From graphic design to ceramics
- Sebastian trained in raku techniques with his mother
- Karak creates tiles with fire, water, sawdust
- No two tiles are the same
Karak collective founder Sebastian Rauch and his partner Thomas Rösler are devoted to perfecting imperfection. Sebastian discovered and developed Japanese raku tile techniques by training with his mother, Marta Rauch-Debevec. Six years ago, he abandoned his desk job as a graphic designer and became certified in the ancient raku firing process. He started his own workshop after shaping smouldering red hot tiles in the workshop of his parents for many years.
INTERVIEW
My mother is a ceramics master and my father constructs clay dwellings for architects like Herzog de Meuron. I started building little clay houses when I was about four or five years old, but I never thought I would continue the family tradition.
I have always loved patterns, so when my mother wanted to build a house she asked me to design a tile for her. I suddenly became aware of the importance of creating beauty that will outlast us, something that might touch someone in 100 years.
My goal is to create soulful objects and share the sense of well being they create with others. For the last 100 years, society has striven for the optimisation of functionality, neglecting beauty. Yet beauty can motivate you to keep something, which is more sustainable.
Tiles are seemingly banal, but they have taught me a new way of thought, they shape our staff and also move the people who experience them. They encourage appreciation of the unexpected, the unspoken, the unreasonable; to not hide errors and imperfections.
Sebastian Rauch & Thomas Rösler
Tile maker
Bludenz, Austria
Recommended by Meisterstrasse Handmade
AVAILABILITY
By appointment only
PHONE
+43 555220888
LANGUAGES
German, English
