Throws of passion – Civil Engineer from Kashmir reinventing traditional Pottery
Putting her passion over profession, Saima Shaifi, a Civil Engineer from Kashmir is striving to revitalize the traditional pottery art of the valley. In her small studio in Srinagar, she tries to mold clay into kitchen items. She likes herself to be addressed as Kralkoor (potter girl) than an engineer.
Perusing her passion after completing her engineering and with a government job in hand, Saima went to Bengaluru chasing her love for pottery.
Working closely with traditional potters, she is trying to introduce the modern techniques in pottery to the traditional artisans to improve the productivity and employ contemporary designs even in the traditional practices.
Some days back Ministry of MSME also announced assistance to pottery artisans by way of of providing then modern implements like pottery wheel, Clay Blunger, Granulator etc. It will also provide Wheel Pottery Training for traditional pottery artisans and Press Pottery training for pottery as well as non-pottery artisans in Self Help Group.
Financial support for the year 2020-21, an amount of Rs.19.50 crore (US$ 2.64 million) to support 6075 artisans with a Center of Excellence, with MGIRI, Wardha, CGCRI, Khurja, VNIT, Nagpur and suitable IIT/NID/ NIFT etc, for product development, advance skill program, and quality development was also announced by the govt.
Cover image by KashmirLife
