High fired clay body acquires its coloure, ranging from bright grey to brown or black, in firing temperatures well above 1200°C. During the firing process the interaction between body and glaze melt into a close unison. The clay sinters it changes from porous earthenware into dense stoneware. Stoneware possesses a great strength and durability.

Ceramic product made of kaolin (china-clay), quartz and feldspar. When fired, porcelain is coloured purely white and has a smooth, translucent texture. There are two types of porcelain, which are distinguished according to their components and firing temperatures (1240- 1460°C). Both are characterized by high solidity and an exquisite delicacy.

Max Läuger once put it quite plainly. „The simplest, poorest, and richest of all the basic materials is clay, earth.“ How rich, flexible, and expressive it can be has been evident for many years in the sensitive works of Elisabeth Schaffer. They are fascinating as much for their variety of form and their technical precision as they are for their artistic expression.
Elisabeth Schaffer has always formed her fragile objects alternatively from stoneware clay or porcelain mass, maintaining the highest possible empathy for the possibilities of her material.

Antje Soléau Porträts, Zeitschrift Neue Keramik, 03/04 2008

Irregularly built-up of panels which are mounted openly on the rims of the vessel adorned with wisps of burnt shadows, the vessel looks like a product of random factors. In fact, precision and planning, a deliberate natural and controlled language of forms are concealed behind the contradictory effect of constructive elements and vigorous irregularity. In their skilful positioning, in the colour and temperament of the succession of forms as they undergo the final accentuation of confidently executed decor, these carefully calculated opposites do, after all, bear the artistic concept.

Sabine Runde, MAK Frankfurt

See some of my recent works or from the archiv over time