A pottery that isn't made of clay
Pick up a piece of real Jaipur blue pottery and it feels wrong at first: too light, slightly glassy, almost cool in the hand.
Stone, not earth: the body is a paste of ground quartz, powdered glass, multani mitti or fuller's earth, borax and a natural gum. There is very little true clay in it.
No wheel: because the paste has so little clay, it cannot be thrown. It is pressed into moulds, usually plaster, and shaped by hand.
Facts to know
- Paste
- Ground quartz, powdered glass, multani mitti, borax, katira gum
- Shaped by
- Pressing into moulds, never a wheel
- Painted with
- Cobalt oxide and copper oxide
- Fired
- Once, at a low temperature
- Protected
- A Geographical Indication for Jaipur
- The colours: a deep cobalt blue and a bright turquoise-green from copper, on a white ground. Newer studios add yellow, green, brown and pink.
- One firing: the painted, glazed piece is fired once at a low temperature. That is why it is both beautiful and fragile.
- A Geographical Indication: the name is protected for work made in Jaipur in the traditional way.
- The full story: our page on blue pottery explains how it is made and how we arrange a studio visit.
Why the story matters when you buy
Blue pottery came to Jaipur from Persia by way of the Mughals, nearly vanished in the twentieth century and was brought back by a painter. Every real piece carries that history.
Persian roots: glazed, quartz-rich ceramics painted in cobalt and copper covered mosques and tombs in Persia and Central Asia, and came into India with the Turkic and Mughal rulers.
The ancestor in Agra: Chini ka Rauza, the seventeenth-century tomb on the Yamuna in Agra, was once covered in glazed tiles. Enough remains to show where Jaipur's colours came from.
- Royal patronage: the craft flourished in Jaipur under Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II, who reigned from 1835 to 1880, decorating palace fountains, baths and tableware.
- Near extinction: by the 1950s, as royal patronage faded, blue pottery had all but vanished from Jaipur.
- The revival: the painter Kripal Singh Shekhawat, who lived from 1922 to 2008, led its revival, encouraged by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and supported by Maharani Gayatri Devi.
- Why it matters now: much of what is sold as blue pottery is factory ceramic painted to look like it. Buying the real thing keeps the revived craft alive.
How a piece is made, and what that tells a buyer
A small bowl can take several days from paste to kiln, most of it drying and waiting. Knowing the stages tells you where a copy cuts corners.
Mixing and moulding
The paste: quartz powder, powdered glass, fuller's earth, borax and katira gum, mixed with water and rested. Each studio guards its proportions.
- The mould: the paste is rolled out flat like a chapati, pressed into a plaster mould and backed with ash or sand. Vases are moulded in halves and joined.
- What it means for you: moulded pieces have slightly soft, hand-finished edges. Razor-sharp rims suggest a factory.
Smoothing and coating
- Finishing by hand: the dried piece is smoothed with sandpaper and a damp cloth, and rims and handles are added.
- The white slip: it is dipped in a fine white coating of quartz and glass, which gives the bright ground for painting.
Painting, glazing and the single firing
Painting: freehand, with fine brushes, outlines first and fills after.
- Firing: a glassy glaze, then one low firing in a closed kiln, with slow cooling over many hours. Some pieces crack, some colours run.
- What it means for you: small bubbles, pinholes and slight colour drift are signs of the real process, not faults.
What most visitors miss
Most visitors buy a plate in a shop near their hotel. Spend an hour in a studio and you see the things that make the craft worth paying for.
The kiln opening: if you arrive on the morning a kiln is opened, stay. The potter lifts out each piece and taps it to check for cracks. It is the best theatre in the craft.
The broken pieces: every studio has a pile of failures. They show the white quartz body better than any shop display.
Before you go
- Best season
- October to March
- Best hour
- Morning, about ten to one
- Allow
- Two to three hours, with the drive
- Wear
- Clothes that can take a little dust
- The painters' speed: an experienced painter fills a plate with vines in minutes, without a single line drawn first.
- The drying shelves: rows of white, unpainted pieces waiting for the brush. Don't touch them. They are fragile until fired.
- Your own tile: a painter shows you how to load the brush and lay a line, and the studio fires your tile afterwards. We deliver it to your hotel or send it home.
- The weeks before Diwali: in October or November, studios make lamps, bowls and gifts for the festival, and are at their liveliest. See our Diwali guide.
Local tip
Ask the painter to sign the foot of the piece you buy. Many will, gladly, and you will know exactly whose hand made it.
Real or copy, the tests
Our grandmother's rule for any craft was to pick it up before you fall in love with it. With blue pottery, the hand knows before the eye.
