Potter’s workshop on March 10, 2022
As part of teaching-learning exercise for students of MA in Archaeology 1st semester— ‘Archaeology: Method and Theory Course’, a one-day on-site workshop was organized on March 10, 2022. The potter’s workshop is located in Vikas Nagar, Uttam Nagar, where Mr. Ramjeet Khoeya prepares a variety of earthen wares at his work-place as per the order he gets from different parts of Delhi and its neighborhood. In the beginning the undersigned gave a brief introduction about the pottery making in archaeological perspective and introduced Mr. Ramjeet to the students. He gave a brief account of pottery making informing us about how the craft was learnt by him through his father at very young age. He explained the entire process of clay preparation—from the procurement of raw clay to making it into soft malleable plastic clay, suitable for working on fast-wheel. Students learnt about the entire tedious process involved. He informed us how, with the passage of time, the shape and size of the wheel changed—from simple cross-bar wooden wheel which was rotated manually using stick to the present day motorized wheel. The students learnt the method of making pots on wheel and also various decorations/designs on it. They also tried themselves to make pots on wheel to get a feel of clay and coordination while working on the wheel. The workshop was very interactive and students asked a number of questions such as the achievement of plasticity in clay, kneading, workability of clay, leather-hard condition of clay, etc., which were subsequently answered by the potter and me. The potter also very kindly showed us different tools and helping appliances useful for carrying out certain works, especially for making hand-made pots and luting additional parts such as handle of pots and spouts of vases, etc. At the end Mr. Ramjeet demonstrated how the kiln is prepared and made ready for baking the dried-up pots.
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