Pottery, one of the oldest and most wide-ranging of the decorative arts, consisting of objects made of clay and hardened with heat. The objects made are commonly useful ones, such as vessels for holding liquids or plates or bowls from which food can be served, but Thomas Louis, who owns Banana Pottery located down a green lush environment with no sign of commotion, just plain bliss at Corjuem, Aldona makes not only amusing ceramic art but also musical instruments out of them. Thomas, from a very young age, wanted to pursue design, but he got into product design and soon after ceramic designing. 

Post graduating from the National Institute of Design at Ahmedabad he continued pursuing his interest in producing small scale batches of pottery items, he says “I like making all kinds of handmade things. I’ve set up my studio In Go and have been practicing for the last seven years.” Before Goa, Thomas has had his studios in Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru as well where he collaborated and did his projects with restaurants, hotels, museums, and retail stores. In Goa, his work is showcased at Paperboat and People tree where his work such as table wear and speakers have been used. Thomas says, “In college, we would keep our phones in empty bowls to amplify the music played on the phone that’s where the amplifier/speaker idea came from.” The ceramic amplifier is designed in a way that when you place your phone’s speaker into it, it amplifies it in a way you won’t require your speakers anymore!

The idea to make instruments out of ceramic art started about five years ago and came out of collaboration with his friend Peter, who studied with him and had a good ear for music. They looked at different tribal instruments and took inspiration from them to make their musical instruments. He is always exploring new dimensions and giving them life by working it out on clay, He has made a whole set of instruments inspired from the uddu drums, every instrument that he makes has a different sound to it at every phase during its production and otherwise too. No two musical instruments would remotely sound the same, every opening gives out a pleasant yet different sound. He has also performed in Goa with the musical instruments that he’s made. On talking about teaching pottery, he says “The classes I hold are for people of all age groups, they come for a few months and then take a break and then there are people who come for a few months continuously. It’s a long process to learn each technique step by step and to master the same it could take years, to perfect the wheel it takes about six to eight months if you sit regularly.”

He also sells his work and there is a wide range of customers that come to purchase his work, including musicians and people just buying to gift people, he also customizes the kind of work his customers ask for. And all his work is known by people by word of mouth, he doesn’t advertise it. He has displayed his work at a few exhibitions in Goa, one of them to be named would be The Cube Gallery. The studio is in a place where there is no rush and away from the city life, which allows him to concentrate more on his work than getting distracted by other people coming in if the studio was in the city-like area. He has his work out for display in a couple of shops in Goa as well. He works on different ideas, which are his adventures and every batch of artwork there’s a wide range of things to witness, making the people looking at his work go ‘wow’

He also goes to NID (National Institute of Design) as a guest lecturer for one or two weeks, twice in a year to teach the students how to make musical instruments out of ceramic art. “It’s a constant learning process, you need to be very patient throughout the entire process. You need to be very careful about your work.” He says and talking about his favorite work “One the piece is made, there’s no time to admire it. The next work needs to be executed and needs to be better than the previous one.”