Weight: real quartz pottery is light for its size. A heavy, thick piece is usually ordinary ceramic.
Body: look at an unglazed foot or a chip. Real blue pottery shows a white, slightly granular, glassy body, not red or grey clay.
Facts to know
- Weight
- Light for its size
- Body
- White and glassy, never red or grey
- Light
- Thin rims often glow faintly
- Painting
- Brush marks, slight variations
- Glaze
- Clear and glassy, small bubbles normal
- Translucency: hold a thin piece up to the light. Real blue pottery often glows faintly at the rim.
- The painting: hand painting has small differences from one flower to the next, and you can see brush marks. Perfect repeats are often printed transfers.
- The glaze: clear and glassy, with the colours just beneath it. Small bubbles or pinholes are normal in a low firing.
- The sound: tap it gently with a fingernail. Quartz pottery has a light, glassy note. Heavy ceramic sounds dull.
- The price: real work takes days. If a large vase costs less than a dinner, it is not what the label says.
Local tip
Ask to see a broken piece in the studio. Every workshop has a few, and one look at the white quartz body will train your eye for the rest of your trip.
Judging the painting
Once you know a piece is real, the question becomes whether it is good. That lives in the brush.
Confident lines
- What to look for: outlines drawn in one smooth stroke, without hesitation marks. Experienced painters work freehand, without any drawing.
- What to avoid: wobbly, broken outlines and fills that spill over the line.
The Persian patterns
- Arabesques and vines: endlessly scrolling tendrils and stylised leaves, straight from the tile tradition. The hardest to paint well, because a single wobble shows.
- Geometry: star patterns and interlocking borders, which let a pattern run from one tile to the next.
Flowers and birds
- Flowers: lotus, poppy, iris and the many-petalled rosette, cousins of the flowers inlaid at the Taj Mahal. On a good piece, each petal is one stroke.
- Birds and animals: peacocks, parrots, fish, deer and elephants, borrowed from Rajput miniatures during the revival.
Colour
- Classic: cobalt and turquoise on white, deep and clear.
- Watch for: muddy blues, colours that have run in the kiln, and grey, speckled whites. Small imperfections are fine. Murky colour is not.
What to buy
Jaipur blue pottery comes in every shape from a door knob to a fountain basin. Some things travel and last far better than others.
Tiles
- Why: flat, light and easy to pack, and the closest thing to the craft's Persian roots.
- How: a single tile as a trivet or wall piece, or a set for a kitchen splashback, ordered ahead.
Knobs and handles
- Why: small, inexpensive and charming on a cupboard or chest of drawers. The most practical souvenir in Jaipur.
- Tip: count your drawers before you leave home, and buy one or two spares.
Plates and bowls
- Why: the classic pieces, beautiful on a wall or a table.
- Tip: ask whether the glaze is suitable for food before you serve from them.
Vases, jars and lamps
- Why: the showpieces, with room for the finest painting.
- Tip: large pieces are fragile and heavy to pack. Let the studio pack them, or ship.
Coasters, beads and small gifts
- Why: light, cheap and easy to give. Blue pottery beads and earrings are lovely too.
- Tip: small pieces are where copies are most common. Apply the same tests.
Using it, washing it, living with it
Blue pottery is a working craft, but it was never meant for a dishwasher. Treat it like a grandmother's best china.
Food: some pieces are glazed for food and some are best for display. Ask the maker, and ask specifically whether the glaze is food-safe.
Wash by hand: in warm water with mild soap. Avoid the dishwasher unless the studio says otherwise.
- No microwave, no oven: sudden heat can crack a low-fired body.
- Mind the temperature: don't pour boiling water into a cold piece, or put a hot one on cold stone.
- Flowers: a vase may weep a little water through tiny pinholes. Use a glass liner for fresh flowers.
- Display: keep it out of strong, direct sun on a hot windowsill, and on a stable shelf. It chips if knocked.
Local tip
If you want a bowl for daily use, ask the studio to make it a little thicker. Good makers will, and it will last far longer.
Where we buy blue pottery
Most visitors meet blue pottery in a shop. We would rather you met it on a painter's table, with the brush still wet, and bought it there.
Facts to know
- Best
- A working studio, from the makers
- Fixed prices
- Rajasthali, the state emporium on MI Road
- See old work
- Albert Hall Museum and the City Palace
- Studios
- Mostly on the edges of the city
- Allow
- Two to three hours with the drive
A working studio
- What it is: a small family studio we have known for years, where paste is mixed, pieces moulded and painted by hand and the kiln fired on site.
