EKWC / European Ceramic Workcentre

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EKWC / European Ceramic Workcentre

EKWC | European Ceramic Workcenter | International artist-in-residence

International workplace where artists, designers and architects explore the possibilities of ceramics.

03/11/2026

The residency of … Sara Constant (CA)

An object’s shape and materiality affect its acoustic qualities – a brass trumpet sounds different from a woodblock, no surprises there. But how? The science behind it seems intimidating: resonance, frequencies, volume, directionality, reverberation, diffraction… Unfazed by the physics, Sara Constant researched the sound of porcelain loudspeaker horns that came out of the kiln in various states of deformation. Once assembled, the speakers’ differing resonant frequencies seep into all the sounds they play, like an unavoidable record of the material and its past. The results are audible in an installation that incorporates the feedback loops from ceramic XLR cables. Meanwhile, the horns are much like bullhorns or speakers in public spaces, giving them an inner tension of official directions and public protest, of authority and resistance. Who sends the messages, who relays them, who receives them? How and where do they get distorted? Can we even get a message across?

From a 3D-printed filament positive of a horn-shaped speaker, Constant was able to create a small series of rather voluminous one-part plaster slip-casting moulds into which she cast porcelain. Several of the horns were purposefully deformed before firing to encourage further deformation in the high-temperature kiln atmospheres. Further smaller speaker parts were similarly cast, and the speakers were assembled, wired and tested for their (differing) resonance(s). Besides this, Contant also worked with one of EKWC’s black clay bodies, producing a series of coiled ceramic cables, and slip-cast a series of cable jacks which she finished with black terra sigillata. Further surface experimentation included copper saturation glazes and lustres. She also worked on combining kanthal wire with goop glaze to produce her own miniature magnetic “exciters”.

www.saraconstant.ca

Acknowledgement: funding by Canada Council for the Arts

Photos: courtesy of the artist,

30/10/2026

The residency of … Cas van Deurssen (NL)

Several large vessels, objects, and numerous bowls with thick lively glazes testify to a contagious energy and an enthusiasm of discovery and creation. They also pose a question: is it Cas van Deurssen who applied his love of making to ceramics, or is it ceramics that called forth his vigorous response? He himself provides the answer: “Working with ceramics came with a renewed energy that I hadn’t expected to experience any time soon. A sense of openness, a process of making that isn’t immediately limited by thought.” Traces of construction remain, of the original intention to combine all kinds of materials in a large modular installation, but the surface commands attention. Layered, cracked, running, matt, shiny, metallic, insular, crystalline – myriad textures and structures caught in the wide-cast nets of Van Deurssen’s boundless experimentation. And suddenly, these configurations of glazes form the nets that catch your gaze and capture the imagination.

Van Deurssen moved fluidly through a wide range of ceramic process: from silicon and plaster mould-making to extruding, from coiling to press-moulding, from oxidation to reduction firing, from multiple (re)firings to only one. As mentioned, his glaze experimentation was also wide: not only the number of glazes he worked with, but also their application (spraying, brushing, dipping/pouring and laying) and in the chances he took when making them - working intuitively, not always writing things down, trying this and that, seeing (and embracing) what happened. He often added glass on top of his glazes, melting it into the in interiors of vessels, bowls, sculptures; and sometimes finished his works with readymade components (nuts and bolts, plastic chains, 3D printed objects).

Website: www.casvandeurssen.com
Instagram: .vandeurssen

Photos: courtesy of the artist,

27/10/2026

The residency of … Afra Eisma (NL)

After a particularly hectic year with solo shows in the US, Japan, India and the Netherlands, many more group shows and two awards, Afra Eisma arrived at EKWC with a simple goal: to learn enough about glazes to move beyond the ready-made mixtures available at the store. As a consequence, the objects she made are basically test pieces which, interestingly, consist of side tables and slippers, sandals and ceramic crocs. They exude a sense of comfort, of putting one’s feet up after a hard day’s work. The artist certainly didn’t loaf about – on the contrary – but the residency wasn’t particularly stressful either. Eisma took home essential knowledge, recipes, and buckets-full of glazes she mixed herself. Meanwhile, a series of flat, cut-out porcelain shapes crawling with figures, drawings – doodles really – has the tendency to transform into organs or insects; messy and clear-cut, beautiful, slightly disturbing. A promise of things to come.

Eisma worked with hand-building techniques while in residence: slab-making, coiling and sculpting, and primarily within a high-bisque / low-glaze firing rhythm which allowed her vivid colours and ranges of texture (crackly, crawly, glossy). Eisma’s also experimented with a number of glazes still in testing in EKWC glaze research lab - with sometimes wonderful and sometimes heart-breaking results.

