I am Maria Weddige, I was born in the north of Russia and for as long as I can remember I have always created something with my hands. The type of activity was usually not important, as long as it helped me express myself.

I was born in the north of Russia and for as long as I can remember I have always created something with my hands. The type of activity was usually not important, as long as it helped me express myself. As a teenager I moved to St Petersburg to study, and graduated from the Academy of Folk Arts as a jeweller.

But I could not stop there: I worked in a lapidary workshop, taught children’s classes where we made sculptures and drawings according to my own curriculum. At the same time, I got into aerial acrobatics and started making clothes for aerialists, which I sold all over the world, from Australia to Canada.

At some point I switched to 2D and 3D graphics, but then fate took another turn: I wanted to make a pot for one of my flowers, bought some clay, did what I wanted, and ended up with a lot of clay left overs. That’s how it all started.

I was amazed at how quickly you can turn an idea into a finished object compared to the fabric I had worked with before.

So since August 2021 I have been working with ceramics. I use standard materials: clay, engobes and glazes, sometimes gold. I like to add pearl earrings, nose rings and other accessories to my creations. I don’t work on a potter’s wheel, I just like to work from a lump and see what shape my fingers can come up with. I am an absolute fan of ceramic markets and talking to interested people there. I have been to a few and hope to attend more.

I moved to Germany in 2022 and now live in Munich with my husband and our dog Saga, where I continue to create my little ceramic folks. HERE you can find all the works I have created

I don’t like utilitarian things, I like to make things that you definitely can’t find in shops, things that make you smile, make you scared, make you think - if my work evokes some kind of emotion, it means I tried for a reason.

In art, I am particularly drawn to things that have a folkloric, quirky, wistful quality to them - the magical, the strange. It’s as if Hogwarts had a department for artists.