Vessels I wedge and throw clockwise, i.e. to the right - as it is traditionally done in the Far East, with stoneware clay entirely without grog, but Pictures and Objects are made of stoneware clay with very fine grog. At 850ºC, I fire all finished items for the first time (biscuit firing), then glaze them with self-made glazes, and fire them again in an electric kiln at 1250º to 1280ºC for about 8 hours for the 2nd time. The Vessels are made with very thin walls and thus rather appear like thin porcelain, and are often interspersed with old Chinese luck symbols. Sometimes a Vessel is also an Object. Of course there also are tea sets, bowls, plates, boxes - all items for daily use. These beautiful and useful items are obviously also practical and so they are all dishwasher-proof. All Vessels have a clear yet modest basic shape and make their impression through their mostly shiny, colour-changeable crystal-and/or-ash glazes.
Objects My Object "Trails in the Desert" which I had created for the Ceramics Biennial in Cairo in the year 2000 consists of four potter's wheel-produced spherical artifacts with I have perforated with symbols and set in a sandy landscape. Exactly as the wind erodes cliffs and leaves behind bizarre holes and crevasses, I have cut signs and images into this clay to represent various different cultures which have moved through the Egyptian desert. Another example of Objects are the "lucky stones", i.e. ceramic balls that are all over punctuated by Chinese luck symbols and are resting on a found stone as base. Also various 'Well Projects' have to be mentioned - e.g. the "bamboo well", a bowl with a well basin and many (ceramic) bamboo sticks.- Or "Ararat", the mountain teeming with animals in a big bowl with Ark and shards. And then there is the "healing herb well" which can be viewed at the Falkenstein pharmacy in Königstein-Falkenstein, Germany.
Pictures My Pictures are either free-formed, mostly glazed, sometimes in combination with gold leaf, Thai silk and acrylic colours, mounted on a wooden plate and, already for technical reasons: always in a frame. Or I use another working technique for Pictures, namely a printing process - as showcased by the example of the kimono series: The model for my kimono series is katagami, i.e. the Japanese art of material printing with paper stencils. Mulberry paper is soaked in persimmons juice, the pattern is cut into it and stabilised with wax. Dragonflies, herons, cranes and swallows are the "model animals" of choice. The oldest stencil prints have their origins in the time of about 1640. These old black-and-white patterns served as inspiration for the origination of my ceramic and silk Pictures.   BAMBOO is a perpetually worked-on subject. Bamboo sticks and leaves of glazed ceramic set on Thai silk, and sometimes still extended with acrylic ink, often have a hanging scroll format, i.e. they are about 30cm wide and 120cm high, the complete (triptych-type) picture being made up of 2,3 or 5 single pictures. In China and Japan ... bamboo is a symbol of survival, of strength, of not giving up under the most difficult circumstances. Big trees defy any storm with their big trunks - but they'll still break even if they are strong. Yet bamboo is strong and resists in a much more effective way: by bending and bowing and always coming straight again. The wind in bamboo is the music of Heaven.
Yin and Yang and other philosophical subjects such as the elements ... are shown in triangular format. "The Three" denotes concentration on the Essential, a sign of the divine world order. 
A far greater range of Pictures and Objects has been created for the theme "Places of Faith". This was inspired by a major exhibition of Ines Nickchen and disciples at the Berlin Cathedral in 1995/96. These works include the altar table with the Giralda of Sevilla (the steeple of the Sevilla Cathedral originally was a Moorish minaret), and a local church steeple with a golden dome and heathen graffiti as table feet. On the glass plate spanning these 2 feet there is a ceramic Bible. The Bible comes to life: the figures and objects in Matthew 15 (feeding the 4000 in the desert) were taken from the Bible and put next to it.
Furthermore there are also landscape pictures made of ceramic. These include a series of pictures about the Lake of Stechlin, a most beautiful, clear lake in Brandenburg (viz. Theodor Fontane, Chapter 1, "Der Stechlin").
NEW: waldGLASweg in Glashütten. A glas-art-info path including 7 special points of interest interpreted in glass by me. Opened in 2013. This is the ancient Far East definition for art which I personally feel most akin to because I am entirely convinced that mankind prefers harmony to provocation in order to achieve more peaceful solutions. And ... Radiesthesia can measure it for you: right-thrown ceramic and positive forms .. generate positive vibrations. It is also well-known that positive pictures contribute to the power of healing. And yes ...
If you wish to visit me at my workshop in Glashütten and look at, buy or order from my permanent exhibition here ...
For anyone who would like to participate in one of my weekly ceramics classes, there are two options:
In each of these classes, a maximum of 7 persons will work on their self-designed projects under my guidance. New course members, if beginners, will be integrated in a special 8 - week programme. Beginners will first learn the basic techniques allowing them to soon work independently. A main focus from the beginning will be creativity, which also develops quite naturally whilst working with clay. The basic course, therefore, not only concerns itself with creating bowls, vases and plates, but also concentrates on ceramic objects and pictures. The working groups will do creative work, interspersed with relevant discussions and laughter, not forgetting a tea break. |
