Spring awakening in the atelier

Spring is coming with big steps and the first sun tickles everyone out of their hibernation - except for the potters from Keramik-Kartell.de! They have been in the studio since autumn and are working diligently. Winter is their season! Not because they don't like the sun or the summerly chirping of birds, it's simply the warmth. The kiln heats the ceramics to over 1000°C with every firing, and even the best insulation cannot completely shield this. In the pottery workshops of Keramik-Kartell.de it is always comfortably warm and from spring onwards this is exactly what becomes a problem. Nobody has fun working at 30 °C in the workshop, especially since occupational health and safety must be maintained.

That is why most of the potters of Keramik-Kartell.de move their studio to the garden in spring and produce their ceramics from there. It is also much nicer to listen to the birds and watch the bees collecting. But also in springtime caution is advised. The sun and the clay do not get along with each other very well. The heat causes an uneven evaporation of the water within the clay and damages the statics of the respective works. As a potter you do not have it easy. In winter you have to protect your clay and glazes from frost and in summer from heat. In principle, spring and autumn are the best seasons for clay lovers from Keramik-Kartell.de

With the spring, however, the ceramicists from Keramik-Kartell.de also have the desire to experiment again and so they meet for joint ceramic activities! Usually it all boils down to an afternoon of raku in the garden where everyone contributes something. During these raku days everyone can unfold and live out their creative urge to the full. There are talented clay players and those who want to become so and together we from Keramik-Kartell.de create an atmosphere full of ceramic novelties. The handmade Raku tea bowls are one of the highlights. First they are lavishly modelled by hand in winter or made on the turntable, then they oversleep in the studio for almost half a year. Only in spring does it become apparent whether the work in winter was worthwhile. The future Raku ceramics are awakened from their Sleeping Beauty sleep and worked with the elaborate Japanese technique - Raku firing. Raku means "joy" and this is exactly what comes up in spring when the first raku tea bowls are made outside. It is a wintery greeting in spring, when you drink your first tea from a raku tea bowl, with the raku kiln in view. Don't worry, more raku chawans are on their way, spring at the Keramik-Kartell has just begun.