An architect by profession and a potter by passion, Khushboo hails from the city of Raipur. Clay was the element that made her meet and connect with herself. “It’s just clay and me - Pottery connects me to myself, detaching me from all worries and thoughts!”
Hers was the first ceramic studio in Raipur, that launched in 2017. While completing her course in Architecture, she picked ceramic tiles and their application in modern design as the thesis topic. This is when she got to know about pottery and started learning about it. After completing her course, this curiosity led her to learn hand-building at Claystation, Bangalore in 2015-16 and then wheel-throwing in Andretta, Himachal Pradesh.
After being back at Raipur, she got married where her handcrafted ceramic tea-light holders were part of every invite. To make these, she left for Mumbai and got them handmade by Mr. Sandeep Manchekar, and under his guidance, she learned glazing too. She took up architectural projects for 2 years and also worked on ceramics out of her home terrace and finally hired a proper studio space in Jan 2019. Konda Gaon in Chhattisgarh is the hub of traditional pottery. An artist from this village helped her set everything up and assisted her with excess production before her marriage.
The name of her studio C.I.C.O. stands for Clay in Clay out. The leaf in the logo represents the first studio space, where there were many plants, especially 100-year bonsais. Now, the studio has shifted to a new warehouse/production unit. She takes inspiration from her travels, observations, memories, or simply from everyday surroundings like the lily ponds of Raipur. Even a curtain color created a whole collection!
Her work comprises a mix of hand building, slab work, and wheel throwing. She also loves underglazing and Sgraffito (scratching on layers of color) work. Her collections are mostly of tableware and functional wares but she also creates murals, lighting fixtures, big pots & planters on an order basis with architects and designers. Recently featured in Doordarshan, she takes care of everything from marketing to pitching, and ideation to production, with passion and precision. She also connects with a community of potters and attends potters’ fests to keep things exciting.
Experimenting with extravagant pieces at a soda firing workshop at Gaya, she explored maximalism under Eva Champagne. She discovered how ideas evolve from sketch to final piece. “Being from a design background, as an architect, I was quite rigid about my design philosophy and was very result-oriented about the final outcome. But pottery has made me see that designs evolve. The process matters more than the design, as all the layering and detailing on the products narrates a deeper story about what all it has been through!”
