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  • Sung Valley handcrafted black clay soup bowl showing deep smoky finish and organic form, burnished with serpentine stone, Lyrnai pottery from Meghalaya India, from WILLAGE
  • Sung Valley black clay soup bowl from above showing interior surface texture and hand-formed rim
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Sung Valley Soup Bowl — Handcrafted Black Clay

$36.00
Shipping calculated at checkout.

A soup bowl made from black clay, shaped entirely by hand with minimal tools and burnished with serpentine stone to give it that deep, smoky finish. Each one is slightly different — the walls aren't perfectly even, the rim has its own curve, and the tone varies from charcoal to warm brown depending on where the fire reached it during firing. That's the point.

The black isn't paint or glaze. Each piece is fired in an open kiln for nine to ten hours, then pulled out white-hot and plunged into water steeped with the bark of the Sohliya tree. That's the entire process — earth, fire, water, bark. In 2024, this tradition received a Geographical Indication tag (GI No. 1095), formally recognizing what the women of these two villages have known for centuries: this clay, from this valley, made by these hands, cannot be replicated anywhere else.

13 cm diameter × 6.5 cm height (approx. 5.1 × 2.6 in) · 300 g · Black clay from Sung Valley · Burnished with serpentine stone · Hand wash only · Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, India

Dimensions

13 cm diameter × 6.5 cm height (approx. 5.1 × 2.6 in)

Origin

India

MATERIALS

Black Clay, Burnished with Serpentine Stone

STORY

Lyrnai pottery is made by women in two villages in Meghalaya's Jaintia Hills — Tyrchang and Lyrnai, population under 2,000 combined. The clay comes from the Sung Valley, a 26 km² area with a mineral composition found nowhere else. There is no potter's wheel. Each piece is hand-molded, fired in an open kiln for 9–10 hours, then plunged white-hot into Sohliya bark water to achieve the black finish. The tone of each finished piece varies from deep charcoal to warm brown depending on where the fire reached it during the open-kiln firing — meaning no two pieces in the collection look exactly alike. This tradition received GI tag No. 1095 in 2024 after a decade-long application. WILLAGE carries this collection because this is exactly what we exist to do — bring indigenous craft to tables that would never otherwise encounter it.

Care Instructions

Hand wash only with warm water and mild soap. Do not microwave or dishwasher. The unglazed surface is porous — dry thoroughly after washing.

  • In stock

Preserve Traditional Craftsmanship and Generational Artistry

Made from locally sourced clay using no electricity, no machinery, and no synthetic materials. The entire process — molding, firing, finishing — is done by hand using methods unchanged for generations. Your purchase supports women artisans in villages with a combined population under 2,000.

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