By upcycling ceramic waste, interdisciplinary designer Disharee Mathur reinvents the heritage craft of Jaipur Blue Pottery on the ongoing, digital graduate present ‘RCA2021’
Imagine revolutionary cooling tiles produced from the putting Jaipur Blue Pottery? Or furnishings and fashionable lighting created utilizing ceramic waste?
Disharee Mathur’s Project Newblue is reinventing the century old-craft of Jaipur Blue Pottery with rejected ceramic waste. Disharee, an interdisciplinary designer from Jaipur, describes Project NewBlue as a dialog between “an Indian craft community, material science and design”.
Interdisciplinary designer ,Disharee Mathur revamped the century old-craft of Jaipur Blue Pottery with rejected ceramic waste
The younger designer took materials innovation in Blue Pottery as her graduating challenge for her Master’s in Innovative Design Engineering on the Royal College of Art and Imperial College, London, through the pandemic. “Jaipur Blue Pottery is one of the few pottery techniques in the world that does not use clay; it is versatile in its ability to take shape using traditional moulds. The material is good to make souvenirs but lacks strength, which limits its applications.”
A handful of artisans
Disharee, who works throughout inside, interplay and product design, collaborated with the artisans and on the fabric to know its limitations and the present plight of the craft. “India, which has the largest craft concentration in the world, has only 2% of the global handicraft market share (Business Economic 2020). There are less than 300 artisans working with the craft and I believe design engineering could help widen the scope.”
She started working with Neerja Blue Pottery in Jaipur. “I found huge amounts of rejected sinks and toilets lying around the city,” she recollects. “The government was looking for new land to dump this non-biodegradable waste.”
History and how-to’s
- Jaipur Blue Pottery, which was conferred Geographical Index Status (GIS) in 2008, travelled from Iran and Turkey to India within the 14th century. Used primarily for souvenirs or ornamental tableware similar to coasters, vases, trays, plates and doorknobs, its functions have remained restricted because the 1850s when it was patronised by the ruling home of Jaipur. A century later, the dying craft and was revived by the royal household and patrons of artwork and tradition. In 2005, the Central Glass and Ceramic Institute of India (CGCII) launched a brand new glaze end.
- Jaipur Blue Pottery is among the few pottery strategies on this planet that doesn’t use clay. Locally-sourced quartz powder, recycled glass, plant-based gum (katera), and Multani Mitti are floor collectively and kneaded to make a dough. This is then moulded like a flatbread, solar dried, and completed with intricate motifs completed with oxide pigments, as an underglaze. The glaze is utilized because the final step earlier than firing at round 800 levels.
With sustainability on the core of her follow, Disharee related with Dr. Himmat Singh Kushwaha of the Material Research Centre on the Malviya National Institute of Technology and pitched the concept of utilizing sanitaryware waste to strengthen blue pottery materials.
Upcycling ceramic waste
The two started experimenting by including small portions of rejected and damaged items of sinks and toiletware. “The process after addition of sanitary ware remains exactly the same as with Jaipur Blue Pottery. It is added the same way recycled glass is, which is broken and ground on site using the machinery in the craft workshops. I was guided by the experiments and feedback from the artisans. It was a huge learning,” she says.
As the pottery combine already makes use of recycled glass, including one other recycled ingredient felt not too removed from custom. The problem was to see if the completely different colors and glaze could be accepted aesthetically after addition of this sanitaryware waste. She discovered that the brand new materials doubled in power and that there was no distinction visually with color.
New software
To diversify the product vary of the craft, Disharee collaborated with architect and founding father of Industhan Ceramics, Pranav Gajjar. “Industhan’s passive cooling tiles, which are used as building facade tiles, as extra thermal layer, seemed to be a perfect opportunity to explore new uses of the NewBlue material. It juxtaposes two cultural technologies,” she says.
She calls the 2 features to her improvements ‘A Synonym and Antonym for Jaipur Blue Pottery’. The former refers to a stronger materials that’s synonymous with conventional JBP whereas the latter deletes the poisonous glaze to permit for moisture absorption for brand new functions like passive cooling.
“It is a new product and I understand the first installation is underway,” she says, hopeful that this can open a number of recent prospects for the normal ceramic.
