Ellen Rijsdorp
Born: December 1962, The Hague, Netherlands
Upon finishing high school Ellen went to the Art Academy in Kampen, but very soon discovered that if she wanted to be a real potter she had to go to the Ceramic School in Gouda. Ellen studied there from 1984-1991 and while there learnt how to throw for production work. After finishing at the Ceramic School she took various workshops in raku techniques that she applied to her own work. Ellen has done this over the years in order to build a balanced collection of work.
Ellen also started teaching ceramics after leaving school. She taught at the ceramic center ‘Kerade’ in Delft from 1990 to 2002. Since 2002 she has been teaching at the Technical University Delft.
After years of experimentation Ellen returned to wheel thrown stoneware. Ellen’s present work consists of straight polished areas together with the random lines of the raku firings. The reduction firing is a difficult and unpredictable process but lends itself to a fantastic palette of colours. Her shapes are made upside down and are consistent with her previous work with changes from flat shapes to more rounded forms. This makes the objects more suitable for her treatment of the surface of each piece. The shapes are double hauled and the body is painted with various stains. Texture is added by pushing tools along the surface of the clay during the spinning of a piece. The patterns that are made on the surface are then filled with a little bit of glaze and then fired at 1200 degrees.
Ellen lives with her husband and two children and works from an old gun powder house called Kruithuis in Delft which was built in 1660.