Ramnarayan Blue Art & Potteries is an artisans organisation working in production & marketing floor of "Gramin Blue Art Potteries Samiti" (NGO) Kotjewar (Jaipur-Rajasthan-India). There are 250 artisans associated with the samiti who are producing the art at their own residence. Hence Jaipur Blue is not an industrial production. It is completely eco-friendly and presents your standard of living and
your nature favourites. Beauty rest in ideas of poet where nature is expressed on these art potteries. It also creates some more utility and uses in the art of living. We invite your site seen to the village nearby on way to Ajmer-Jaipur to visualize the live production process along with huge stock to purchase. We also provide export services into any corner of the world. Our past experience to sell the Blue Pottery against cash/bank transfer is appreciable. History & Introduction:-
Originally Blue Pottery came in India during the medieval times via Persia. Blue Pottery of Jaipur and it's surrounding villages is unique in primarily being a ceramic body made of quartz, unlike other Potteries, which are made of clay. The completely hand painted motifs are added to its exclusivity. These also reflect the pottery's Persian origin and the amalgamation of the original designs with the local ethnic flavour. The peculiar ceramic composition makes "Pottery" rather a misnomer, the only allegiance to Pottery being the throwing techniques used by the "Potters" on a Potter's wheel. However, this unique raw material usage has certain reasons and advantages behind it:-
1. The composition is well suited to the hot and dry climate of the area.
2. Joining of even the dried pieces is possible by wetting the edges.
3. Very little post-firing shrinkage.
4. Needs only one firing for baking and glazing unlike Clay Pottery, where two firings are required. Future Prospects Of Blue Pottery
Blue pottery attracted attention for intervention, owing to its latent potential for providing large-scale employment to rural youth, unique attributes and its pitiable state. Blue pottery at one point of time had almost vanished but was revived. Nevertheless, the diverse nature of the issues to be tackled for further development of Blue Pottery to make it an important mode of livelihood for its craftsmen was not within the capacity of any supply. This is why we took it as a challenge and made efforts to arrest the downslide in the number of artisans practising the craft. Thus, the interventions listed above have not only increased the number of artisans from about a few hundred to more than a thousand today. Moreover, the interventions have increased the interest of the rural youth to take this craft as a vocation with pride since the returns are now bettering Making Process of Blue Pottery
1. RAW MATERIAL:-
(A) QUARTZ POWDER :- Rajasthan is the highest producer. It is widely and cheaply available earlier had to be purchased from Beawar but now is easily available in Jaipur. (B) WHITE GLASS :- procured from Jaleshwar contains lead-free. (C) SAJI :- commonly known as papad khara. An edible soda which is easily available. (D) MULTANI CLAY :- a type of clay easily available its provides elasticity to the mixture. (E) KATIRA GUM :- Resin of a tree which makes it plastic and easily moldable.
2. PREPARING THE CLAY:-
(A) GRINDING RAW MATERIAL : - All the above ingredients are grinded this process is usually done by women on the stone chakki. (B) MIXING :- The powder is then mixed with water and kneaded into a shaft dough form. It is then rolled into thin slabs. The consistency in thickness is not maintained as the process is done by hand.
3. MOULDING:-
Then these are pressed into the plaster of Paris moulds. The moulds are made by the crafts men as they are cheap and last for nearly 5000 pieces. Although metal moulds could be used. They would increase dependency and expense. But they would last longer and give finer details and sharper neater edges. The casted moulds are then filled with a mixture of moist cow dung ash and sand. It is then inverted and sun-dried for a day.
4. FINISHING:-
After remolding and cleaning it is then coated from the inside with the body sleep (basic body composition in a very thin solution) to fill minute cracks and gaps. After sundering for three to four hours, a coarse sandpaper of No36 is used for finishing the inside. The finishing is planned in such way that any edge that would require joinery is made thinner than the rest of the body.
