Adil

Anamika

Angad

Ange

Chinmayi

Ange Sabine Peter


I was born in Hamburg in 1962. However, two years down the line, my parents moved to Pondicherry to join the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. As a result, I've lived most of my life in this part of the world. I majored from the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in organic chemistry and Sri Aurobindo's philosophy. My working experience includes teaching English as a second language (which earned me my home and pottery studio in Auroville, from teaching in Taiwan), desktop publishing, and writing.

Pottery
I first came in contact with pottery through a student of Ray Meekers. In the few minutes that I watched Ray give his students a demo, I knew that I had found my master and my vocation. I never looked back. I can say, Ray broke me in to the art of clay, and Debbie, his partner, gave me the finish in the finer aspects of trimming and painting. It took me six years to get to the point where I have my own studio in Auroville, and am able to spend most of my day working with clay.

A way of life
Pottery, to me, is a way of life, the materialisation of a philosophy. The philosophy of the manifestation of consciousness in matter. Every aspect of it, including cleaning the workspace and releasing the finished work in the right spirit, is important to me.

I work in three stages:

• First the more grounded aspect of producing functional ware. Simple, basic, matt...
  

• Next the less stable aspect of working in sketches, seeking for the right balance in the expression of a new idea. Designing with one foot on the ground.
  

• The third is pure overflow, unpremeditated, of creative energy. It just takes me, and I take the clay.

Each of these three lines are paths of infinite possibilities of refinement and perfection. Every morning, before I start work, I look at a writing I put up on my studio wall:

"Doing pottery should not be like climbing a mountain, it should be like walking down a hill in a pleasant breeze.."       - by Shoji Hamada.

Sometimes my days become long sessions of meditation on the wheel, or between glaze buckets, and sometimes I am graced with a sense of transcending the apparent... Sometimes I almost die from stoking my kiln 13 hours non-stop, the pain is everywhere, but the temp isn't getting anywhere near where you want it! This is my life.

ange@auroville.org.in