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The soul of clay For Chandigarh-based Zoya Sharma, pottery is not just creating a figure out of clay but Anadi Mehar was with her family visiting Chandigarh (her yearly ritual) from the Bay Area in San Francisco, which has now become her home away from home. She was at the Chandigarh Museum of Art some days back with her family when she first heard of a pottery workshop for children being held there.
She was instantly interested, knowing her mother had spent some time researching a traditional potter’s community in the heart of Rajasthan a few years back. Her mother had worked in Molela, a small yet unique village known exclusively for its terracotta images of worship placed in temples of all communities from Rajputs to Bhils. She began to think again about the power of pottery. Yet another enlightening experience with pottery was in Pondicherry and Auroville. It was here that her mother had watched skilled potters like Ray Meeker and Deborah Smith training and teaching their students at the studio and their home. Here at Chandigarh, she had very little idea of how this six-day workshop was going to unfold for herself and her mother as they had requested and enrolled for both of them. They were informed that Zoya Sharma, a local potter will be their instructor. Zoya, true to her name, is truly alive and joyous while her enthusiasm for life and clay is quite infectious. The last 10 years of Zoya’s life have been devoted to raising and nurturing her daughter Hiya, who now recognises the joy and calmness that is quite obvious on her mother’s face when she is in contact with clay.
After a 10-year break, Zoya is back teaching pottery and holding workshops. On day one of the workshop, Zoya told the students to respect clay, “Every time you push it harder than you should, it pushes you right back.” Maan, Adab, Dhyan — respect, manners, and concentration, in other words — are key elements. The focus for the first two days was pinch pot pottery, American-Indian style. Students were taught how to get the clay ready, a process called wedging, of which the basic aim was to take away air bubbles and cavities. Making a figure of eight helps to check if the clay is ready, she told everyone.
Cross-hatching technique followed for joining two pieces of clay together. Developing a concept of what shape they would like to make and working with some trust in themselves and the clay, meant that her students could begin to create. Nearly 25 students took part in this workshop. All of them seemed to have been swayed by the power of her words and the magic of clay. Zoya was constantly telling them to experiment, and be true to themselves. The result at the end of the second day was amazing. The varied designs that emerged and the shapes that the students were able to sculpt were in some manner inspiring. The next two days, she taught them how to make masks, encouraging students again to keep experimenting and create characters that would be unique. On the fifth day, the students were given a choice of either sitting on the wheel or working with their hands. Those at the wheel required more time to learn this process, and it seemed as if the clay available was not the best for the wheel, but a few students carried on anyway while the rest opted to make a pot with the coils of clay: coil piled upon coil till the shape of the pot began to emerge. As she watched, Anadi Mehar felt everyone participating in the workshop was absorbing much more than simply creating objects with clay. Here there were lessons in humility, in having respect for the materials that you work with. Besides, the all-important lesson that achieving perfection is in your own hands. Work, work, and more work.
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Born in Ludhiana to unconventional parents, Zoya was always encouraged to be her own person, an idealist and independent spirit. She knew she liked the arts. After school, she broke the norm and joined the Santiniketan Kala Bhawan at Delhi. It was here that she realised her love for clay. In her third year, she travelled to the US and joined Philadelphia’s Moore College of Art, and later White Marsh Arts Center. There she found herself drawn to studio pottery. She was inspired by and worked under Julia Corell. She felt drawn back to Santiniketan around the time she met Dayal ji, a traditional potter, who passed on some very old techniques and concepts of old-world pottery. Well-grounded in traditional techniques, she was ready to experiment yet again and make USA her home. There she was known as the East West potter because by now she had truly consolidated both cultures into her work. After living and working in the US for a long time, she returned to India for good to help and take care of family. Finally, in 1991, she set up a studio at Mubarakpur, a village on the outskirts of Chandigarh. Here she experimented with borax-based glazes and loved the various colours that came out with different firings. She displayed her works at Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi: stoneware, tall vases, cylinders wrapped with dragon-like figures, big platters, bowls with figures of trees and plants, a series of masks and figurative murals.
