CUT and STRETCH

In her thirty years of experience in the field of ceramics, Karin Putsch-Grassi’s technique has evolved incessantly, always stimulated by the strong connection with ceramics itself, as well as by an enthusiasm for experimenting with new techniques and clays and a continual search for challenges.

She has always worked on the relationship between shape and surface, using both throwing and also slap building as her creative technique. The shapes of her pieces are simple, and have a well-defined and linear outline. The final appearance is the result of processes similar to those that nature undergoes, i.e. submitted to continuous changes by atmospheric factors.

Most recently, the artist Karin Putsch-Grassi has perfected the technique named by her as “CUT & STRETCH”. It consists of making incisions in the surface of the ceramic work, which in a second time is pulled, lengthened or even widened until it creates uncontrollable clefts and fissures which are produced, however, by the non-uniform thickness and by the consistency of the clay. The surface shows the traces of the work progress, and it is the firing of the piece that establishes this special moment.