Sung Cereal Bowl — Black Clay

A cereal bowl made from black clay, shaped entirely by hand — no potter's wheel involved. The women who make these pieces stand over the form and work it with their hands and basic tools until it takes shape, which is why every bowl has slightly uneven walls and a rim that curves where it wants to. The tone varies from deep black to warm brown depending on where the fire reached each piece during firing — so your bowl may look different from the one in the photo, and that's not a flaw; it's how you can tell it was made by a person.

This is Lyrnai pottery from Meghalaya's Jaintia Hills — made by women in the villages of Tyrchang and Lyrnai using clay pulled from the Sung Valley floor. Each piece is hand-molded, fired in an open kiln for nine to ten hours, then plunged white-hot into Sohliya bark water to give it the distinctive black finish. This tradition received a Geographical Indication tag (GI No. 1095) in 2024.

15 cm diameter × 5 cm height (approx. 5.9 × 2 in) · Black clay · Burnished with serpentine stone · Hand wash only · Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, India