Sangeeta Deepu places a squishy ball of clay in my hands and asks me to make a fish out of it. Of course, she would show me how to. After a few minutes of rolling and kneading, the ball of clay did transform into a not-so-perfect, but cute little fish. I did very well for a first-timer, says Sangeeta, who is extremely generous with encouragement. “I want everyone to experience the thrill of working with clay.” Her workstation is the drawing room of her apartment in Kaloor. It has trays laden with bottles of paint and ceramic glaze, the glossy paint which gives a sheen to a clay work. A few of her works—a shiny red-and-yellow clay bus, a boot, and butterflies—lie around on the table and the walls hold more elaborate works.
Sangeeta’s infectious enthusiasm for clay is what draws her circle of students to her, she believes. She takes classes for children and adults as well. The youngest of her students is only three years old. “It is amazing to work with children. I let them do whatever they want to do, I don’t impose. Though they play around for the first few classes, I find that they gradually get very interested and they tell me exactly what they want to make.”
A physics post graduate, Sangeeta began working with terracotta seven years ago, after doing a short course in an institute in Bangalore. Though she started it as a hobby, she gradually started spending more time with the material, experimenting with it and understanding the way it worked. “The joy of working with clay is that it responds to you. And I feel it always helps me calm down.” She makes artifacts mainly, but out of popular demand, started making jewellery as well. For her classes, Sangeeta is against using moulds. “What we do here is completely by hand. It gives you the satisfaction of having created something all on your own.”
Once you’ve got a hang of making shapes, you can let your imagination run riot, she says. “And it does not require expensive tools. Anything could be used to make a design.” For instance, we made the scales of the fish using icing nozzles and tips of used pencils.
Clay creates its own glue called slurry, which holds the piece together. Once the art work is finished, it has to be left untouched for two whole days, before firing it in the furnace—it takes about 18 to 20 hours, sometimes even a whole day. Sangeeta does not recommend firing clay in bran and other methods that do not require a furnace. “It is always better to take it to the workshops of clay artisans, where you can get it fired.” Sangeeta does it at her furnace as well.
It is only after firing and cooling that the art work is painted upon. “That requires skill too. But when you start working with terracotta, you realise that you’ve always had an artist inside you.”
Sangeeta wants to reach out to more people with the idea of working with clay. “It is a recipe for relaxation. It is therapeutic. And in the process, you also stumble upon art.”
Sangeeta can be followed on Instagram at sangeeta_deepu.
