Ruscha Keramik – West German Art Pottery

The most appealing ceramics have one thing in common: each object starts as an experiment in clay at the hands of a potter.  This was true of Ruscha Keramik, an integral part of the West German Art Pottery movement, which strove to create new shapes, innovative glazes and vibrant colours, all without the use of moulds.

Lending our interiors resonance and depth, exceptional ethnic pieces are handcrafted using natural materials and unique processes which value ancestral know-how above all else.

Most often made with raw materials and natural colours, the addition of an ethnic piece to an interior helps create a warm and serene space.  But such pieces do so much more than that. 

The result of generations of skill and practice, ethnic objects are rich in character and truly unique. Hand fashioned using techniques that both reflect the natural environment as well as being respectful of it, each has its own story to tell. 

Displaying culturally significant pieces in our homes offers us a way in which we can consider the layers of our own history and heritage.  But it can also be a conduit through which we gain insight into other countries and their peoples, other practices and beliefs. We are thus granted access to the lives of others whilst being permitted to honour our own roots.   

An expression of our own national character - that is, a continuation and a safe guarding of meaningful traditions and rituals – ethnic pieces are also a reminder to open our eyes to new experiences: an invitation, as it were, to learn more, travel more and in doing so, gain insight those different from us. 

Ethnic pieces allow us to be custodians of the past and to decide who we really want to be in the present.

Breaking Bread |

A hundred years ago, homes in all parts of the world would possess a dough bowl; a vessel in which dough was mixed, it then also provided a warm place in which it could rise before being baked.  Bowls could be made from any wood as long as it was free from knots and other defects and were commonly handed down through generations.