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"Fish & Olive creations
are sought after as collectors' items."
® All our designs are legally protected
The accomplished art potter, Katharina Bolesch lives and works in the Naxian village of Halki, where she has her workshop and gallery shop “L'Olivier”.
Katharina has known the island since her childhood in the early 1970s. Her father was a passionate Hellenist and her family have had a longstanding connection with Naxos from before the development of modern tourism.
Katharina is a lifelong artist. After high school she studied pottery for three years in Siegburg, Germany, a center that has been famous for its high quality stoneware pottery since medieval times. And it is in the landscape and life of the Naxian Tragea that Katharina has found the inspiration that has made her one of the finest art potters of today, one whose "small masterpieces" (National Geographic Traveler 2001) are winning her recognition across the world and at the highest level of her craft. During Athens' Olympic Games of 2004, a piece of Katharina Bolesch's work will be exhibited at the Academy of Athens in the Hellenic Folklore Research Center, a measure of the recognition and respect that this fine artist has achieved.
The symbol of the olive underpins Katharina's pottery, but she also includes associated motifs such as lizards, octopuses, bees and frogs, as well as that other great Naxian symbol, the vine. Each piece of work is entirely handmade, from the throwing over, to the forming, to the painting and glazing, and each is fired twice at very high temperature to produce stoneware ceramics of very strong and durable quality. The uniqueness of Katharina's pottery is the result of the skill, attention and patience of the craftswoman merged with the vision of the artist. The results are inspirational.
Katharina Bolesch's husband, Alexander, grew up in the Mediterranean world and traveled abroad for many years, studying and observing the world of fish and marine life through his skills as a scuba diver. Alexander now uses those experiences and his close affinity with the sea in his own unique designs and craft work. Alexander introduced new fish motifs into Katharina's pottery and he creates translucent marble lamps and stylish wooden artifacts often using the finest olive wood, thus bringing full circle to the work of these two artists the creative influences and characteristics of Naxos, Halki and the Tragea.
"Sign of handmade quality of Halki, Naxos"