First Harvest of the Year

My bell pepper plants spent the winter in the kitchen. They lost all their leaves in autumn but slowly they grew back and some even blossomed and grew fruit.

They were very tasty and the biggest one was about 9 cm long.

Everything grows on a much smaller scale during winter than in summertime out on the balcony. They can't seem to await it. Some more blossoms and fruit are sprouting!

Easter Eggs

I have a soft spot for folk art and find it incredibly inspiring. Over the Easter weekend I visited some small museums dedicated to Sorbian and rural culture in our area. Sorbian Easter eggs decorated with traditional patterns made by the use of hot beeswax, feathers and needles are very famous and you could watch them being made. It's fascinating!

Some eggs in their early stages

Finished eggs with traditional motifs

All the stages an egg goes through - layer by layer wax and dyes are applied

Many years ago in my childhood I painted eggs with this technique for the first time but never with such precision and skill. It takes a lot of practice and a very steady hand to get this good, but it's fun regardless of whether you are skilled or not.

Here are some of my feeble (and untraditonal) attempts of this year's Easter. Inspired by this tutorial at Lil Fish Studios blog I tried turmeric to dye some eggs. It works like a charm and gives the most gorgeous shades of yellow! The first tries with the darkest hues were already eaten when I took my pictures.

The egg to the left is an undecorated white one dyed with onion skins,
the eggs in the middle are dyed with turmeric and
the one on the right first had a bath in turmeric and then in commercial blue dye.

The yellow is turmeric. Red and blue are bought colours.

The blemishes are caused by melted wax when the dyes were used when still too hot. Stains can also be prevented when you blot dry the eggs. These will be eaten so it doesn't matter that much but when you make your eggs to stay longer it's better to be more careful.

Spring has arrived

It's time to revive my hibernating blog. I worked very slowly and very scarcely on my pottery this winter. In January I made this vase and glazed it a few weeks ago.


I tried to scratch a pattern (inspired by the animation films of Hungarian Folk Tales) into the glaze but it didn't work so well as it did on my test piece I made last year. I'm not so happy about it but it just shows the unpredictability of glazes. It was applied a bit too thickly I guess. I'm so intrigued by this technique, I'll try it again!

Muddy Hands

Last weekend most potters in the area opened their studios for visitors and gave insight into their working process. I took the opportunity and tried wheel-throwing again as everything was prepared and everyone invited to give it a try. I watched numerous videos about throwing the days before but it makes such a difference to try it myself. I don't have as much control of the clay's actions as I wish I had. Or of my actions for that matter. It's so hard to coordinate the speed of the wheel with my feet and at the same time the shaping of the clay with my hands. It always looks so breathtakingly easy when you watch a skilled potter building a beautiful vessel out of a lump of mud. To come that far it takes a lot of practice.

That's me opening the well.

Half my tries ended up deformed or in two pieces. Here are the ones I kept. They are wonky too and far from being perfect, but look, I managed to raise the walls! A little kid came watching me and my attempts and said with such a definite honest and serious attitude "I find this beautiful." and "I find this even more beautiful." - it was very encouraging!

On the next day I went to the pottery again because I wanted to decorate my pieces with some impressions but I had so weak and shaky hands from the day before, that I think I messed them up. Maybe I can amend them when they are dried.
Despite all the pain I want to try to throw the wheel again. The sooner the better!

It's thawing

I enjoyed wintertime, the glittering snow, the intriguing ice and the long cold and I feel very inspired creatively but not inspired at all to write about it.


I'm in lack of words and it feels wrong to tell about the difficulties the cold does to my hands and which kept me away from working with clay, and yet I love all the bright white crystalline wintriness. I'm fascinated by the colourlessness of the past weeks, the muffled sounds and the loud cracks caused by tension and pressure in the ice.

I made some drawings (Not the best idea when your hands hurt, but I couldn't help it.) of repeating but varying shapes. They might look simple but they are arduous exercises in drawing lines. To me they are more than sketches, they are this winter's creative representation.