Project Aangan was developed as a community-centric initiative enabling women from urban slum communities in Ahmedabad to explore ceramics as a means of livelihood and creative expression. The project adopted a participatory, co-creation approach, where decisions were made through shared agency, encouraging learners to discover their own relationships with the material rather than following prescriptive instruction. It recognized and built upon the tacit knowledge and lived experiences of the participating women, fostering a two-way exchange of learning. Hands-on workshops formed the core engagement, with a curriculum designed to introduce new ways of thinking, market awareness, and methods of documenting inspiration, sketching, and observation. The project also examined women’s employment ecosystems, socio-cultural contexts, interests, and aspirations, while exploring community-based learning pedagogies and artisan-designer collaboration models. Outcomes included ceramic products, a community exhibition, a film, a toolkit, packaging solutions and open-source resources.