Karachi: Fifty-seven years Old Muhammad Siddique is one of the most underrated clay artists of Pakistan. He worked for the past 30 years and made a different types of clay pottery. The first potter's wheel is believed to have come from Mesopotamia. So after the invention of the wheel, the first pot was made of clay. Clays were burnt at low temperatures, either in pit fires or open bonfires, to create the earliest kinds of pottery. They were made by hand and were unadorned. Pottery can be fired at temperatures as low as 600°C and is typically fired at temperatures below 1200°C.
Piece of Attraction.
Unglazed biscuit earthenware is porous, making it unsuitable for storing liquids or serving as tableware. Earthenware, on the other hand, has a long history dating back to the Neolithic period. Pottery is one of the most ancient, ubiquitous, and beautiful kinds of art that has stayed at the core of life in Pakistan for ages. This primitive art, also known as ceramic art, is more of an aesthetic reflection of our primordial life.
These pots and different art available in various shapes and sizes are famous for their exquisite hand painting. For over a century, generation after generation of ˜Kashigars' has been molding, shaping, painting, and making fire glazed tiles and earthenware. We had a great time hanging out at these workshops, which I prefer to call "pottery yards" because they aren't like those well-designed factories or studios. These are organic, earthy, and natural designs in large open yards with brick walls.
Part of the yard is used to stack and store drying products, while the rest is dedicated to the painting process. In the open courtyard, the real sand and clay mixing, molding, shaping, baking, and glazing take place. Before the material evolves into a piece of artwork, it passes through more than nine steps, all of which are completed personally. Natural resources are being sorted, processed, and blended in the courtyard.
I took advantage of the chance at the yard and worked with Muhammad Siddiq, a potter who showed me how to make a vase on the wheel. I learned from his kid Sufiyan, a potter in Karachi, that his family had been Kashigars for generations, one generation after another.
Siddiq's son with Ornament painted by him
Even the younger generation has no plans other than to master the old skill that their predecessors have been practicing for generations. He was particularly pleased with his work on minarets, dooms, columns, and pillars. These masterpieces incorporate calligraphic art in addition to floral designs, geometric patterns, and themes.
Despite their ability and gorgeous artwork, these families are impoverished. This old man claims he is bound to a middleman who sells all of his items to him for half the market price, leaving him with a little profit margin. Many of the employees here have taken out loans from intermediaries, and even if they find a decent customer, they are tied by a contract with the intermediary that prevents them from selling their wares to anybody else.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this industry faced major problems because of the lock-down in Pakistan. They faced hunger. All pottery industry was closed and workers are moved to their cities so because of this pandemic the demand and supply role was damaged. His family seem the worst days in his life during this pandemic and lost all good wealth plus mental health.
The artisans stated that having a consistent power source would improve their productivity, therefore they replaced their manual pottery wheels with electricity-powered wheels, and his family tried to improve their quality and production as well.
Clay art pieces are created by hands of gold.
Umer
GOOD WORK BROTHER