Blue Pottery

Blue Pottery Jaipur As one steps into the enchanting old city of jaipur, he/she is surrounded by an epiphany of crafts of every kind. What binds them all in the husk of the heat and the lure of the tales is an unending array of colours and motifs, be it pottery or textiles. Blue pottery, ever so elegant and always fragile, is a Craft, the pink city is celebrated for.

The name ‘blue pottery’ comes from the eye-catching blue dye that is used to color the pottery. Some of the pottery is semi-transparent and most are decorated with animal and bird motifs. The pottery has a unique appearance as it is made using Egyptian paste, glazed and low-fired. This is an artform that stands distinguished from all other forms of pottery owing to its usage of a special dough prepared by mixing quartz stone powder, powdered glass, Multani Mitti (Fuller’s Earth), borax, gum and water. It is the only pottery in the world that does not use clay. The technique beautifully produces decorative items like tiles, door knobs, pots, vases and plates.

The history of the art of pottery is as old as the history of mankind, with the glazing techniques travelling to India from Central Asia and Middle East through several Islamic invasions while the Chinese porcelain continued to be imported to the Indian courts. Founded in 1727 by Sawai Jai Singh I, the historic city of Jaipur was well established as a thriving art centre. Blue Pottery took an interesting route in finding its home in Jaipur. Ram Singh II attended a kite flying session and watched two brothers from Achnera bring down the royal kites of his kite masters. Intrigued, he found the secret; they were potters by profession and had coated their strings with the same blue green glass that they used for their pots. Sawai Ram Singh II was impressed so he invited the brothers to stay in Jaipur and teach this unique form of glazed pottery at his new art school.

Blue colour, derived from cobalt oxide, green derived from copper oxide and white, other non-conventional colors, such as yellow and brown adorn this pottery kind.The traditional patterns and motifs in blue pottery are of Persian origins. The craftsmen have developed contemporary patterns too including floral, geometric designs, animals, birds as well as many deities like Goddess ‘Durga’ and Lord ‘Ganesh’.

History of Blue Pottery
Using blue glaze on pottery is an imported technique, first developed by Mongol artisans who combined Chinese glazing technology with Persian decorative arts. This technique took a trip east to India with early Turkic conquests in the 14th century. Throughout its infancy, it was used to make pottery tiles to enhance mosques, tombs and palaces in Central Asia. Later, following their conquests and also arrival in India, the Mughals began using them in India. Progressively the blue polish technique grew past a building accessory to Indian potters. From there, the strategy took a trip to the levels of Delhi as well as in the 17th century went likely to Jaipur.