“To make a hand-blown glass product, you need strong arms more than strong lungs because you are manipulating molten glass stuck at the end of a five-foot long pipe. Blowing is easy because glass inflates easily when it is heated,” says Srila Mookherjee matter-of-factly.

Mookherjee, who studied the art of glassblowing under the guidance of Anthony Stern in London during the 1980s, is the first person to set up a glass atelier (Aakriti) in India.