There is a bronze haathi in your serving bowl!

Now you can serve cocktail snacks and chips in handmade ceramic tableware designed by some of india's best ceramic artists. an exhibition-cum-sale that can change the way your kitchen looks, opens today

Now you can serve cocktail snacks and chips in handmade ceramic tableware designed by some of India's best ceramic artists. an exhibition-cum-sale that can change the way your kitchen looks, opens today

If you like surprises, why not make your pals jump in wonderment the next time they drop by at your home for a drink. Serve chips in a ceramic serving bowl, topped to the brim, and let your buddies dig in and munch until they hit a hard lump while rummaging. It could be a quirky elephant, or any other figurine that ceramic artist Ela Mukherjee likes to house in all her serving bowls.

On the Table, a ceramic exhibition by Tranceforme Designs that opens in the city today, can make shopping for boring serving bowls and spoon-holders, fun. "The aim is to make available to people ceramic structures that are functional in the purest form," says Trupti Patel, curator of the show that hosts the works of 12 ceramists from Pondicherry to Baroda and Delhi. They are all limited-edition pieces, so whatever you buy here, you are not going to see on someone else's dining table. "Adding these pieces to your tableware can make a mundane meal a fine dining experience. Despite being exclusive, every piece is reasonably priced," she says.

Ela Mukherjee's serving bowls have quirky bronze figurines sitting in them	Dipalee Daroz's serving bowl engraved with Chinese technique, Sancai
Abhay Pandit's ceramic structure is inspired by drought, and can work as a wall hanging or can be used as a platter to serve dry fruits	Shampa Shah's glazed box

Get ready to choose from Ira Chaudhuri's lamp bases made using Sgraffito (a form of decoration made by scratching through a surface to reveal a lower layer in a contrasting colour) designs, Perin and Ralli Jacob's server set bowls and candle holders, Trupti Patel's limited-edition porcelain dinner services and ambient scent diffusers, Dipalee Daroz's porcelain serving bowls, Abhay Pandit's platters and bowls, which are a tribute to the sea, and Shampa Shah's glazed boxes in botanical forms among others.

"Functional pottery only works when it has the right mix of technique and aesthetics," says Dipalee Daroz, whose serving bowls have been adorned with Sancai, a Chinese technique that she's given a contemporary twist.

At: TranceForme, 36, Laxmi Mills Estate, Shakti Mills Lane, off Dr E Moses Road, Mahalaxmi. Opens today at 6.30 pm
Call: 24939916
For: Rs 1,000 onwards