Saamia

We started this work in 1984 Kashikari is an ancient craft But its practice was almost finished in Multan There were very few people who were practicing it and those people would limit the learning to keep it within their families An institute was established in 1984 I took admission there and I started to learn kashi Praise be to Allah today we have 20 boys who are practicing this art form And we have a good set- up now So now you are based in Gujranwala? There was a shortage of natural gas in Multan That's why we've shifted here We have established our set- up here and we work here How is the work divided among the craftsmen? 10 people do the likkhaee (outline drawing) 10 people fill in the colour, some people do the modeling and casting and glazing. And then we fire it in the kiln We are a group of 25 people who work here Basically you supervise them? Yes In Multan I have taught classes of upto 200 girls also, at the Multan Institute of Blue Pottery. Are they practicing? They are practicing. Girls tend to leave practice after marriage. So we trained 200 girls. And we have trained approximately 200 boys in Multan also. Is that institute still working? The institute is still open. I recently retired from there and am now here full time I've started my own work now How many times do you fire in a month, and do you were talking about the kiln- where did you get it? And is it the only one of its kind in Pakistan? This kiln has come from abroad. This is a ceramics institute. They imported the kiln from England. The result from the kiln is very good. It gives shine to the fired product You feed the temperature instructions through a computer- 1250 degrees- and it will maintain 1250 degrees. And the glaze is lead free? It is lead free