Mud is brought to life every day through the potter's hands at Ensera Pottery Centre, which is located in Gullele District's neighbourhood of Chelot Medhaniyalem in front of the Nigerian embassy. They mould, burn, smoke and wield the soil from the ground into pots, dishes, mugs and vases for a living - a mastery of craft that has been handed down from one generation to the next for most of the potters.

"It's our tradition," said Nunush Beshahwored, one of the potters working at the newly established Centre. "I've made my living with it as my mother has and her mother before her."

Nunush and 350 other potters work at this Centre, brought to life through the initiative of former Deputy Mayor Takele Uma as a way to make the lives of the potters better. Many like Nunush, used to work from their homes before Ensera, meaning "pot" in Amharic, was opened.

"Pottery isn't an easy job," said the mother of two. "It involves multiple stages before you see the final product, but I work so my kids can have a better future."

It has been three months since she was invited to start working at Ensera, a working space built to accommodate 1,000 potters. The construction took 16 million Br, and its two warehouses, combustion centre and cafe lie on 4,400Sqm.

During the inauguration ceremony, Takele said that the City Administration built the Centre with the goals of fostering traditional pottery arts and transforming the lives of the people engaged in the sector. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) visited at the end of June.

The City Administration chose the location, a former minister's office, as it had been unoccupied and within close proximity to the potter's homes, according to Mahlet Ayalew, public relations officer for Gullele District.

Financed by the District and constructed by Gullele

District Construction Office, the Centre's aim was primarily to provide better working conditions for the potters with a daycare centre and a cafe to boot, according to her.

And indeed, it is a far cry from where the potters used to work. For one, the Centre has its own electronic combustion centre, a welcome respite from the dried cow dung Nunush had been burning in her home.

"The most difficult part was heating the moulds, as the smoke really affected my eyes and lungs," she said. "Having this workplace means a lot to me."

But it seems that those who built the Centre, completed within 19 days, have overlooked a number of considerations.

For starters, the high status of the Centre has come at a cost for the potters. The cost of the raw materials doubled once the women moved into this new place, according to Nunush. The cost of having mud delivered to the Centre also increased.

"I used to pay 30 Br to 50 Br to transport 10kg to 15kg of clay mud from the source to my home," she said.

This was enough for Nunush to make up to 40 pots a day. Now, that cost has lept to almost 300 Br. Other potters also share her experience.

"The price for the transportation of the mud is more than what I can afford," said Belay Dejen, another potter in the Centre. "But it is the basic material to make the pottery, so I borrow the money from the shops nearby to pay back after I sell what I make."

Belay, like Nunush, inherited the craft from her grandmother. She makes her livelihood and supports her two children solely through her work after she lost her husband a decade ago.

"I came to work here after I heard what the former Deputy Mayor shared at the opening of the Centre," she said. "He said that he wants to support us, and that he initiated it after seeing our neighbourhood filled with smoke. He thought that it had caught fire but discovered we were just working to earn our living."