Kaveri Bharath makes a living as a studio potter and enjoys the tactile world of clay

So You Want To Be A Studio Potter
Be willing to work with your hands. This can be harder than it sounds and few people can endure the continual physical rigours of being a potter.

Expect not to make any money for a long time. So you'll need an alternate source of income, or work at something, save up your money and then be a potter. It's a tough profession to cope with monetarily.
Don't start off wanting to do shows and put together a portfolio. That comes only after you have a lot of work and experience behind you.

There are no educational requirements in particular that you need to be a potter. It's better if you've finished with schooling and exams that won't hinder your progress as a potter.

My designation : A studio potter
Age : 28 years
What's my job : I like to work with clay and I was intrigued by the potter's wheel like everyone usually is. When I went to Golden Bridge Pottery at Auroville (near Pondicherry), I was inspired to work full time as a studio potter.

The path: Creating studio pottery has a lot to do with what I actually ran away from, which is chemistry and physics in school! There's salt glazed pottery, there's glazed pottery, there's unglazed pottery and so on.

It depends on what you want to do. Ray Meeker and Deborah Smith, pioneers of glazed pottery in South India, started Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry and have taught and inspired a whole generation of quality studio potters around the country over the past 25 years.