https://www.facebook.com/110776097751381/

Namrata Baruah Pottery, indira nager 1st stage, Bangalore (2026)

19/05/2026

I’ve been away from this grid for a while, and I want to be honest about why.

Life got full — in ways that needed my complete attention. And when that happens, I tend to go inward, pour everything into the work and the people immediately around me. The platform was the first thing to go.
But the studio never stopped.

I signed up for a mentorship with because I’ve been quietly asking — is there a body of work in me that goes beyond function? Something with a signature, a point of view, a feeling? That exploration has been an undercurrent this season — including a ceramic table collaboration with a Bangalore design house that took me well beyond the wheel.

My eight-month professional course is almost at its close. Two months of prototyping alone — inspiration boards, over a hundred experiments, three unique collections. My students stayed with it through all the confusion, and the joy I feel watching how far they’ve come is difficult to put into words. They walked in as students. They’re walking out as potters. Production for Ügam — their debut exhibition — is now underway.

And through all of it, the everyday work kept going. Orders for a café and a restaurant, many forms, made one at a time. The bread and butter that makes all the rest possible.

Weekends brought a different energy entirely — beginners, curiosity, and the thrill of getting something right for the first time. Six weekends in, we stopped to celebrate a successful cross section of trimming. If you know, you know.

The one thing I let go of when life got overwhelming. Six months without the mat, and my body had a lot to say. The craft is physically and mentally demanding in ways that are easy to ignore — until the body stops letting you. I won’t be making that trade again.
See you on the other side of the quiet months 🤍

And if you’re in Bangalore — keep your eyes open. Ügam is coming.

08/04/2026

The first in a series I’m excited to share — a stoneware vase fired in a firebrick saggar chamber, packed with charcoal and organic material, inside a gas kiln to induce localised reduction and surface marking.

During a recent wood firing with and .artist , we ended up making more pots than could fit inside Gamanvi (the wood firing kiln at ) . Nick suggested we try firing the excess pieces in a charcoal saggar within a gas kiln. Naturally, everyone was curious — which potter doesn’t want to experiment?

We built a small chamber on the bottom shelf using firebricks, filled it with charcoal, and placed the pots on wads, either on the charcoal bed or directly on the shelf. We layered in hay and more charcoal, then capped it with another shelf — creating a contained micro-atmosphere within the kiln.

This vase is made with ‘s cone 10 stoneware, “White Canvas,” to which I added coarse grog. At the bone dry stage, I applied a thin porcelain slip and later scratched into it with a dry, rough brush. I then added Johnston’s flashing slip around the neck and shoulder in a restrained manner, followed by an iron oxide wash along the rim and shoulder.

As expected, the flashing slip remained inactive in this environment, since it wasn’t wood-fired. The iron oxide, however, responded beautifully, bringing out warm red and orange tones. The carbon trapping is quite pronounced — a direct result of the enclosed, reduction-heavy saggar chamber.

I didn’t expect much from this piece, but it’s ended up being one of my favourites from the charcoal firing.

What are your thoughts? Have you tried something similar? How do you feel about this kind of surface?
{charcoal saggar, reduction firing, gas firing, experimental, high fired cermics, pottery, awarestudioproducts, awarestudio, bangalore}

06/04/2026

Ceramics is often described through material and process. At 2026 in Detroit, it was equally about position.

I attended as a Multicultural Fellow, carrying a set of positions I have been working through—around making, teaching, and building community as interdependent parts of practice.

The scale of the gathering was instructive—thousands of practitioners, dozens of exhibitions, a wide range of voices. The work was not neutral. It addressed conflict, identity, ecology, memory, and systems that shape how and why we make.

What stayed with me most was not just the work, but the posture of the field. Artists were direct. They were generous with knowledge. They were unambiguous about what they stood for.

Seeing practitioners from the South Asian diaspora ( ) working with clarity and visibility expanded my own sense of what is possible, and what is necessary.

There were moments that were difficult to sit through—performances that confronted war, displacement, and loss. ‘s work, in particular, held the room in a way that was precise and unflinching.

There was also a strong culture of research—material studies, firing experiments, and technical inquiry presented with rigour and openness. Knowledge here is not guarded; it is circulated.

I have largely worked through utilitarian forms—objects that sit within daily life. That orientation remains, but it now feels insufficient on its own. There are questions I have not yet asked through my work.

The fellowship offered access—to people, to ideas, to systems of learning that are not easily available in my immediate context. It also brought a sense of responsibility: to return, to translate, and to build with greater intent.

The work continues at A Ware. With sharper questions.

24/03/2026

There is a particular moment in teaching when you realise the work in front of you is no longer limited by what you once knew how to demonstrate.

