Starting time

This was a 15 day "training and design development project" with terracotta potters. It was Srishti's first project
with the Development Commissioner Handicrafts - Ministry of Textiles. The sponsors required a minimum 15 finished prototypes by the end of the project.

The dates the workshop - Feb 25 to March 18 (with some breaks in between).

The prototypes were be made by 30 skilled and semi-skilled terracotta artisans who worked along with a team from Srishti. This project did not have provision for a 'master craftsperson' so some of the more skilled in the group took on that role un-officially.

A wood fired kiln was constructed and made operational during the workshop days. We deliberately did not use prepared clay and made the process of clay preparation part of the workshop on campus. Contact had been made with the artisans for about 3 weeks prior to the workshop and there had already been a lot of collaborative concept generation during this period. This was taken more in the spirit of time investment by the artisans rather than 'paid' time.

The central theme for the products had been mutually decided between the designers and the artisans as being part of a "Micro Kitchen". This is based on some 1st level research that showed a growing need for components for the micro family and single householders (people living alone). The kitchen seemed to be an important part of this household.

This section with high buying power is rapidly moving towards high tech gizmo s that are resource heavy to produce and their redundancy generates huge quantities of non recyclable waste. The other alternative is packed food and takeaways which in several ways are proving to be a health as well as environmental disaster - the food, the packaging et all. Many large corporations of course are successfully keeping these demands alive and ever growing.

The project had put adequate emphasis on the rural kitchen as well since the artisans are a great source of information in this respect. We tried to also identify common needs between rural and urban kitchens and built on exchange/revival of value wherever feasible.

Terracotta being a resource/planet friendly on one hand and a water and heat resistant material on the other can be positioned here as a solution provider. Also smaller batch production capability makes it an attractive option to small entrepreneurs and experimental academic innovators. The time line did not allow too much on the lines of material exploration on the part of the team. First two days went in preparing the clay and some exploration of form with some related exercises. There was some concept generation on the following products. Some of them belong to the "micro kitchen". Some are closely related.

To name a few products that were initially planned were: Mini Oven, Mini Grill, Fuel Saving vessel, Terracotta Dry Pan, Water Jug, Bird bath and Water Hole, Keep Warm Vessel, Clay Baking Vessel, Charcoal Sandwich Toaster, Mini Pizza Maker, Coffee Mug Keep warm, Large keep warm vessel, Smokeless chullah or wood stove cum charcoal storage
Smokeless chullah cum charcoal maker, Smokeless wood oven cum charcoal storage.

The product innovation was a collaborative process between the artisans and designer. This process started before the stipulated workshop dates and is still happening based on user feedback.

There will was also emphasis on "packaging" which is not just creating the "box" but also on
how to accessorise the products for easy marketing.

Finally one of the most important component was documentation of the entire project, that could include both just physical documentation as well as use of the creative media to create new forms, tracking different aspects of the craft and its people. The last two aspects has not seen much justice as everybody got busy in other things.