Walking into the studio of potter Lipi Biswas is like walking into a space of meditative calm. The mellow sunshine filters through the green leaves outside and is reflected on an array of well sculpted pottery lining the studio shelves, and adorning the odd tables spread out.
Lipi’s pottery is sheer poetry in motion. Utilitarian objects that can be used in your home to make it a lovely aesthetic space. Shelves of glazed tea pots, mugs, bowls, platters, decorative plates and small stylized figurines are arranged beautifully, for you to pick and choose from, to match your home décor.
If you are a pottery lover and it is difficult for you to make a choice, you can simply sit back and listen to Lipi talk animatedly about her creation while sipping some warm tea that she serves in Japanese style. You marvel at the natural elements of this art, hand-crafted and perfected in the kilns at the back of the studio.
Tucked away in a small corner known as Boner Pukur Danga, roughly translated into the back of the jungle pond, (here jungle would best translate into various tree laden woods the region is noted for), Lipi is Shantiniketan’s best-kept secret. She is not a Kala Bhavan trained sculptor or studio potter. She pursued Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara, where she met her artist husband Bidyut Roy.
An array of well sculpted pottery line the studio shelves
Though not an architect, Bidyut is known to have designed and built beautiful, sustainable houses. The couple`s unique home doubles up as a home-stay for anyone wishing to spend a few days in the woods.
Lipi’s USP is that she involves local tribal talent and uses indigenous material for her pottery. She is pinch clay pottery specialist. (Pinch pottery is hand-made pottery produced from ancient times to the present. The pinching method is to fashion pottery from a lob of clay, and then pinch it to the desired shape. It is the simplest and the fastest way of making the clay take the shape required by simply using the thumb and fingers. Simple clay vessels such as bowls and cups of various sizes can be shaped by this pinching process and it is a basic pot making method often taught to young children or beginners. (Source: Wikipedia)
As once recipient of a grant under the Indian Foundation for the Arts, (IFA), Lipi works with local adivasi potters who have taught her a thing or two. She feels they possess innate creativity in art and rhythm. No wonder Gurudev Tagore chose this location for his world university; where nature coexists with the simple beauty of daily life. He used these cross influences in his music, art and teachings so that it remains an entire concept of give and take. Lipi in turn taught them the technicalities of deep firing and chemical-glazing.
Lipi’s day begins by collecting vegetable and fruit peels, ash, rice husk and clay to prepare the glaze for the pottery. In between sips of tea, she recounts the early days when the couple decided to settle down in Shantiniketan. “We started this studio with some investments as pottery requires raw material. My studio was like a workspace with all sorts of people dropping in; initially we seemed to be heading nowhere with orders…Till one fine day when luck smiled upon us.”
“It was raining heavily one evening and I saw this gentleman outside my door soaked to the skin,” she draws us to her story telling. “He was an American doing research on Tagore and it was time for him to leave. But not before he had placed a substantial order with me. And since then, there has been no looking back”, chuckles Lipi.
Art according to Lipi, nestles in the lap of nature. And the couple does not wish to disturb or violate nature in any way. They are engaged in organic farming at a farmhouse built some distance away. Their only daughter is away in Indonesia pursuing a course in art, mainly batik printing.
Lipi’s inspirations are several from the world of pottery and among women studio potters, she admires Ira Chaudhuri, who is Kala Bhavan trained. Over time, Lipi has perfected her art. There is so much to talk about in this freewheeling adda that has warmed up but the shadows lengthen outside and I have to reluctantly take my leave.