Cream scalloped bowls, set of six
Six deep bowls with a scalloped rim and forty years of wear along the edge.
$30
Riverbank clay water jug
$38
Unglazed, and deliberately so — it sweats, and the sweating is what cools the water.
Materials & dimensions
- Unglazed riverbank terracotta
- Wood-fired
16 × 26 × 16 cm · 1.6 kg
Care
Fill it and leave it an hour before the first use — the clay drinks before it starts working. Rinse with water only. Soap will soak into the wall and you will taste it for a month. Stand it on a dish; it is meant to be damp underneath.
Shipping & duties
Standard $72
Express $131.40
North America · 1.6 kg · includes $6 for fragile packing
Free standard shipping over $250.
Import duties and taxes are set by United States, not by us. They are not included above, and your carrier collects them on delivery.
The story
This jug is not sealed, and that is the whole design. Water seeps very slowly through the unglazed wall and evaporates off the outside, and evaporation takes heat with it. A full jug in a draught will sit several degrees below room temperature all day without a fridge, a principle every hot country worked out independently and most have since forgotten.
The clay comes out of the bank where Chandra's garden drops to the river, wedged by foot to drive the air out, thrown on a kick wheel, and fired in a wood kiln at the bottom of the plot. Wood firing is uneven by nature — the side facing the flame comes out darker — so no two are the same colour and none of them are a mistake.
She loses about one pot in nine to the kiln and has never managed to predict which one. That is priced in.
Chandra Kumari
Kosgoda, Southern Province · working since 1997
