Ira Chaudhuri studied fine arts at Santiniketan, (1949), and intermittently practiced pottery at Baroda’s Faculty of Fine Arts (1951-70). She taught for a year (1963-64) at the Pottery section at the Faculty in Baroda. In 1976, at the Garhi Studios she switched from earthenware to stoneware pottery. She was a guest potter at the Rural Reconstruction Department at Santiniketan in 1978, and taught pottery at University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania in 1980-81. In the highly distinctive decoration on her pots, she has been influenced by Indian tribal, pre-Colombian and Oceanic art. She incises or scratches the designs on the pots often through slip colour, giving the pots a rich and attractive textural appearance. Ira became a potter by accident rather than design and she continues practicing it because of what she calls a ‘helpless addiction’ to the craft! She has exhibited her pots and ceramics all over the world.

Ira Chaudhuri lives and works in New Delhi.