Anja Graefe (Streetdog Pottery)

Some of the pots I am currently working on are made from two parts, a lower bowl-shaped part and a top cylinder part that has either been thrown on the wheel or rolled out as a slab or coil and attached to the lower part and pulled up on the potter´s wheel.

I am 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.
I like 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 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. I feel particuarly attracted to aged and rough surfaces, to cracks and marks that over time form and thus experiment with different throwing and altering techniques, slips and glazes, in particular with crackle slips (different recipes, different application from pouring to dipping, brushing and spraying).

I mostly fire in reduction at cone 9 and 10 and am interested in the fascinating realm of glazes, glaze chemistry and special effect glazes like celadons and ash glazes. I make my own celadon glazes for the porcelain pots and ash glazes from the ash of different trees and plants I burn.

My little workshop is situated in Colyton, Devon.