Ceramic designer Parool Shah romances the age-old potter’s wheel, but youngsters are a priority at her Ahmedabad-based shop Mati.

The cobbled path leading up to Ahmedabad-based ceramic designer Parool Shah’s shop Mati is dotted with garden sculptures, wind chimes and the odd bric-a-brac. Every available space is crammed with stunning treasures from the potters’ wheel — ranging from crockery items to masks, lamp holders and roof tiles — Mati has the quintessential look of an old curiosity shop.
WHEELS IN MOTION “I have always loved to dabble in clay and mud, and was the only student then to select pottery at the National Institute of Design (NID). I guess I was quite lucky, because I had six teachers to myself!” laughs Parool, who incidentally, is the first student to have graduated in product designing in ceramics from NID.
When Parool started Mati back in the 1980s, “it was more of an annual exhibition-cum-sale kind of scenario, rather than a full-fledged workshop. My machinery investments were small, the overheads are low in any ceramics venture, because it does not require much capital or many workers.”
Her initial range of ice cream bowls and coffee mugs were a complete sell-out, and so Parool had sufficient profits to plough back into the business. “I invested in glaze grinding mills, mould-making machines and a furnace for test-firing,” recalls Parool.
“I had to take an initial bank loan, as my husband was also finding his bearings as an architect and I did not want use the family funds.”
IDEAS & MORE It was only five years later when the business started breaking even that Parool could invest in opening Mati in the backyard of her house.

Today, she supplies dinnerware to the hip and happening restaurants in Ahmedabad, including Tomato’s (with its distinctive logo on its glass tumblers and salt and pepper cellars) and the Havmor chain. Her trendy bell-chimes, masks and coffee mugs are a rage with the younger generation — Parool’s priority customers.
She has a workshop at Naroda, but she does not believe in assembly line production, as that would hamper creativity. Parool, in line with her NID training, usually sketches the design outline of the product before casting the moulds, more often than not she does this to music playing in the background.
“Most often, my ideas are borrowed from life — it could have been a nice piece of furniture, a scene out of nature — I immediately get inspired and try to relate it to my pottery,” explains Parool. “I love experimenting with colours, though some of them are not easy to replicate as glazes, which I make out of inorganic metal oxides, like chrome, copper, etc.”
While her in-laws manage the financial aspects of Mati, Parool loves indulging her creativity. “Sometimes, my customers are bemused to find me asking my father-in-law, who minds the shop, about prices. For me, fulfilling my creative instincts is foremost; that it has been successful as a business venture is just incidental.”
PAROOL’S FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
* Creativity, especially in the ideas department, is of paramount importance to any venture and you have to push for acceptance. “At Mati, I started the trend of raw, hand-finished forms in ceramics, which the Ahmedabad market took some time to accept.”
* Innovation is the name of the game, you have to constantly re-design and adapt to a changing world. “While Mati began with tableware, we gradually moved on to new products like bells, urns, masks, planters, etc, when I started experimenting with shapes, colours and designing.” * You need to keep yourself apprised of market trends — which are the fast-selling items, which are the niche market products — and arrange your product profile accordingly.
* The buyers’ response is crucial as any creative venture ultimately relies on what the customer wants. “Sometimes, my clients have provided me with the freshest perspectives in product design, by showing me samples of ceramic stuff sourced from across the world.”
* You cannot keep your products out of the reach of the common buyer, who anyway, constitutes the majority of our customer base in India. I try to keep a balance between mass products and the classy stuff, which has a small yet committed clientele.’’
Photographs: Vijay Soneji Got comments or questions? e-mail us at femina@timesgroup.com with ‘venture—parool’ in the subject line.