Acknowledgement: supported by P.M. de Klerk Keramiek fonds

23/10/2026

The residency of … Si-Qi Peng (TW)

Sometimes, residents execute only part of a work in ceramics, making it hard to appreciate the results of their residency. Si-Qi Peng created long ceramic handles that look like crutches. They only make sense when you see them attached to the cassette player on wheels she developed with her boyfriend. Driven by the rotation of the wheels, the player produces garbled sounds – unless you find the correct speed to recognise a melancholy song. Meanwhile, a microphone picks up ambient sound which is reinforced, gradually drawing out the music. The fragility of the ceramic handles adds to a feeling of time passing and fading memories. Similar connotations are involved in Peng’s series of hand fans. When fans became obsolete, many were used to adorn the paper screens that divided interior spaces. These screens too have lost their function, but as decorative pieces they retain the mystique of things hidden from view.

Peng’s series of wall-hanging fans were cut from slabs of black, white and marbled clay. To them, she applied many different glazes - ranging from low-temperature crackle and crater glazes to copper saturation; to celadons and tenmokus in reduction firings. Her crutch handles were cast in stoneware from neat three-part plaster moulds and, likewise, received a range of surface and atmospheric treatments - including iris, green and orange lustres in low-temperature third firings. Peng’s crutch legs were made from extruded lengths of black and white clay. She also press-moulded and slip-cast a series of plates and (dust pan) trays in stoneware and porcelain. Into these, she experimented with melting broken glass bottles in the kiln to produce thick, glassy pools of glaze and completed the work by combining them with thinly cast porcelain leave.

Peng, Si-Qi 彭思錡

使用圖片請註明出處：
展場圖片／C-LAB提供，攝影／嘟嚕影像工作室

Image credits:
Exhibition photos / Courtesy of C-LAB
Photography / dulub studio

20/10/2026

The residency of … Clara Ines Aramburo Torres (MX)

Searching for a sense of belonging, Clara Arambura embraced the culinary tradition of her home country Mexico. Preparing and sharing food became an important part of her artistic practice as a way to research questions of identity and community. At EKWC she focused on maize, which was domesticated in Mexico some 9000 years ago. Aramburo traced representations of this staple food through the ages, and incorporated the images in several ceramic works. Apart from a series of functional comales – dishes used to prepare tortillas – she made two large pieces that become almost ceremonial with their 115-cm diameter and cosmological iconography that’s both ancient and vibrantly alive. The glazes correspond to the many colours maize can have. A large mosaic of a maize god in the form of a cornstalk feels strangely powerful and present, at once rooted and restless, at home and out of place in this day and age.

To realize her vision of making large-scale comale-like forms, Aramburo had to begin in the plaster workshop, building by mounding up clay and applying plaster on top in layers. This large mould was made in two parts, with an outer ring separable from an inner ring designed to support the work and make demoulding easier - and, in it, she press-moulded with EKWC's roughest white clay-body (WB 1795) then built-up, scratched and stamped decoration. These larger works were reduction fired at 1220 degrees C. with sinter-engobes, celadon and copper-red glazes. Her smaller-scale functional pieces were press-moulded with flame-resistant clay from moulds already in EKWC's mould library and were fired between 950 and 1000 degrees C. to withstand use over an open fire. Aramburo also worked with large slab-built tiles and investigated (corn) ash-glazes.

Acknowledgement: Stichting Stokroos

Images: courtesy of the artist / picture 1 and 2 by

16/10/2026

The residency of … Nicola Chan (GB)

It began with an egg that would be sold in a store in a different world from ours, a world, nonetheless, with eggs and something remotely resembling supermarkets. Everything in there is made of ceramics, even the eggs, or part of them at least; a few are real. The eggs are kept fresh in rotating holders, some of which have no handle at all, while others sport one, or even two — a functional evolution driven by consumerist desire. Strings tied according to strict predetermined patterns keep the eggs in place to ensure their safety during transportation. Eggs are waiting to be wrapped with care on specially designed low-lying stools, conveniently located beneath the rows of rotating holders. The floors are made of tiles with distinct gutters meant to run off broken eggs and their contents. According to Nicola Chan, the store will start selling more products in the near future.

To think through her world-building, Chan worked with 3D modelling software and, from her drawings, printed filament maquettes which became positives for multi-part plaster slip-casting moulds. She worked with porcelain slip and, from the outset, began experimenting with reduction firings and glazes (celadon and tenmoku). She then scaled up her work, producing a series of press-moulded stool-like sculptures in coarse red and white clay from large, milled, two-part plaster moulds and a set of hand-made wooden moulds. These were finished with terra sigillata and/or left unglazed.

www.nicola-chan.com_chan

13/10/2026

The residency of … Benjamin Deguenon (BJ)

The Vodun masks that inspired Benjamin Deguenon’s work at EKWC are part of the culture of the various peoples of Benin. They are living entities that play an important role in society. The Egungun mask, for instance, embodies the ancestor returning to bless the living, while the Gèlèdè honours the mystical power of mothers. Some masks cover the entire body in elaborately embroidered textiles and raffia, some tower over the onlookers, like the cylindrical Gounouko that protects the harvests. Deguenon kept his impressions relatively small, except for one set of separate elements that will combine with raffia to form a life-size mask. All the sculptures he made are teeming with fantastic animals, people and an occasional windmill, executed in Delft Blue to symbolise the dialogue we so desperately need in this divided world. And the Delft Blue’s colonial connotation? Ah, yes, that might be something we have to talk about.

