It has been a little while since I last posted; I've been working nonstop with Lauren on our book, 100 Days of India. We just finished designing it in Adobe InDesign and have sent it off to the printers. It's been a hectic week! Here is one of my black & white snaps that didn't make the final cut for the book. It was taken on a hot afternoon at the beach in Auroville, Tamil Nadu.



But now I'm on to writing the second installment of my visits to the Dana Community of potters. This one is about candle holders. These are big sellers in India as many people use them everyday in their shrines at home. I took three videos of the process. The first is the throwing, then trimming and finally altering (cutting the hole in the side).

He had finished his quota of these for the day, but had a couple of balls left and was kind enough to show me how he throws them. I was impressed by his easy throwing style and the slow speed of the kick wheel.

Still spinning.

After a couple of hours, the pots are lightly trimmed on a chuck:

Soon after trimming, perhaps half an hour later, they are marked out with calipers and a compass and the holes are cut.






With a hole each side (the size of the opening in the top), they look kind of alien. But I was assured they looked nice when glazed and lit up with a candle.

Freshly cut.

A couple of hours later. Halfway to dry.

Soon I will be posting on how they make oil burners--another top-selling item in their repertoire.