Melanie van der Donk

Ceramicist

©Melanie Van der Donk

From backstage to potter's wheel

Melanie used to be a stage designer
She is passionate about passing on her skills through teaching
She is one of the few ceramicists developing her own glazes

Melanie van der Donk studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in her early twenties and worked as a stage designer at some of the most significant German-speaking theatres in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. During that time, she became fascinated by the work of the famous ceramicist Jan Bontjes van Beek. Decades later, in 2009, and encouraged by her grandmother’s advanced age of 101, Melanie started an apprenticeship in order to pursue a new profession during her second half century – she began studying ceramics at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She opened her workshop in 2014 and now specialises in large vessels, shaped on the potter’s wheel and decorated with glazes she develops herself.

Interview

©Melanie Van der Donk

Can you pinpoint a memorable moment in your pottery career?: Opening the kiln for the first time was such a special moment. I also remember the astonishing time when my master Anton Andert centred one of my vases on the pottery wheel with just one kick.
Do you remember the first ceramic piece you made?: Yes, it was a candlestick in the shape of a ship. Very plain, very clear and the candles somehow represented the masts. My very first piece is a special memory, but it's always magical when I open the kiln to discover that a particular shape has really worked out well.
Where do you get inspiration for your shapes and glazes?: As pottery is such an ancient craft, there is almost no totally new shape. The point is to reinvent them with your own character, energy and strength. Inspiration, for me, come from nature – colours of rocks, shapes of plants – and also contemporary art and the ceramics of the Sung dynasty.
Do you see yourself as an artist or an artisan?: I do not see myself as a pure craftswoman, but rather also as an artist. This manifests itself in my constantly evolving work and the resulting unique pieces, my research work in silicate chemistry and the attempt to combine form and surface to create a harmonious whole.

Melanie van der Donk is a master artisan: she began her career in 2009 and she started teaching in 2015