Demand blues for Jaipur’s blue pottery
Wednesday October 24, 2018 , 2 min Read
Jaipur’s ‘Blue Pottery’ is a traditional craft and is believed to have come to India around 14th century. It is completely handcrafted and combines Persia's decorative skills with China’s glazing technique.
The name 'blue pottery' comes from the eye-catching cobalt blue dye used to color the pottery. It is crafted from a special dough, and unlike most pottery, it isn’t made of clay.
The Mughals embraced this art in India to decorate their mosques and palaces. Today, we can see the art in a wide variety of home and kitchen accessories like crockery sets, door knobs, key chains, vases, etc.
Mukesh Prajapat, a blue pottery artisan from Rajasthan, says creating blue pottery products is a time consuming process. "On an average, a product takes at least 10 days to complete."
According to him, the price they get in the market does not do justice to the effort that goes into making these products. He says, "People are not aware of the laborious process involved to make these products. The process is such that we don't know how the final product will come out. In case it comes out with a defect, we cannot rework it and it has to be discarded."
Also, people are selling machine-made products as originals at a much lower cost in the market. This has further dwindled the demand as original blue pottery products appear expensive. Mukesh also feels an exemption from GST can raise its demand in the market.