Blue Jaipur Pottery

My God we got a lot of snow yesterday. I didn't even know that it was supposed to snow (being sick = no tv/radio/npr) so i was a bit surprised. I went to do my FedEx/USPS run at 6 last night and the drifts in our driveway were about a foot and a half deep. So then I got to shovel for an hour or so (at least it was fluffy and relatively light). Then I walked to the T to bring Sasso his boots and get some wine. I love walking around the city when a snow storm has everything at a standstill. And now we are getting another storm this weekend. At least I'm going to Cabo in 12 days.



So about Blue Jaipur Pottery, isn't it beautiful? If it reminds you of traditional Chinese pottery there is a reason for that. An Iranian king began production of this pottery because he saw how high of a demand there was in Europe for the blue Chinese pottery. Later , during the Mugal Period, this pottery came to India via trade relations with Iran. Potters came to work in India and later left, leaving behind Indian potters who were now producing the ceramics. The King of Jaipur was very into crafts so he supported the potters and that is how the story goes.
The great video above shows master craftsman Kripal Singh Shekhawat demonstrating how the pottery is made. The blue Jaipur pottery starts with ground quartz, is molded, then glazed and low-fired. The range of items are mainly decorative because they are very fragile. The palette is restricted to blue from the colbalt oxide, green from copper oxide and white, though in this video you will see many more colors.
When I came upon the blue Jaipur pottery I new I wanted to include it into the Jaipur pattern, It was graphic, a clean color palette and something full of history. The traditional patterns make up the bodies of the kites in the drawing.
video via sutree (i've never seen this site before, great videos)