5. JOINERY:-
After the finishing, the two pieces to be joined are aligned and stuck together with the basic body composition. The excess paste is removed and from the inside it is leveled using a scale. After the joinery is finished and dried, the exterior is coated with the body slip and finished in the same manner as the interior. Final finishing is done with a fine sandpaper of NO. 80. Once finished, the pieces are coated with aster.
6. ASTHER(COATING WITH THE ENGOBE):-
This is a whitening process where the base is made bright pure white as against the actual pale off-white body color. Raw Material:-
(A)Quartz powder- 7kg . (B)White Glass Powder-3kg. (C)Maida- 1kg. (D)Water- 2.5-3ltr. Process:-
The maida and water are cooked together to form a “LAI” or a sticky paste. In this the powder and sieved quartz and glass are mixed to a dropping consistency. The pieces are then dipped in to the solution and swirled to remove the excess enrobe. The pieces are dried in the sun for a day and then finished again using a fine sandpaper or on a cement slab.
7. DESIGNS AND COLOURING:-
Traditionally the color palette in blue pottery is restricted to blue, white and sky blue more colors like a deep yellow, pale pink, dark green and brown have also been used for long now. The paints used for the designs are low firing oxides except for yellow which is ferrous. Katira gum is used as the binder. The brush is made locally. Process:-
The colors are prepared by grinding on stone slab. Colors are prepared manually then mixing them with the binder. Before the painting is started, the design is traced on to the item using a template. The template is of tracing paper with the design perforated on to it. The design is transferred on to the items using charcoal over the template. The designs are then outlined on the products using a fine brush with the dark blue color and the charcoal brushed off. Then the rest of the colors are filled in. After the colors have dried the products are ready for glazing.
7 FRIT AND GLAZING:-
RAW MATERIALS LEAD FREE GLAZE:-
(A)Borex-35%
(B)Boric Acid-15%
(C)Potassium Nitrate-5%
(D)Zinc Oxide-3%
(E)White Glass-42%
FRIT MAKING PROCESS:-
All these materials are powdered and sieved to a fine powder and then put in a graphite crucible with a hole at the base. Then it is heated to a very high temperature in a Kiln. The whole mixture melts and seeps out of the hole and drops directly in to a tub of water placed below. Here it cools down and crystallizes to a pale green solid. This is the frit which is then ground by the women of the household for making the glaze. Glazing:-
The ground frit is mixed with water and Maida “lai”(frit to Maida ratio 10:1) to form the glaze. Here the consistency is important as too thin a glaze will leave the pores exposed and too thick would make the finish matte instead of shiny. A definite proportion of the powdered frit, Maida and water can be determined to get the right consistency every time. The items are dipped in the glaze and swirled to remove the excess forming an even and uniform layer and then left for drying. These are carefully dried, sometimes indoors to avoid dust and other particles sticking on to the glaze. Once dried these items are ready to the fired.
8. KILN PREPARATION:-
The kiln furniture consists of plate and props. They are both made locally of clay and fired. There is a lot a breakage while loading and even unloading the kiln. Clay ball combined with fire clay can be used as composition for the kiln furniture to increase the strength of the kiln furniture resulting in minimum breakage and longer life. The plates are flat and rectangular like in shape while props are cylindrical which are broader at the ends. The heights of the props vary according to the items that need to be fired. The object is placed on the plate and then four props are put on each corner and they support the next plate then come on top. In this way all the articles are stacked before firing. The plate has to be coated with a layer of quartz powder before any objects is placed on it so that the molten glaze would not stick to the plate. The loading of the kiln, being top centered takes too much times and labor.
9. FIRING:-
The traditional kiln is an updraft kiln with lot of limitations. In this kiln nearly 600 kg. of wood is required at a time. It has two fire boxes from which the burning wood is charged. The heat then travels through the centre of the kiln and heats up the kiln. This firing has to be controlled to be gradual, so the items placed inside do not receive thermal shock. After the required temperature is reached, the charging of wood is stopped as the oxidation starts inside. The heat then travels within the firing chamber from downwards and the open top serves as the exhaust. In approximately 5 to 6 hours the firing are completed. The firing temperature is approximately 800 – 850 C.
