Ann Kristin Einarsen

The view from Ann Kristin Einarsen’s childhood home in Narvik, northern Norway, sparked a lifelong fascination with natural materials. After training in woodcarving, boatbuilding and other woodwork, she found that her passion for handicrafts was fulfilled in ceramics, and undertook an MA in ceramic art at Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Today, she is based in Oslo, where she enjoys exploring the potential of stoneware and other ceramic materials to create sculpture, installations, wall-pieces and functional objects.

"I’m a ceramic artist, just venturing into the world of design. I’m from the north of Norway, but live and work in Oslo." says Einarsen. Here ideas come "from life, from living, learning, seeing, experiencing, touching, making, dreaming and failing; and they develop and change through testing, problem-solving, discussion, experimenting, experience and failing, again."

Einarsen loves mixing and matching materials, colours and finishes and this is evident in her ceramic work. Her pieces are often slip-cast in a plaster mould, using different low-fired clays, including terracotta. She mixes different clays when they are liquid, to make different colours, and trying to find the perfect earth-tone palette.

When asked by journalist Katie Treggiden what her advice would you give to an aspiring craftsperson, she replied "Just DO it! This happens to be the advice Sol Lewitt gives in his letter to Eva Hesse. I read it from time to time and my favourite part is: "...but mainly relax and let everything go to hell – you are not responsible for the world – you are only responsible for your work – so DO IT."