Craft Tradition - Jaipur Blue Pottery
India has the largest craft concentration in the world, yet only 2% of the global handicraft market share. These numbers affect remote craft communities across the subcontinent. The Jaipur Blue Pottery craft was studied to understand the scenario from the ground up. Research surfaced material deterioration and product development as major challenges to craft sustenance.
A new recipe for craft preservation.
NewBlue is a new ceramic material made with rejected sanitary ware to diversify the traditional craft of Jaipur Blue Pottery for economic and cultural sustainability. Co-designed with the craft community, it builds on Indian crafts’ legacy of innovating with local abundance.
Synonym
The Synonym is synonymous with the craft but made with ceramic waste aggregate to double the fired material's compressive strength. It is embodied within the current craft framework using traditional moulds, to create a form that reveals enhanced material strength & capability.
Antonym
The Antonym material is embodied as Passive Cooling Facade tiles in collaboration with Industhan Ceramics (Mumbai). It uses the waste as an aggregate and remains unglazed to reveal high compressive strength and porosity to absorb moisture.
Co-design for Material Innovation
Project newblue finds the answer to craft innovation in rejected sinks and toilets to diversify the capabilities of the craft - reimagining Blue Pottery, beyond pottery. The project brought together the Material Research Center at the Malviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) and Neerja Blue Pottery Artisan Learning Center in Jaipur, through the Innovation Design perspective.
Innovation for Preservation
Project NewBlue is the second technological intervention in Jaipur Blue Pottery since the 1860s. It is designed to be used parallelly with traditional Blue Pottery to pivot craft preservation with material innovation and co-design.
Learn more about the project here:
Team
Collaborators - Material Research Center (MNIT, Jaipur), Neerja Blue Pottery (Jaipur, India), Industhan Ceramics (Mumbai, India)
Skills
Design Research, Co-Design methods, Material Research, Material Experiments, Product Design, Visual Design