GEORG FEGER

My first serious exploration of ceramics started at the Sharon art ceramics center in San Francisco. Here I got introduced to American raku, developing new glazes from scratch and a lot of creative hand building techniques. 

Raku firing was an interesting exercise since it involved open fire and a lot of smoke in the heavily visited Golden Gate park. This resulted in some visits of the fire department with their big fire trucks. Thereafter smokeless raku was introduced by simply placing the red hot fired piece on a piece of wood that was placed on a bed of sand. A bin lined with newspaper was put over it and sealed on the side by sand. This technique results in close to no smoke and stunning lusters. 

A few years later I joined a small ceramics group in Offenburg, Germany led by Rudi Rothenberger an enigmatic teacher who used a banding wheel and kitchen utensils to form Japenese tea ware. The banding wheel technique is ingenious and can be practiced anywhere even in the smallest of spaces.

After a move to Switzerland and France I got a training by Michael Saelzer how to efficiently throw on the potter's wheel. Throwing and firing in a Phoenix kiln built by Michael is how I produce my stoneware ceramics.