Manju Chattopadhyay

Manju Chattopadhyay was born in Cooch Behar, India. At a young age, she started to practice Madhubani, a traditional folk art practiced by women on mud walls using natural dyes, fingers, twigs, and nib pens. She also performed as a dancer, stage actress and musician, a passion that she continued exploring after moving from India to Singapore and, eventually, Hawaii. 

In 2017, she moved to Santa Fe with her husband, who began working as a glassblower at Prairie Dog Glass. Manju soon joined him in the shop and eventually started using the colored glass that Prairie Dog processes into frit for glass blowing in her mosaics. The themes and color schemes of her work are often based in the culture of her homeland. 

In the shop, Manju collects cut-offs and broken pieces that she kiln-fuses into elements to be used in her mosaics. In addition to those mosaics, she is also creating kiln formed glass pieces, using various fusing and slumping techniques.