Artist      

Golden Bridge Pottery, Pondicherry was an early center for studio pottery in India. Established in 1971 by Ray Meeker and Deborah Smith, both highly trained potters with an interest in eastern philosophy, it began teaching programmes in 1975, the same year that firing began as a regular activity. It had its first show in 1976. Until 1983 students came in as apprentices, but after 1983 teaching was separated from pottery production. Deborah Smith looks after the production line work at Golden Bridge since 1985 when Ray Meeker began a 13-year project to develop a fire-stabilized mud building. In 1996, with the fired housing project largely finished, Meeker returned to working with clay for exhibitions. Since 1997 Golden Bridge has also been hosting workshops with pottery artists/educators from abroad, including Susan Peterson, Jane Perryman, Jim Danish, Mike Dodd, Sandy Brown and Betty Woodman.

The Golden Bridge Pottery was the first workshop to make glazed stoneware pottery by hand in South India and their work has become the standard for small-scale handmade production pottery in India. There are now more than fifteen potteries in the Pondicherry area, making everything from Raku to porcelain, in one-person studios or small-scale units employing up to forty people, makers ranging from educated Indians and Westerners to unschooled villagers with absolutely no prior experience with clay. Golden Bridge has been teaching for more than three decades and studio potters from all over India come to learn with them. It is one of the most dynamic centers for learning studio pottery.