City tour
Magic of Varanasi
Full day tour of the world's oldest continuously inhabited city
The Andaman Way: Varanasi Enamelling Workshop
Meet a master enamellist. Witness centuries of trade fused in fire. Take home a piece only you could have made.
Rs7500/person onwards
4.9 Tripadvisor Rating
3.5Hrs
Responsible Tourism Award
IATO Member
Tourism Ministry Recognised
What the Andaman Way Workshop Actually Is
The Andaman Way is a journey to reconnect you to your sensory world through tactile art in the oldest living city on Earth, conducted by a Varanasi native who brings an unique worldview and technique. Soma Pradhan, enameller and metalsmith, will take you through a full working session where you will be immersed in the history of enamelling, it’s complex and amazing ties to Varanasi and then learn how the art is created. Finally, you will participate int the creative process yourself and go home with a piece that is truly yours. In this act of creation lie both the path to knowledge and the reconnection.
Key Facts: The Andaman Way in Varanasi
Duration | Two hours and thirty minutes |
Pick & Drop | Your hotel in Varanasi |
Group Size | Up to eight guests |
Schedule | Every Saturday and Sunday |
Price | Rs 7500-9200 per person |
Includes | Studio access, kiln firing, tools, materials, one finished piece |
Lead By | Soma Pradhan |
Language | English |
Your Day in the Varanasi Enamelling Workshop
Stage 1- The Studio
You arrive at a working artist’s studio, not a performance space. The kiln, the tools, the scattered copper and glass are hers, used daily, not arranged for visitors.
Stage 2- The History
Varanasi is a place replete with stories and history and its dialogue with global luxury is compelling. Enamelling reconnects you to your sensory world through the tactile art itself as well as through a recounting of that dialogue.
You will hear about the interchange of ideas between Europe and India, leading to the export of brocade-kincob-from Varanasi to the West and how, centuries later, that same legendary shimmer would be found in the watch dials of Switzerland and inspire Soma to create her own idiom of enamelling art.
The narrative will cover how enamel art arose in Egypt, Cyprus, thence Byzantium, and thereafter migrated to India. While the more ritualistic and decorative aspects of enamel have taken root in India(popularly known as Meenakari), Soma is pursuing a different stream with deep roots in the city of her birth. One thread is the impact of brocade on European luxury. The other is the development of colour as a portrayal of spirituality and emotion, developed by Wassily Kandinsky and the Blue Rider Group upon direct inspiration by Annie Besant who ran the Theosophical Society just across the street from where this session will be held. This is where Soma grew up and went to university.
Soma’s work, therefore, is not only rooted to Varanasi but to the sensory world. She is a rare artist who has worked both on brocades and enamel and continues to hone her expertise with a traditional smithing establishment in the city.
Stage 3- The Making
The workshop opens with a 30-minute welcome and a short lecture on what enamelling is, how the craft developed in Varanasi, and its ties to the European tradition.
This is followed by an extensive, deep preparation and creation process where Soma works with you herself to create an enamelled piece.
Thereafter, you participate in the firing process which will led by Soma and you will have the opportunity to see how temperature and time transforms something completely, a real vitreous process.
The session closes with a conversation and a wrap-up, as participants look at the finished work together and reflect on what they have made.
Does the Andaman Way sound compelling?
What Makes the Andaman Way Different
This is not a demonstration. It is a session with a working artist, capped at eight guests, built around a single enamel piece you make, fire and carry home yourself.
You learn inside an art environment with a working session.
Soma leads every session herself, so your questions go to the person who has spent years at this craft.
The session begins with stillness
Before you touch a single material, you pause. The Andaman Way starts with a deliberate slowing of the mind in the space before contact. Then you meet the elements one at a time: copper, powder, water. By the time your hands begin to work, your mind and senses have already been focused.
You hear the story before you make the piece
Each session opens with a short talk, on what enamelling is and why it matters here. You learn that Varanasi’s enamelling, like its brocade, has been tied to the cultural and trading centres of Europe for hundreds of years. You trace the thread from Varanasi to Limoges by way of the Purple of Cassius, the Middle East and the Persian court. You see its echo in the fragile silver heritage of the Andaman coast, and how the Galleon trade and other routes carried it further.
You watch your own piece transform
The 30 minute firing is an active, deliberate pause. As the enamel fuses in the kiln, it mirrors the geological forces that shape the Earth, through the visible change that heat and time bring about. Enamel can be fired and refired, and that process makes each finished piece rare, durable and impossible to replicate exactly. Yours will not be matched by anyone else’s.
You are taught by someone who belongs to this city
Soma was born in Varanasi, took a Master’s degree in Botany here, painted on the ghats and returned to work in brocade as a textile designer. She later trained with one of Asia’s most celebrated enamel practitioners at NAFA and now works on a global scale from Singapore. Varanasi remains her artistic sanctuary and the critical node in her enameling work. Her philosophy is set out in her book, The Andaman Way, available on Amazon.
You leave with something that lasts
You go home with one finished enamel piece you made with your own hands. In years to come, its surface will bring back the warmth of the kiln and the quiet of the studio, and a Varanasi that most visitors never see.
Meet Soma Pradhan
Soma Pradhan was born on the ghats of Varanasi, and it is the city she keeps returning to, in practice as much as in person. She trained first in botany, earning her Master’s degree before she ever touched a kiln, and spent her early years painting along the ghats and working as a textile designer inside Varanasi’s brocade tradition. That grounding in pattern, material and plant science still shows in how she handles enamel today, less like decoration and more like something closer to chemistry.
She later trained under one of Asia’s most respected enamel practitioners and now works from a base in Singapore, carrying the craft to a global stage while returning regularly to where it started. The Andaman Way is the name she gives both this studio session and her wider philosophy of sensory wellness through tactile art, also the title of her own book. For Soma, Varanasi is not a backdrop. It is, in her own words, an artistic sanctuary and the critical node in all her enameling work.
Pricing chart
4-8
Rs7500/pax
- Pick & drop
- Private car
- Led by Master Enamellist
- Full studio access, kiln firing, tools and all materials
- One finished enamel piece to take home
2-3 Persons
Rs8000/pax
- Pick & drop
- Private car
- Led by Master Enamellist
- Full studio access, kiln firing, tools and all materials
- One finished enamel piece to take home
Everything Taken Care Of
From 9:30 AM pickup to 1 PM drop, every detail is handled. Nothing hidden, nothing extra.
Included
- ✅ Personally led by Soma Pradhan
- ✅ Full studio access, kiln firing, tools and materials
- ✅ One finished enamel piece to take home
- ✅ Hotel pickup and drop anywhere in Varanasi
- ✅ Private air conditioned vehicle with an experienced driver
Trip Itinerary
The Andaman Way: Varanasi Enamelling Workshop
9:30 AM - Hotel pick up from Varanasi
Welcome and History Talk
Studio Preparation
Hands On Enamel Making
Kiln Firing
Finishing and Take Home
1:00PM- Hotel drop back
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