Young designer mends shards of sink into Jaipur Blue Pottery
As a part of her graduating project for Master’s in Innovative Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College, London, Disharee worked with artisans to understand the delicacies of Jaipur Blue pottery only to strengthen it by adding broken sanitary wares into it.
The fragile nature of Jaipur Blue Pottery limits it’s application beyond souvenirs and a few utility products as it uses one of the few pottery techniques in the world that does not use clay; the versatility is redoubtable but adding strength can certainly open its usage in a scores of item.
Dabbling into the vocation of product design and interior, Disharee, graduate student pursuing master in innovative design at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College, London collaborated with the artisans and on the material to understand its limitations and the current vulnerabilities of the craft.
With a vision to forge strength in the Jaipur Blue Pottery by design engineering she approached Dr. Himmat Singh Kushwaha of the Material Research Centre at the Malviya National Institute of Technology and pitched the idea of using sanitaryware waste to strengthen blue pottery material..The two began experimenting by blending a proportionate quantities of rejected and broken pieces of sinks and toilet ware. The process after addition follows the same technique used in Jaipur Blue Pottery.
According to her it was a huge learning experience as the feedback from artisans was really helpful. These broken pieces are added the same way recycled glass is, which is broken and ground on site using the machinery in the craft workshops. She found that the new material doubled in strength and that there was no difference visually with colour.
The pottery mix already uses recycled glass, adding another recycled ingredient felt not too far from tradition. The challenge was to see if the different colours and glaze would be accepted aesthetically after addition of this sanitaryware waste.