Deguenon worked primarily with EKWC’s fine white, but also red, black and recycled, clay bodies to produce his series of masks and figurative sculptures. His works were low-bisqued then glazed, oftentimes, with a white, glossy glaze and thin layers of cobalt tinted glaze, applied with brushes, slip-trailers and in washes.

Instagram:

02/10/2026

TEST CASE XXVIII: GENTLE REMINDER

October 3, 14:00–17:00

The fifteen current residents of EKWC kindly invite you to the open studios tomorrow, to see their work in progress and chat about their process.

Come and meet Gabriele Nasole, Marina Laura de Caro, Te-Yen Hsu, Savia Mahajan, Guusje Beeftink, Carles Tarrassó, Kamonchanok Wongwiboonsat, Wie-yi T. Lauw, Jacob Hoving, Sih-Chin Wu, Pao-Hui Kao, Sana Musasama, Christian Schwarz, Amy Lewis and Bill Cravis.

Meanwhile, EKWC alumni Chris Hoeben, Cathy Lu, Daniel Molyneux, Wilma Stegeman, Silvana Hurtado Dianderas, Jan Steenman and Yamu Wang will exhibit recently finished work.

Finally, we have a special guest in the kiln hall: Arash Fakhim. He shows work he made in EKWC last year and he will cook ghormeh sabzi (an Iranian herbal stew) for us.

Test Case XXVIII
date: October 3, 14:00–17:00
location: Almystraat 10, Oisterwijk (NL)
admission: free

A one-hour guided tour can be booked online at www.ekwc.nl

Work by: Sasha Fishman -
Photo by:

29/09/2026

Masterclass slibdecoratie met Niek Hoogland

In oktober en november geeft pottenbakker Niek Hoogland twee masterclasses slibdecoratie, de techniek die hij als geen ander in Nederland beheerst.

Deelname
De tweedaagse masterclass in samenwerking met het EKWC is bedoeld voor professionele kunstenaars en designers die met keramiek werken en nieuwsgierig zijn hoe ze deze eeuwenoude techniek in hun eigen praktijk kunnen toepassen.

Data
23-24 oktober en 13-14 november 2026.

Programma
Dag een: introductie in het Nederrijnse slibversierd aardewerk met een bezoek aan een steengroeve en Keramiekcentrum Tiendschuur in Tegelen, en Museum Petershuis in Gennep
Dag twee: praktijkgedeelte op het EKWC, waar Niek Hoogland diverse decoratietechnieken demonstreert, waarna de deelnemers deze toepassen op al aanwezige leerharde werken.

Kosten
De voertaal voor de masterclass is Nederlands. De kosten voor twee dagen zijn €375,00 (incl. BTW), met een korting van €90,00 voor EKWC alumni. Materialen, stookkosten, koffie en lunches zijn bij de prijs inbegrepen. Vervoer, overnachting en overige maaltijden zijn voor eigen kosten.

Aanmelden
Via de EKWC webshop (zie link in bio)

Vragen?
Annelies Broenink, [email protected]

17/09/2026

The residency of … Fileona Endoxa Dkhar (IN)

The typical shape you get from squeezing a piece of clay seems too trivial to mention, and yet it warrants reflection. When Fileona Endoxa Dkhar lost her grandfather during her residency and flew to India for the funeral, she took some clay with her and asked her loved ones to squeeze it tight. The result is a collection of bony, archaeological reminders of their existence, gestures that express an intense desire to hold on to life, to each other. Dkhar made much more, of course. A set of graphite sculptures, for instance, meant to be swaddled in cloth home-woven from ‘peace silk’, which doesn’t require the silkworm to be boiled. Or the porcelain mementoes, moulded on folded letters reminiscent of 17th-century locked letters, acting as placeholders for letters she wished she’d written to loved ones, near and far. And, finally, the three figurines, representing the artist, her mother, and grandmother.

Dkhar worked on a series of tile mosaics that were slab-rolled from fine white stoneware. She scratched and press into the clay to produce patterning and added delicate petal-like forms by hand. The tiles were finished with an array of glazes and iris lustre. Beside this, she made a series of red and black clay weavings, fired at high temperatures in both oxidation and reduction environments. A group of small hand-built black-clay sculptures were also reduction fired, giving them a distinct metallic sheen. Her porcelain locked letter series were made by marbling blue coloured porcelain with the white porcelain body and then stamping, cutting and sculpting out the shapes.

Acknowledgement: supported by Hanzenfonds

www.fileonadkhar.comdkhar

Adres

Almystraat 10
Oisterwijk
5061PA

Telefoon

+31133031180

Website

https://ekwc.nl/

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