Caffeine kick ke saath Panchtantr story free

This NID graduate gives coffee drinking a twist by crafting comic book cups, and ceramic mugs that reveal tiny steps each time you take a sip. Soma Das checked out Vanmala Jain's clay craft made with help from visually-impaired women

When Vanmala Jain decided she wanted to be a ceramic artist, the availability of cheap pottery from Uttar Pradesh proved to be a hurdle. So, Jain decided she'd go quirky enough for customers to pick up her wares. A frog whose gob you can flick cigarette ash in, and a miniature autorickshaw you can't ride in make up her brand, Kuprkabi's (cup and saucer in Gujarati) range.u00a0

Mug you can read a Panchtantra story off, while sipping tea for Rs 100

At 15, while she was still a student at the Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls School in Jaipur, she promptly ditched her dream of becoming a doctor, when she had a taste of Turko-Persian blue pottery that was introduced in her curriculum. Made by applying blue dye (cobalt oxide) to clay, the art was brought to India by the Mughals 200 years ago, but revived only 80 years ago in Jaipur. After doing a course at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad and setting up a Jaipur studio, she moved to Mumbai and gave up blue pottery as the 80% stone content and the consequent high water absorption capacity of the products made them crumble easily.

Turning her focus to ceramic pottery, sheu00a0 set up her studio in 2000. One of her products, the "Nutbolt", a wooden bowl with a handle, won a design competition and now finds place at the Museum of Small Ceramics in Croatia.

The force
Kuprkabi started with just one employee, and now has eight full-time employees and 50 women (some visually impaired, mentally challenged and slum dwellers) who work from home. They make flowers and buttons that are later attached to larger pieces. "Since women are good at working on dough, they have a natural flair for clay pottery," says Jain.

We liked
Mugs with bite marks, cups that you can read traditional Panchtantra tales off, mugs that reveal tiny steps each time you take a sip, ashtrays that allow you to flick ash in a commode and miniature chappal magnets are interesting buys.

She also retails from Dhoop, Tresorie, The Bombay Store, Ronak, Wishing Tree, Culture Shop and V Centre.
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AT: Rizvi Park, K6, first floor, SV Road, near Milan Subway, Santacruz (W).
Log on to: www.kuprkabi.com.
Call 982051877
soma.das@mid-day.com