In the past two years, our studio conversations have expanded — from simply understanding clay to questioning surfaces, scale, intent and risk. Students arrive with curiosity, but also with ambition. The responsibility then is not just to show how, but to create conditions where they can attempt more than they thought possible.

Much of what you see here comes from short but consistent engagement — returning to the wheel, rebuilding collapsed forms, testing unfamiliar glaze decisions, allowing ideas to become physical.

As I spend this week immersed in learning again at NCECA, I’m reminded how cyclical this process is. What we absorb inevitably shapes what we share.

The next 7-weekend course begins on April 11.

Our afternoon batch is full but the last couple of seats are still available in the morning batch. If you’ve been considering beginning your journey with clay or even deepening your relationship with it, sign up through the link in bio or DM to know more!

{weekend, pottery, wheel throwing class, new hobby, pottery studio, bangalore, indiranagar, clay, course, hobby, potters wheel, awarestudio}

05/12/2025

A closer look at some of the pieces inside Terra Reverie - a collection shaped by earth, memory and material transformation.

Each piece is built from stoneware clay and layered with foraged soil, mud and stones, fired to create surfaces that behave like time.

These works are fully functional - bowls, tumblers, pour overs, ikebana vases, plates, candle stands and planters.

Showing 5th-7th of December at the Bangalore Potters’ Market, happening at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, between 10:30am-7:00pm on each day.

Come experience them in person!

16/10/2025

I love that knowledge is so open now. You can learn anything with a click.

But every time I teach, I’m reminded that learning happens in smaller, messier ways — in the mistakes, the laughter, the tiny adjustments that no video can show.

That’s why I still run immersive, in-person courses. Because something changes when your hand meets clay, and there’s someone beside you who’s watching closely enough to say, “wait—feel that?”

Hand-Building Course starts 1st November at A Ware Studio, Indiranagar.

Limited seats. DM/ COMMENT’CLAY’ for details.

08/10/2025

The past few weeks of travel have left me deeply changed — none more so than my time at Utilitarian Clay VIII, where sixteen presenters and nearly two hundred potters gathered to share, question, and learn together.

’s keynote set the tone. She spoke of how the locus of learning in ceramics has shifted—from universities to more informal spaces —showing how the field continues to evolve and democratise knowledge. Then she turned to the world around us, naming what she called a zeitgeist of unsettledness and vulnerability—a time marked by uncertainty, yet one that reminds us of what potters know best: how to tend to cracks before they grow, rebuild when something can’t be saved, and repair with humility and care.

That purpose ran through every talk, demo, and late-night exchange. What stood out most was the culture of camaraderie: a community generous with knowledge, fearless in voice, and grounded in equity. Potters spoke freely about politics, sustainability, and the ethics of making—about using work as a form of resistance and repair. There was no hierarchy, no pretense—only openness, mentorship, and an unspoken understanding that we grow by sharing.

Arrowmont itself was a revelation—from galleries showcasing leading artists to the Bill Griffith Collection, offering a rare chance to study the finest utilitarian forms up close, to studios across disciplines designed for exchange, and conversations with residents, past and present, left me reflecting on how deeply space shapes learning—something I hope to carry into how I build and teach.

I return with sharper questions: How do we make our pottery ecosystems in India more transparent and connected? How can mentorship and opportunity flow freely, without hierarchy or gatekeeping?

The following clips are fragments from those days — moments of making, listening, and reflection.

Swipe through to get a sense of my time at the conference, and the many voices that continue to shape how I think about clay, community, and purpose.

11/08/2025

Endless Possibilities

Sometimes the limits are only in our minds.
When knowledge is shared, courage grows — and with it, possibilities we never imagined.

I’ve always loved the drama of atmospheric firing — the way smoke and flame write their own stories on clay. But in a small city studio with only an electric kiln, I thought it was out of reach.

That changed when I saw a charcoal-saggar-fired piece at .ceramic . It felt like it carried the memory of mountains and storms, and I wanted to understand its making.

I read, I learned from peers, and I took the time to understand the safeguards. Five firings later — each one safe, each one surprising — I’ve seen smoky gradients, copper blushes, and ash-grey landscapes emerge from my kiln.

This work isn’t just about technique. It’s about the mindset that grows when curiosity meets shared knowledge — a reminder that sometimes, what we think is impossible is simply waiting for us to try!

Have you tried something recently, you thought was out of reach?

Namrata Baruah Pottery

19/05/2026

08/04/2026

06/04/2026

24/03/2026

05/12/2025

16/10/2025

08/10/2025

11/08/2025

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category