Blue Pottery - An unique craft from Jaipur

Blue pottery though Turko-Persian in origin, is widely recognized as a traditional craft of Jaipur. Legend has it that the art of making blue glaze pottery came to Jaipur, Rajasthan via Kashmir in the early 19th century when one of its rulers, Sawai Ram Singh II (1835 – 1880) set up a school of Art and encouraged artists and craftsmen from all over the country to come and settle here – a tradition started by his fore-fathers.

Blue pottery has seen several ups and downs in its lie span of almost 200 years. There was a time when it all but vanished from Jaipur but the efforts of several concerned people like Smt. Kamla Devi Chattopadhaya and Rajmata Gayatri Devi helped to revive this dying art.

Today, blue pottery is a growing industry in Jaipur, an industry that provides livelihood to thousands of people in Rajasthan.

Do you have Jaipur's Blue Pottery decking your living room? Why is this unique pottery BLUE?

very attractive pots ...
Thanks for sharing...

They look beautiful. Thank you for sharing the info with us.
Cheers!

Hi Meera, lovely blue pottery. Even I do have a set of bowls and vase of blue pottery and I must say, they just brighten the decor of the table.

But the fact is that, it has been with me for years, which I bought on my way enroute from Delhi to Jaipur but never really given a serious thought like where this art from originated or why is the color of the pottery blue.

Would love to know more about all this.

Lovely post Meera. Let me add some more info to it.

Blue Pottery of Jaipur is based on ground quartz. The dough is pressed into moulds and the unfired pieces are hand painted with oxide colours, dipped in clear glaze and fired once in wooden kilns. The process is very tedious and time consuming. Once made, the blue pottery items cannot be reworked. It is a craft where one is never sure if the finished product will have the exact shade that one may have wanted. The smallest mistake could lead to the piece either cracking up or turning black.

This tedious process was one of the main reasons why very few people were willing to experiment and try out new products in blue pottery. Not only does it require time and patience but also money. The art of Blue pottery has survived as a decorative item – ideal for gifts and souvenirs.

Hi,
Very beautiful and atractive pottery.

You are absolutely right Meera. Blue pottery is an art not more than two hundred years old. It traditionally hails from Persia. Today Blue Pottery products can be found mainly in Delhi and Jaipur.

The color scheme of blue pottery is predominantly a blue green palette, thus rendering it the name Blue Pottery. The colors are derived as follows:

- cobalt oxide becomes a deep blue
- chromium oxide becomes green
- cadmium oxide becomes bright yellow
- iron oxide becomes a red-brown

After painting, the piece is dipped into a glaze of glass, borax, and lead oxide and fired. Firing melts the glass, but the quartz remains. Isn't it alluring?

Do you know Blue pottery is also a prominent art form of Delhi?

Thank you Sanjana and Gayatri for this interesting piece of information on the blue pottery. Just as Deepika said, even we have several vases and pots of blue pottery at home but have never really thought about the complexities of this art form. Just inspiring...I seem to love my blue potteries even more now.

I've seen a lot of blue pottery also locally known as the Jaipur pottery on the Delhi - Jaipur road and even in some places on the M.G road, but do not really know it as an art from Delhi. Would like to know more about it.

Hi Friends, I read some new facts about Blue Pottery and the legend behind it. So thought of sharing with you all.

Legend goes that blue pottery, now a languishing craft is made only by a single family who can trace their lineage back to the Mughals. Blue pottery, characterised by an unusual turquoise aqua blue colour, had very limited centres for production with Delhi as one of the three main centres.

The Mughals are said to be the forefathers of this artform after which the craft is supposed to have travelled from Delhi to Jaipur along with the Muslim karigars. They migrated to Jaipur in large numbers, attracted by Raja Man Singh, a great patron of the crafts.

Legend has it that blue-pottery items were used by the Mughal kings to test their food as they could tell by the change in glaze of the pottery that the food had, in all probability, been tampered with or poisoned.

Isn't that interesting?

I love blue pottery, but I always have one question in my mind: Why are blue potteries always sold by the roadside?

Sounds funny...but have you given a thought, why? It is like many other things which we get used to, but never think why so....

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Hardeep