We met Miriam under her profile name miri.toepfert via Instagram.
We noticed her because of her great BOTZ PLUS experiments. Marvin is a big BOTZ PLUS fan, so we have a special eye for these effects.
Miriam is 27 years old and lives near Cologne. In addition to pottery, she tries hand lettering and watercolor painting. In addition, she is in the process of making her parents' garden as wildlife-friendly as possible. She has a foster cow who lives at a sanctuary and she sometimes visits to cuddle. Since we also grew up in the country and cows were our direct neighbors, so to speak, we can understand that very well.
We were particularly interested in how and when Miriam started this wonderful pottery craft.
Miri has already made pottery as a child. However, she has lost sight of this hobby over the years. In 2019 she had the idea to start again and so it happened that her father gave her a "cheap" potter's wheel and everything you need for Christmas 2020.
At first she built a lot by hand and tried it out herself.
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To learn something new, Miriam attended an online course from leelahloves.
In the meantime, pottery has become such a passion again that she fills an entire basement room at her parents' with this "escalated hobby". We are very happy that Miri has found her way back to her childhood passion and we enjoy following her work so much.
If you are also looking for an online course, you can browse through the highlights of miri.toepfert on her Instagram profile. There she has put together some offers for you that she found during her intensive search for online offers.
What Miri loves about working with clay is that she clears her head and can completely let go and relax.
In addition, she always comes up with new ideas for further projects while making pottery. Time flies like in flight. It's a hobby for which she doesn't need much and from which great things always come about. She thinks it's such a great feeling to create a beautiful cup or bowl out of a lump of clay with your own hands - and so do we!
Her favorite piece is one of her first pieces: a gradient mug (malachite and opal white) because it was so easy and straightforward to make. It was not created on the disc, but with an overmould (toothbrush cup). Great pieces can also be created without a disc. While she also loves the "perfect" shot, she also loves the rustic pieces that are made without a wheel.
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Her second favorite piece is a twisted bowl. She glazed this with gray basalt and Botz Plus. She loves the effect that came out of this. That's why she's currently experimenting a lot with Botz Plus and other glazes. She finds it super exciting to see which glaze combinations can be created.
When she picks up her pieces from the firing service, she can hardly wait to see her results and usually risks a quick look into the locked boxes before she sets off. We can understand that very well! If you like Miriam's work as much as we do, then she would be happy to see you on Instagram @miritoepfert
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