About Me: Nibedita (Ninee) Mahanti
My true love for pottery began when I was a little girl growing up in India. During our travels, when we stopped at traffic stops I would spot these potters not too far from the road making functional pieces of pottery. I remember being mesmerized by the process, watched the humble potters throwing little tea cups in matters of seconds. When the traffic cleared and we moved, I remember looking at the them as long as I could and being disappointed that I couldn’t watch them forever.
Fast forward many years, when I finally felt like I can spend a little bit of time for myself, I started taking pottery classes. Little did I know, a little mud, a pottery wheel can bring such fulfillment to one’s life. I question my love and indulgence often. Is this worth my time, should I be doing something more meaningful and worthwhile? Repeatedly I ask myself and the wise if it’s an unnecessary indulgence, the response I got that it’s not. It is the true creative essence of life. And I was stuck to my passion.
I love making functional pottery and a few fun things in between which in my mind are absolutely functional because they are just so so adorable. I know that those trees, their cooling shade and the potters of my childhood are no more but the love and the memories still take me to that serene past of my childhood.
I truly am very thankful to my childhood potters, all my teachers for whom I have learned so much, my loving family and friends for their encouragements and that higher power that has given me the love for the craft. I am immensely grateful to the people who make a place in their homes for the art pieces I make with so much love.
Enough about me… if you stop by my booth, please share with me what you love!!
The Cracked Pot Studio Tour 