Mahajan’s ‘glazes’ wow visitors

New Delhi: Examples of beautiful glazed pottery -- a rich repository of porcelain, stoneware, earthenware, and terracotta works -- opened for public viewing at the India International Centre in Delhi on Thursday.

Titled “Whimsical Glazes”, the solo show of IT advisor-turned-ceramic artist Nandita Jain Mahajan shows her experiments with ceramics and glazes, the impervious and colourful exterior of which is usually obtained by high-temperature firing in exacting conditions.

While pottery may seem mundane, Mahajan's work often involves firing ceramics up to a temperature as high as 1,280 degrees Celsius, to obtain a glaze sheen.

“High-temperature firing, especially those of the elusive copper reds, chuns, oribes, shinos, and celadons as well as metallic lustre firing demand great dexterity.

These glazes reveal their colour and depth during reduction, a process in which the kiln is starved of oxygen within a precisely controlled temperature range, and cooling,” the former St. Stephen's College and Ohio University student said.

Mahajan explained that she bought a potter's wheel and practised making bowls and cylindrical forms, applying the same technical rigour in pottery that she was accustomed to in her IT job that she quit in 2014.

“I started keeping meticulous notes of glaze formulations, application techniques, layering, and firing. I designed experiments with an objective to achieve predictable results,” she said.

The unpredictability of firing glazes, however, also led to different results, and became a lesson for her in life, which she said is full of twists and turns.

Less than four years after attending her first glaze workshop, the artiste's repertoire spans porcelain, stoneware, earthenware, and terracotta using different glazes and lustres.

Most of the pieces are fired using many glazes layered on one another and go through multiple firings.

The result? Beautiful glazed ceramic works, some of which are on display here as a tribute to the ceramic artiste’s teachers and the ancient Chinese and Japanese masters who perfected the form centuries ago.

“Whimsical Glazes” is open for public viewing till January 31.