InTucker Magazine

Tripti Yoganathan: Shaping Her Place in Tucker

There is no one “Tucker Way.” There are as many approaches to the Tucker Way as there are community members. Our residents find their own methods of contributing to the Tucker community through a combination of volunteering, teaching, achieving and more to shape their own space in Tucker. The first face of this new spotlight is Tucker resident and full-time potter Tripti Yoganathan, whose ceramics journey began at Tucker Recreation Center.

Yoganathan was raised in India. From a young age, her parents encouraged her to pursue a well-rounded education in both academics and the arts. She earned two Bachelor’s degrees; one in mathematics and the other in Indian Classical Dance, and then her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics.

She moved to the United States in 1997 and became a new mother. While her husband traveled for work, Yoganathan’s academic career slowed to care for her daughter. She realized she needed a hobby.

Yoganathan tried her hand at many crafts while searching for the perfect fit. Then she registered for a pottery class at Tucker Recreation Center and fell in love. She took classes for a year there before pursuing more advanced courses at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta.

“It’s a wonderful place,” Yoganathan said of Tucker Recreation Center. “I learned and came back to teach there in 2004. Since 2017 I’ve been teaching at Callanwolde.”

At Tucker Recreation Center, Yoganathan studied and taught wheel pottery, where the potter sits at a circular platform and uses their hands to shape the clay in a symmetrical way. “I’m predominantly a wheel potter,” she explained, “but at Callanwolde, sometimes I teach two classes, sometimes I teach one. I teach hand building in both.” Hand building does not use a throwing wheel; instead, the potter uses their hands to shape clay through techniques like pinching, coiling and slab rolling. It is the oldest form of pottery.

“The transition was very gradual because my pots started becoming very elaborate,” said Yoganathan. “It’s a lot of form alteration, and hand building comes in ‘handy’ that way.”

Yoganathan is passionate about her pottery’s surface decoration. “It’s my thing,” she said. “I love to decorate. Initially I used to do all the carving influenced from Indian folk arts. Different pots have different folk art from different places in India. It’s very elaborate, very fine carving.”

Why did she initially take inspiration from India? “When I started, I was very new in a very different culture,” she said. “The homesickness and staying true to who I am and where I’m from led to using my background on my pots. All the surface decoration was just remembering what I grew up with.”

After living here for over 25 years, Yoganathan has found additional inspiration for her decoration in nature. “Georgia is beautiful in the spring and fall. Now my pots are cornflowers, the ginkgo, dogwoods. It started with the irises. There was a whole series of irises.”

Her love of fine carving is why porcelain is her preferred working material for decoration. As she explains, the small particle size makes for very smooth carving, and the colors of the glaze show more vibrantly against porcelain than other kinds of clay.

“Sometimes I do stoneware, too,” Yoganathan admitted, “if I’m demoing something because stoneware gives very nice and warm looking pots. I still decorate those, but those decorations are different than what I make in porcelain.”

Her academic background shines through in the intelligent way she discusses the advantages of her favorite material: “Porcelain is the best clay. It’s very strong once it’s fired because the particles, the bonding is very tight. So the pots are food safe. Very nonporous.”

Decoration may be Yoganathan’s favorite part, but it’s not her starting point. First she forms her pots, then she decides what would look best on it.

“The form of the pots guides that,” she said. “It may be a series, but I don’t repeat a whole lot. Once I am done with one kind of design, then I move on to something else.” She thinks the variety is why she still enjoys pottery. “I don’t restrict myself that way,” she said.

Her search for variety has led to challenging herself with the creation of double-walled pottery. Double-walled pottery allows for wider decorative freedom, as the outer layer may be carved intricately and decorated without affecting the functionality of the inner pot. The technique suits Yoganathan’s decorative specialty, but it is not easy. “If something is hard to do, you want to know more about it,” she explained. She started with a small teapot. While it could pour tea, it could only hold a small volume. “Now,” she said with pride, “all the pieces I make function.”

Yoganathan’s skills have been widely recognized. She has taken part in several national and international juried exhibitions. Many of these have been invitationals, and she was even recognized at the 2022 Smithsonian Craft Show and in the Smithsonian Magazine. Her work has been published in the last four years of International Ceramic Arts Network Calendars and in Atlanta Magazine. Still, she does not allow others’ expectations to influence her work.

“It’s what I like to do with my pots. Whether other people will like it is secondary for me.”

Her favorite project of her own is a double-walled teapot shaped like a fish. It is the first piece she showcases at the top of her website. “Fish have very fluid lines,” Yoganathan said. “Somehow I can make fish with any kind of utility, like a gravy boat or salt and pepper shakers.”

While her pottery has reached worldwide appeal, Tripti Yoganathan and her pottery studio “Ananya,” named for the Sanskrit word for “unique,” are still based here in Tucker. You can see and purchase her work on her website at triptiyoganathan.com and view her double-walled pottery in-person at the Swan Coach House Gallery Summer Invitational through July 30, 2026, located at 3130 Slaton Drive NW Atlanta, GA 30305.

Through her dedication, vision and teaching, Tripti Yoganathan has shaped her own Tucker Way. Do you know any community members who embody the Tucker Way? Share their stories with us for a chance to be featured in InTucker Magazine!