Date: 3 Nov 2018
Venue: Andretta village, Palampur

Andretta is one of Himachal Pradesh’s best kept secrets. It is an artist’s village near Palampur, with the Dhauladhar Range as the setting. We came to know about Andretta in terms of the pottery studio here – Andretta Pottery. They would routinely exhibit amazingly artistic ceramic ware in Delhi NCR. Consequently, Andretta Pottery was in our bucket list but we had no clear plan as to when this would materialize – till we got this invite from Himachal Pradesh department of Art and Culture to attend Trigarth.

We visited Andretta from Dharmashala and it was a drive up of about 30 km. The roads were smooth and the setting idyllic. Andretta was a little known Himachali village when the Irish actress Norah Richards came here in 1920 and established an artist’s village.

The pottery center came up later. And we were surprised that it was a very unassuming setup. A pottery shed when we entered had a group of tourists sitting on the line of potter’s wheels and trying their hand at pottery. Andretta Pottery has this cool system where any tourist can do 15 minutes or 45 minutes pottery sessions under the guidance of trained potters there.  Ceramic pottery apparently is a de-stressing activity what with the water and the cool clay on the hand. And what could be better than trying the art first hand? The kilns were on the side where routinely these creations are fired to completion.

Some of the items made here by the seasoned potters are sold in a room inside the premise. We could not resist and bought some souvenirs in Andretta Pottery’s signature style – Rangoli design painted plates, bowls and trays in cobalt blue, moss green and maroon. We also loved the man-woman sculptures sitting on a window on one of the inside walls. They also had some abstracts pieces on sale.

The premise also has a pottery museum with amazing pottery collection from all over India. We got a guided tour from one of the artists here. Do look at the photos for a better idea.

Visiting Andretta Pottery was a dream-come-true. And a humbling experience. It is so motivating to see such great yet unsung work happening in unknown corners on India. Andretta is close to Bir-Billing as well as 4Rooms where we put up while visiting ITW-2. No matter where you put up, if you are visiting Dharmashala – Palampur belt in Himachal Pradesh and want to do something offbeat, do drop in at Andretta Pottery. It is so worth any detour. You will surely thank us later.