Ceramics Buy Anja

MEET Anja Penger-Onyett

High-fired stoneware for indoors and outdoors

Anja is a ceramic artist and is largely self-taught, started pottery as a hobby in evening classes over 30 years ago. 10 years ago, she decided to turn her hobby into a full-time profession.

Her work is mostly thrown on the potter’s wheel and then altered and sculpted. She likes to make decorative ceramics either for display in the garden, on a balcony or on a patio, or indoors. She also makes functional ceramics, again thrown on the potter’s wheel and altered to obtain unusual forms.

Anja is inspired by natural forms, flowers and seed heads. When she makes her pieces, she tries to emphasise the characteristics of an instantly recognisable shape. For example, her poppy seed heads have large crowns which are even more pronounced by the vibrant colour of glass frits in the middle. The results are not just ceramic vessels but sculptural pieces.

The use of white stoneware clay enables her to fire the pieces to high temperatures and allows the colours of the glazes to come through. All work is either fired in an electric kiln or under reduction conditions in a gas-fired kiln to stoneware temperatures. This makes the decorative pieces frost-proof and suitable for outdoors all year round.

She mixes all my glazes from raw materials and the experimenting never stops! She wants to let the glazes tell a story inspired by nature, travel, landscape and environment: her way of painting with minerals and fire.

More work can be found on her website www.ceramicsbuyanja.co.uk