Enterprise: Clay County
Founder & Creative Director: Ms Vandita Vijayvergiya
Industry: Professional Services
Year it was founded: 2016
Location: Jaipur, Rajasthan

Armed with a master’s degree in a ceramic design, Ms Vandita Vijayvergiya established Clay County in Jaipur three years ago. Her studio not only showcases the beauty of ceramics, but also provides an opportunity for people to become familiar with the medium through workshops.

In conversation with GlobalLinker (GL) Ms Vandita shares her passion for design and vision for the studio.

GL: Vandita, tell us a little bit about Clay County. What motivated and excited you to start it?

Vandita: Clay County is an ode to the craftsmanship of pottery where we focus on rustic and minimally designed products. Every piece at our studio captures an artist’s heart and time spent on that design. We aim at making people aware of the goodness of ceramics with retail as well as through workshops on experience with clay.

My major inspirations come from nature as that has the most beautiful and natural designs. 

With my post-graduation in ceramic designing, I was determined to do something of my own. There were two factors that motivated me to start my own studio—absence of genuine handmade and food safe pottery and lack of knowledge or awareness of studio pottery in India.

Also read: Yosha Gupta, Founder, Memeraki

GL: Your designs are unique. Where do you draw inspiration from?

Vandita: My major inspirations come from nature as that has the most beautiful and natural designs. Also, I believe in utility products, the ease of use of any product becomes a prime source of inspiration too.

GL: What has been the most effective way of raising awareness about your business?

Vandita: The most effective ways for us to raise awareness about our work is through social media and through word of mouth.

GL: What are challenges for your business to grow bigger, better and faster from here?

Vandita: There are many challenges that a pottery studio goes through. The expectations of what clients want, compared to what is actually possible with clay poses a challenge. We have to make customers aware of the limitations of clay as a material.

The timelines of delivery are often a challenge. Handmade pottery is quite a time-consuming process. We make our clients visit our workshop where they get to see that everything is handmade, that is without any moulds.

Uniformity in all products is not possible. Since all our pieces are handmade, no two pieces are exactly the same which sometimes becomes an issue for clients. And we even lose some of our clients for this reason. We are working on establishing a small side unit for mould casting.

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GL: You are a Linker. Which offerings of GlobalLinker have helped you?

Vandita: GlobalLinker is a great platform for like-minded people to come together. And in turn help each other when required.

GL: Based on your experience, what advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur?

Vandita: Just keep pushing. There will forever be some or the other challenge at work and either you will win it or learn from it. Both ways it’s a win-win for the business. Also, no business was ever made great overnight. Most importantly, believe in yourself.

GL: How do you see Clay County growing from here?

Vandita: We are developing a premium range of handmade ceramic products with use of real gold and platinum in it. If our tests come out positive, it would be a big breakthrough for us.

GL: We would love to know the person behind the entrepreneur.

• Every day you wake up at -7:00 a.m.
• The first thing you do when you wake up - Think of all the positives in my life
• Three things you do to unwind/ relax - Dancing, watching online streaming channels like Netflix, and travelling
• When you face a big challenge - I fight it to my best capacity
• The best piece of advice you’ve ever been given - Nothing is permanent except change
• The one book everyone should read - The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Also read: Esha Guha, Founder, Poochka & Co

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