He spins magic on the wheel

GURGAON: Rahul Kumar, a ceramic artiste, is not the quintessential potter you might have come across in your childhood. In fact, he is very much the face of urban Gurgaon young, armed with an MBA degree and working with an MNC. But this artiste has kept alive an art form, which is not commonly found in the city.
While Kumar started off as any other potter who gave shape to pots and vases, what makes him stand out is his fascination for spinning miniatures on the potters wheel.Every miniature that he makes all less than two inches in height and flaming red in colour has a different story to tell.
Many of my current works transcend their purely functional roots in favour of a visual and tactile language that has developed out of my observations and experience, he explains.
The artiste grew up in a middle-class family in Delhi, where education was put above everything else. That is the reason why he didnt get a chance to unleash his creative potential before appearing for his Class 12 Board examination.
I went to the Central Cottage Emporium in Delhi one day and met a potters family from Rajasthan. I was so fascinated by the spinning wheel that I decided to learn pottery, says Kumar.
He enrolled himself at the Delhi Blue Pottery School and learned the nitty-gritty of ceramic pottery. But his thirst for more did not get quenched there. After completing his MBA from IMT Ghaziabad, Rahul won a Fulbright scholarship in Arts and went to the US to master the art of ceramic pottery.
While I started off making simple pots and vases, I always aspired to do something different. So, I started trying my hand at miniatures, says Kumar, who has received three national awards from the All India Arts & Crafts Society. He has made several ceramic miniatures till date, which have been showcased in Delhi, Mumbai and the US.
His miniature series, called Tranquil Flame, retains his hand impressions to remind the viewer of its functional roots and the effort that
goes into the shaping of such a tiny and delicate piece of art.
While most of his miniatures have been sold out in exhibitions, the smallest and the most special one he made remains close to the person closest to him his wife. It was a pot less than half-an-inch in height, which I gifted to my wife. She was absolutely thrilled and decided to convert it into a pendant, says Kumar with a smile.
The artiste, who works on stoneware clay and porcelain apart from ceramic, has made many wheel-thrown vases and utilitarian pots. His collection of stoneware pieces, called Harmonic Discord, has also won rave reviews at exhibitions and shows in many parts of the world.
In fact, he was one of the few artists from across the globe, who participated in the Harmony show organized by Tina Ambani in Mumbai.
Kumar, however, wants to concentrate more on miniatures now. My miniatures have a surprise element in them. And I love the concentration and precision involved in making each piece. I am fascinated by everything about a miniature right from the mixing of clay with water, throwing it onto the wheel, drying it, bisque firing it, glazing it and then glaze firing it to get the final product, says Kumar.
But despite the hard work, he knows he cannot remain attached to it. I know I make breakable pieces and no matter how involved I become in shaping it, I detach myself as soon as the piece is made, he says philosophically.
He sweats for hours on his wheel and then in the kiln only because he wants to familiarize people with the art he loves. Rahul also squeezes out time from his busy schedule to teach ceramic art at his Sector 56 studio.