Makers: Arunima Chandra, founder, Dhee Pottery

Written by Payal Khandelwal

“Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.” - The taskmaster editor-in-chief of a fictitious iconic fashion magazine called Runway in the wildly famous movie - The Devil Wears Prada - derides a colleague in her signature style during an editorial meeting. When Arunima Chandra started creating ceramics under her brand Dhee Pottery, she also found flowers to be too obvious as a theme.

The story is a bit different though in her case. Well, you see, Arunima LOVES flowers. Her day starts with getting up and going straight to her balcony to see which of her flowers have bloomed that morning. “Flowers have always been a major source of inspiration and happiness in my life, much before pottery came in. I enjoy going on morning walks, foraging for flowers. I love visits to flower markets and of course, my day is made should someone send me flowers. If I had my way, I would have floral prints all over my house, but I can’t since I share the house with my husband (laughs).” Even though she decided to steer clear of it, florals slowly found a way into her work. And when she noticed interest in such work, she decided to stop fighting her natural instincts and gave in.

Arunima started her career as a lawyer, then worked for a couple of years in the not-for-profit sector, and currently works full-time running her pottery studio.

She first dabbled in pottery in 2018, when she wanted to learn something that would allow her mind to be present in the moment. In 2019, when she was on a sabbatical, she took up a pottery wheel throwing course. “Wheel throwing is muscle memory. I didn’t leave with a lot of achievements. So, post the course, I decided to continue going to studios and practicing whenever I could.” The pandemic is when she decided to invest in a pottery wheel for herself and lodged it in her parking garage. From 2020 -2021, she made hundreds of pieces and recycled them all, only to finalise 30 pieces to glaze. Her final pieces scooped appreciation from friends and family, and a feeling that she was onto something.

And then one thing led to another - she started accepting custom orders; began teaching pottery; found a studio space to help with the teaching and to keep her kiln; did her first exhibit at a pop-up, and then left her not-for-profit job (which she had joined in Oct 2019), to explore and fully focus on a career in pottery. A couple of months after she went full-time with Dhee Pottery, she learnt that she was expecting and is now a mother of a 7-month old daughter, Mihika. “It’s been an interesting journey,” says Arunima.

Dhee Pottery has been blooming (pun intended), not just with beautiful floral works but Arunima’s other inspirations too like geometry, Indian textiles, and Indian art forms. “I saw interest in my work, which is important once you transition from it being a passion to a business. You need a market that values the effort behind the work.”

From her garage, Dhee Pottery moved to a beautiful studio close to her home in Bangalore.

“I set up my first studio when I realised the need to have my own kiln to fire the pieces. Going to other studios to fire the pieces was risky (given the transport) and time consuming. Moreover, I needed a learning conducive space for teaching.”

Last year, Arunima also had the opportunity to shift to a larger studio space. While functionality and having a flow aligned with the pottery process remained key, this time around she could also modify the space based on her experience of operating a studio for a year and a half. “I knew what areas and equipment were used the most, what spaces we were falling short of, what kind of additional storage would help make the studio more functional. We factored in all the additional needs while keeping the desire to have an open space with lots of natural light as constant. As with the previous space, we also desired to make the space learning conducive and wanted to set it up in a way that would foster creativity.”

All of these are the principals that she implements in her home as well, which often doubles up as a workspace as Arunima tends to carry pieces home to illustrate and paint. She and her husband (also a lawyer, entrepreneur, and Arunima’s unofficial Chief Advising Officer for Dhee Pottery) have set up their Bangalore home in an extremely hands-on way – pinterest-ing ideas and then picking each element personally. “We had the opportunity to be involved in the building of our home, right from the inception – this meant that we could have a say in several elements, such as having an extra sit out area, an open kitchen, etc. We have a blue and green colour palette all across the house - something we both completely aligned on. The artworks and artefacts are very personal too since we have picked most of them during our vacations together – it isn’t a painting all the time, sometimes it’s something as small as a metal box with Tibetan symbols (from Spiti) or an aeroplane (from Channapatna). And of course, we have balconies with loads of plants and flowers.”

“When I am working on the wheel or when I'm painting pieces, I am completely in the moment. I don't think I have found anything else other than pottery that keeps me so focused.”

Back to Dhee Pottery - what's the best and the toughest part of working with ceramics for Arunima?

“The best part for me is that when I am working on the wheel or when I'm painting pieces, I am completely in the moment. I don't think I have found anything else other than pottery that keeps me so focused. I think the most difficult part is the fragility of the creation and the unpredictable nature of the process. You don’t know if a piece will survive the whole process, or worse, it could break during shipping. It’s really discouraging when that happens. But over time, I have started accepting all of this as part of the journey. It has given me perspective.”

Pottery has helped Arunima in more ways than one. “It's definitely made me a more patient person. I don’t get too stressed when things are not working out. I know that there is likely another way to do it. The other thing that pottery has accentuated for me is this thought process that if you give something enough time and put in the effort, it will work out your way. Starting from learning how to create pieces in the first place, then learning so many ancillary things like photography, social media, and marketing. I sense that the more I practice a skill, the better I get at it.”

What is it that she has taken from her previous work experiences and implemented in her ceramics work?

“In the not-for-profit sector, the organisation that I worked for did a lot of work on building mindsets of young learners, and I came across this term that our programs aimed for learners to imbibe – a ‘Growth Mindset’. It's kind of knowing that innate talent has little role to play and that developing skills or learning something is a question of the effort and time you put into it. My ceramics journey has been highlighting that term for me a lot, and proving it to be true.”

Her learnings as a lawyer have also seeped into her entrepreneurial journey. “Being a lawyer meant constantly researching and thinking divergently – something that I resort to very often when thinking of new designs. And the second learning was around documentation. Even though it's a small set-up right now, I try to document everything - forms, their dimensions, colour palettes, etc.”

Dhee Pottery is evolving.

“Being a one-person team meant that I could only cater to a particular volume, and when that increased, I was constantly extending delivery timelines. After some time, these timelines seemed unreasonable to me and I realised that I needed to relook at my set up, and get help in the creation process. I have now outsourced the making of the pieces to another studio, while I continue to design and illustrate, and paint the pieces, and teach. This has significantly helped with increasing the volume of work that I am able to deliver in a month.”

After having the baby, and the changes that came along with it, Arunima became more sure than ever that for Dhee Pottery to grow, it needs to function independently of her. She is also looking at setting up an online shop (she currently takes orders though Instagram DMs).

Another thing that Arunima is particularly looking forward to this year is to weave in a theme in her work. “So far, the illustrations have been one off. While almost of them are floral based, they are not necessarily linked to one another. At a very broad level, the idea for this year is to launch sets of products that tie in to a theme and through that, work towards my dream of having shelves lined with floral ceramics, showcasing a variety of flora.”