When Atul and Anuja Lath left behind the grid of Chandigarh in 2009 to build a home on the city’s fringes, their intention was simple: to create a place where slow living and a creative practice could merge. The land, a stretch of farmland framed by the Shivalik foothills, became the canvas on which they built the Aura Pottery studio. It began as a personal exploration of clay and design and gradually evolved into a working ceramic farm, a school, a lived-in atelier and a retreat. Today, Aura Pottery continues to be run by Anuja, and her daughter, Anya, who have infused it with a contemporary sensibility while preserving its spirit of stillness and inquiry. The result is a home that has slowly turned itself outward to welcome others into its rhythm.
What distinguishes Aura is its careful staging of time. Rather than a series of fleeting workshops, the studio offers residential pottery retreats that unfold with deliberate slowness. Participants can choose between short, week-long sessions or immersive programs lasting up to twelve weeks. These retreats are built around a rhythm of creation and reflection: mornings are dedicated to wheel-throwing, handbuilding, glazing, and firing, while afternoons stretch into long communal meals, garden walks, or yoga sessions that help recalibrate the body’s pace. This structure, beyond just pottery, encourages an entire reorientation of attention.
The curriculum itself is generous yet grounded. Beginners are guided through daily two-hour workshops held in small cohorts, while long-term residents receive more independent studio time under the gentle mentorship of visiting tutors. The studio’s facilities from its well-kept wheels and glaze benches to a robust kiln, support a wide spectrum of practice, from beginner experimentation to serious, professional work. Beyond the retreats, Aura offers studio rental and membership options, allowing local and travelling potters to work independently in an environment that prizes focus.
Their accommodation, known as the Potters’ Villa, mirrors the ethos of the studio: simple, sunlit, and connected to the surrounding landscape. Meals are prepared from the farm’s own produce or by local cooks, reinforcing Aura’s rootedness in its setting. Common spaces, both indoor and open-air, are designed to invite conversation, fostering a rare equilibrium between solitude and community.
But Aura’s true draw lies not only in its infrastructure, but in its atmosphere. It offers visitors a temporary reprieve from acceleration — an opportunity to think with their hands and rediscover slowness through material. Its Alumni often speak of the retreats as transformative in their understatement: a setting where instruction is personal, creativity feels unforced, and each day accumulates like the steady turning of clay on a wheel.
For designers, writers, and artists seeking a quieter discipline of making, Aura Pottery stands as both studio and sanctuary; a space where craftsmanship returns to its elemental state, and pottery becomes a rhythm of being, shaped by patience, humility, and the tactile intelligence of clay.
Located on the Siswan–Kurali Highway near New Chandigarh, about 19 kilometres from the city centre, the studio is pet-friendly and open to visitors. Workshops, retreats, and studio sessions can be booked through its official website.
Follow Aura Pottery here.
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