Jaipur's Leela Bordia, who founded Neerja and gave a new lease of life to Jaipuri Blue Pottery has a candid chat with me about the challenges she faced, her quest to keep the designs original yet traditional, and the dangers of keeping them from being copied and mass-produced by others.
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| A beautiful display corner at the Neerja showroom with some press clippings in the background. |
I know, it's been a while since my last post, so sorry! it's been a hell of a month, but I am back stronger, and that's what counts!
Sharon: Good Afternoon Mrs. Bordia, and thank you for sparing some time for
me. I am honored to speak with you. I am curious about
Neerja's early days - I did read what's
on the blog, the impact that your mother's work with Mother Theresa had on you,
and how you noticed the traditional blue pottery in Jaipur and wanted to do
more - I think it is truly inspiring....is
there anything you want to tell me about those early days when you started out
with 4 craftspeople?
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| Mrs Bordia interacting with the village craftsmen |
1.
I wanted them to be in the
village – they were essentially farmers, and from generations, they were
involved with creating handicrafts in their spare time to supplement their meager farming incomes. So to uproot them, would have been disastrous, and
caused a breakdown of their family systems.It was therefore important for me
that these people should not migrate to the cities, and this way the whole
family can work together as they have done for generations.
2.
Income generation – I wanted
them to have a steady source of income. There is a limit to the income they can
earn alone, and the income they can earn while working with someone who buys
all their work, someone who would take care of getting their work to the
markets, and guaranteeing they get paid on time, and often.
Sharon: ..and I can imagine that cannot have been easy!
Sharon: ..and I can imagine that cannot have been easy!
Leela
Bordia:This was of course a challenge. Initially
the crafts people did not have faith in me. They thought I was coming to them to
teach them something they already knew. I never wanted to teach them. On the
contrary I wanted to give them more opportunities, make utility items, etc. You
have to understand that back in 1970-1980 handicrafts were just handicrafts,
something fancy that people purchased. There was a limited market for them. It
was only later on that bigger markets opened up, there was innovation, and
today we have a whole world of opportunity for Indian handicrafts.
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| A blue pottery urn |
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| A pretty display of knobs and accessories |
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| Quaint blue pottery danglers |
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| A console table embedded with blue pottery fixtures, and a matching mirror frame |
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| The beautiful wall plates on display at the Neerja store |
Sharon: Mrs. Bordia, I want to ask you about the
design aspect - there is a lack of originality in design. When I read about you I was
amazed at how everything you did was driven by your need to help the villagers.
But design is also very important in product development, and I really love
your designs. I just ordered some wall plates from you actually...How do you
manage the design aspect of your business?
Leela
Bordia: We
try as much as possible to stick to the original Jaipuri designs - at present
we have only a 150 year history. So we tend to keep the originality. A lot of
people are involved with the design aspect in Neerja – my family is a big
support, sometimes I have design students interning with us, but the
craftspeople are the ones who actually have the best designs.
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| Finishing touches on a piece |
Sharon: And, is that a challenge too? To keep the designs original, yet improve
and innovate?
Leela
Bordia: Yes, even here we have this challenge – the
moment something gets commercial acclaim, the dangers of copying arise. I never wanted to go the big commercial
way. Jaipur blue pottery is from Jaipur has uniqueness. However, we do realise
that even while we keep our originality, we have to improve our designs,
quality, etc. It is a challenge to keep our identity intact through all this. I
happy to say that till today we have had no threat about the Chinese or Srilankans
copying the uniqueness of our Jaipuri designs.
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| A view of the Neerja store in Jaipur |
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| What a novel design! |
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| This is a table designed with blue pottery tiles - gorgeous, and I wish I owned it! |
Do you know she collects blue pottery from every
corner of the world? :) I am dying to see her collection,, and of course share it with you,
if possible. Let’s keep our fingers crossed on that one! :)