Lisa Katzenstein

“Why I make what I make”

Your early experiences shape you both as a person and this is particularly true of an artist. I spent my early childhood in 1960s Rome, a place and time caught between the traditions of the past and the glamour of the post war economic miracle.

This early indoctrination in to colour, and style, exemplified by the maiolica tableware made in small workshops, affected my whole outlook on ceramics. A fusion of the functional with the exuberance of totally unnecessary and gratuitous decoration.

My aim is to use the techniques of tin glazed earthernware with a modern sensibility and function, tradition is nothing if it does not re-invent itself. My sources of inspiration range from post war textile designs and illustrations, landscape painting, to packaging ephemera.I try to compress the essence of a plant or landscape into a flat pattern on my vases and lamps.

All my work is hand painted using wax resist to layer colours and incise lines into which oxide is inlaid to produce a line resembling an etching. To do this I pre-fire my glaze to 705C to “sinter” the glaze on, so giving me a tough but absorbent surface to paint on.