Organic, malleable, cool – is there any more tactile resource for the hands of a creative person than Mother Earth? Take any ancient civilization and it would have left its mark in the form of shards of clay and earthernware artifacts. India is no exception, and this oldest and simplest of crafts has developed here too. For millennia, almost every state in India has had clusters of potter communities to provide the vessels, religious images, toys and roof tiles the people need. Pottery (clay moulded on a potter's wheel) and terracotta (clay moulded freehand) are found in almost every state of India which has red clay. Look out for:

• Red pottery of Haryana, used to make decorative paper weights, tapots and mugs, water pots
• Terracotta images created in Vishnupur in West Bengal
• Terracotta horses, spiritually significant to varying degrees, made in Bankura ( West Bengal ), Dharbanga ( Bihar ) and Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh)
• Terracotta tiles (there are temples made of them at Azamgarh and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh)
• Lustrous black pottery of Azamgarh, used to make cups and saucers, waterpots, flower pots, jars
• Khurja Pottery of Rajasthan, a comparatively crude blue pottery that developed during the Mughal Sultanate
• Terracotta horses, elephants and toys
• Jhajaris , surahis and ghadas – all waterpots which keep drinking water pleasantly cool