Katharina Klug

After growing up in her mother’s pottery business, Katharina trained professionally at college in Austria and Germany for 6 years. She set up a business in Cambridge in 2011.

Katharina has been teaching pottery and particularly throwing on the wheel for 25 years.

She was given the Silver Award in 2013 and 2015 by Craft and Design magazine in the ceramic category. In 2014 she was chosen to join the Crafts Council's Hot House program. In 2016 Katharina was accepted for selected membership of the Craft Potters Association (CPA).

She was shortlisted for the international Nasser Sparkasse Ceramic Price Westerwald/Germany in 2016. 2017 Katharina exhibited for the first time at Ceramic Art London.

She also got an honourable mention for two of her entries into the International Ceramic Festival competition in Japan. Her work was featured in the 289 issue of Ceramic Review for their Masterclass series in 2018. In 2022/2023 she received funding for a research project to travel to Japan by the Arts Council England which was followed up by a solo exhibition at CPA Gallery London.

Describe your approach to teaching
I teach throwing the way I was trained in Austria and have been practising for 30 years, with very little water which leads to good control over the form. Demonstrations are followed by hands-on tasks to practice the seen skills. Work and movements will be analysed to improve further.

What inspires your own work?
My work is about simplicity of design and shape, bringing these in relationship to the surface. I am inspired by the elemental colour and shape of ancient Japanese and Korean pottery. My focus lies in shape, strong contrast and timelessness of design. What I love about ceramic is that it starts off as a soft lump and can become pretty much anything you want it to be. After the firing, it is hard and durable and can survive centuries. But at the same time, it’s fragile and can be broken into pieces in a moment.