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About me

I grew up in Germany in a family of artists and crafts people so it has always been very natural for me to be in an environment with a strong emphasis on art and crafts. Having a Steiner education and being surrounded by European culture, beautiful art and exhibitions also helped instil in me a high standard of quality.

After high school I went to train as a potter at Schmidt-Tummeleys Pottery on Juist Island, in the North Sea. Then for ten years, I had my own studio in the village of Fischerhude near Bremen. A trip to England in 1979 to visit many potters there gave me great inspiration and vision to build a wood fired kiln and do salt firing.

In 1989 I moved to New Zealand and worked at Driving Creek Railway and Pottery in Coromandel town. There I learned how to fire with wood and felt nurtured by Barry Brickell’s belief in me. Three years later I started my own studio in the neighbourhood and this is where you find me now.

I feel inspired, I love creating, permaculture, bio dynamics, growing food, dancing, singing, flax weaving, tramping.

I am a nature child,

I am energy !

I create domestic ware and sculptures fired at 1300°C with reduction. The clay I use is mostly stoneware clay mixed with some Coromandel clay. My pots are thrown on a Bernhard Leach Kickwheel and an electric wheel. I use a gas kiln and a wood fired two chamber climbing kiln, the second chamber is for salt firing. In 2016 I built another small wood fired up-draught kiln just for salting. Pine slabs from a local saw mill provide the fuel to reach these high temperatures.

I use shino and other glazes, often in layers on top of each other, dipped and poured and I decorate on top of that with the same glazes using brushes and a slip trailer. I also use slips for decoration and especially for the salt fired pots, I like to use stamps and combs which I press and roll and scratch into the still moist clay.? My pots are thinly thrown and light. They are dishwasher and microwave safe.

Some of my sculptures are Terracotta fired at 1140°C, no reduction, with red clay from Driving Creek Railway.