The Potter

Since more than 40 years I am fascinated by ceramic. The path towards a professional potter is almost never absolutely straight and I will describe below, how warped my potter path has been up to now.

All began more than 40 years ago, when I spent several summer vacations at a local pottery. There I learned about clay preparation, glaze formulation (I still have all the recipes, even if some of the ingredients are no longer available due to poisonousness) and creation of slab built ceramic. About 20 years later I bought my first own kiln, a Naber 150. Then things sped up somehow: Purchase of an electrical potters wheel, wheel throwing power lessons with Birke Kästner, working with Markus Klausmann to deep dive in reductive saggar burning and of course the art of creation of tea pots. A two years visit in Japan followed. Now things became serious and I moved from a hobby to a real potter workshop. Another kiln for Raku (Chawan) and one for porcelain (1320°C) were necessary. Since three years I am firing regularly my ceramics in two wood fired kilns to bring the ceramics WabiSabi philosophy to perfection, finding my own ceramics way. Part of this path is also the development of own glazes and slips. Creating good ceramics requires capabilities and visions in many categories (material, shape, surface, haptic and usage) as well as in many disciplines (design, creation, glaze/slip and firing). I am absolutely sure, that in the coming 40 years I will still have more ideas than I am able to realize. The pottery path does never end!