- Why: you see every stage, meet the painters and buy directly. Many are women, some trained in the craft centres set up during the revival.
Rajasthali, MI Road
- What it is: the government crafts emporium, with fixed prices.
- Why: a useful sense of fair value before you buy anywhere else.
Shops we trust
- What they are: a few Jaipur shops that sell real quartz pottery from named workshops.
- Why: a wider choice than one studio. We take no commission on anything you buy.
The museums, before you buy
- Where: the Albert Hall Museum has decorative arts including pottery, and the City Palace holds objects from the royal household.
- Why: seeing the old work first sharpens your eye for the new.
Ordering a set or a commission
Some of our guests' proudest purchases were never on a shelf: a kitchen of tiles, a dinner service, a hundred door knobs for a new house.
Tell us before you arrive: we introduce you to a studio that does this kind of work well.
Agree it in writing: designs, colours, sizes, quantities and the price.
- Test piece first: the studio will usually fire a test piece or tile so you can approve the colour.
- Allow time: large orders can take weeks, because each piece is moulded, dried, painted and fired, and some will not survive the kiln.
- Expect variation: no two hand-painted tiles are identical. That is the point.
- Shipping: we arrange tracked shipping from the studio and help with the paperwork.
Getting it home in one piece
Blue pottery survives centuries on a palace wall and breaks in a minute in a suitcase. Packing is part of buying.
Let the studio pack: good studios wrap pieces in layers of paper and bubble wrap in a sturdy box. They do it every day.
Hand luggage: carry small pieces with you, wrapped and boxed, rather than in the hold.
- Fill the gaps: nothing should move inside the box. Pad bowls and vases inside as well as out.
- Flat things travel best: tiles and plates pack more safely than tall vases.
- Ship the big pieces: for vases, lamps and sets, insured, tracked shipping from the studio is safer and easier.
- Check your home rules: your country may have customs duties on what you bring or ship. Keep the receipt.
What a fair price looks like
We never publish prices, because they change and depend on the piece. But there is a simple way to know whether you are being treated fairly.
Start at fixed prices: an hour at Rajasthali on MI Road tells you what genuine pieces of each size roughly cost before you visit a bazaar.
Size and painting drive cost: a large vase with fine, dense painting takes far longer than a plain bowl. Expect the price to reflect it.
- Seconds are honest: studios often sell pieces with a small kiln flaw or colour run for less. Perfect for display, and the money still reaches the makers.
- Sets cost more than their parts: matching a set of plates means firing extras, because some will not survive the kiln.
- Very cheap means factory: if a price seems too good for hand work in quartz, it almost certainly is not hand work in quartz.
- Ask for a receipt: naming the studio and saying the piece is hand-made Jaipur blue pottery. Our shopping guide has more on receipts and shipping.
Paying the people who make it
The painter at the next table may earn less in a month than a factory copy sells for in a day. How you buy matters.
The commission problem: some drivers and guides earn commissions from showrooms that sell factory ceramics as hand-made blue pottery.
Our way: our guides are paid never to do this. We pay studios for the time they give our guests and take no share of what you buy.
- Buy from the studio: so the money reaches the people who made the piece.
- Don't bargain hard: over a tile or a coaster, a small sum matters far more to the studio than to you.
- Ask before photographing: especially women painting, and don't touch drying pieces, which are fragile until fired.
- Read more: our page on the artisans we work with and travelling responsibly.
Fitting blue pottery into a Jaipur day
A studio visit takes a morning or an afternoon, and it pairs naturally with Jaipur's other crafts and museums.
With the other crafts
- Morning: a block-printing family in Bagru.
- Afternoon: paint a tile at a blue pottery studio, or visit the gem cutters described on our gems and jewellery page.
With the museums
- Morning: the City Palace.
- Afternoon: the studio, then the Albert Hall Museum, staying to see it lit after dark. Our Jaipur itinerary shows how the days fit.
Where to stay
- Rambagh Palace: once the home of Maharani Gayatri Devi, who helped the revival. See Rambagh Palace.
- Alternatives: Samode Haveli inside the walled city, or The Oberoi Rajvilas in its gardens.
Who will love it
Anyone who loves colour, ceramics or a well-set table falls for blue pottery. A few travellers will want a little more time.
Designers and decorators: commission tiles, basins or knobs, with honest lead times for making and shipping.
Families: children love the painting session, and their tiles are often more fun than their parents'.
- Couples: paint a tile for each other. It costs little and carries easily.
- Collectors: look at the museum pieces first, then commission the finest painters directly.
- On a longer trip: our textile and craft trail begins with blue pottery, block printing and gems in Jaipur.