Anja Graefe
Anja Graefe | Ceramics | Devon
Anja makes contemporary functional and decorative vessels and works mainly on the potter´s wheel but her work also includes coiling and slabs.
Anja is interested in exploring different kinds of clay (from the very fine nature of porcelain to the very rough surfaces of sculptural clay) to see how they behave when making the same shapes.
She likes to take the clay to its limits around the rim area by making it thinner and thinner until it starts to rip. This action feels freeing to her and challenging at the same time and a certain amount of courage seems necessary to risk functional and aesthetic ruin, yet creating a vessel that can stand proud in its own scarred self.
A parallel research has been to explore the surface of a pot. Anja feels particuarly attracted to aged and rough surfaces, to cracks and marks that over time form and thus experiments with different throwing and altering techniques, slips and glazes, in particular with crackle slips.
She mostly fires in reduction to cone 10 and is interested in the fascinating realm of glazes, glaze chemistry and special effect glazes like celadons and ash glazes.
Her workshop is situated in Colyton, Devon.