is what the traditional potters work on. Studio pottery (which is usually a range of glazed pottery) is something that has its roots in England and Japan and has come to India only in the last 100 years as opposed to the traditional pottery of India.”

   When it comes to raw materials Sharada says that most raw materials are today easily available but what is difficult is getting the quality or grade that one needs. There is no standardisation and hence everything needs to be tested and that takes time.

“I would never say that pottery is a lucrative career option. I was fortunate enough to spend several years exploring, learning and teaching pottery. What started out as a hobby is now my lifeline,” she says. She declares that working with clay can be enjoyable as it offers challenges enough for a lifetime!