Katerina Evangelidou | Allowing things to happen

"I have always found the potter’s wheel to be a wonderful tool that is capable of much more than just making round pots." 

Katerina Evangelidou in her studio

I was born in Athens and studied ceramics at West Surrey College of Art and Design (currently University for the Creative Arts). I now live, work and teach in Farnham where my studio has been established since mid-‘80s.

The first sight of the freshly cut surface of grogged clay left me spellbound...and the rest is history.

I have always found the potter’s wheel to be a wonderful tool that is capable of much more than just making round pots. All the making of my work starts and finishes on the wheel, including flattening, changing of form, wire cutting and on occasions the re-throwing of a piece of work.

Early Cycladic figures with their economy of design along with the controlled physicality of Japanese pots have always been a spring of inspiration. 

"I just set up the circumstances to the best of my ability and allow things to happen."

In the kiln

Wood-firing came as a natural choice. The fly ash in the wood-firing kiln (designed and built by Graham Ellerby) along with a little salt vapour that is added towards the end of the firing, emphasise the edges and develop a very natural and desirable dialogue with the form of the work.

"Unpredictability keeps me going."

I would like to think that after all these firings I would be able to understand fully and harness the dynamics of the wood-firing but the more I do it the less I know. And this unpredictability keeps me going.

Katerina Evangelidou. May 2019.