Biography Brigitte Lang

I was born in Würzburg, Germany in December 1960.

My love for ceramics started with some classes in high school. After finishing German high school with the “Abitur” after class 13, I took up a 2 ½ year full time apprenticeship working for a pottery studio. We produced kitchenware, wheel thrown and slip cast, which was high fired in a huge cart kiln.

After that, to deepen my skills, I worked for a studio in the Black Forest, where we made traditional low fired, wheel thrown and gas fired ceramics. There I worked as a supervisor with 7 apprentices for a year.

In 1984 I lived in Marseille, France for 7 months, throwing pots for a small workshop. They were decorated in fayence technique with traditional “provencales” designs and low fired in an electric kiln.

In 1985 I returned to Germany, where I was accepted (25/100) at “Fachschule für Keramikgestaltung” in Höhr-Grenzhausen, a school concentrating on ceramics design and technology. It is situated in the Westerwald, one of Germany’s traditional ceramics regions, where a lot of salt glazing is done. I filled the three months until studies started there with a short interlude in another stoneware pottery studio in southern Germany. From 1985 to 1988 I enjoyed studying, experimenting in salt glaze, reduction firing, raku and electric firing and taking classes in design and technology.

I finished school, earning the degree of “State Approved Ceramics Designer” (staatl. gepr. Keramikgestalter) and took up employment as a decoration designer with a bigger company that produced high quality enameled cooking pots. During the year I stayed there, two of my designs were chosen for new series, but I felt lost, my work being just a small anonymous part of the whole production process. So I decided to go back into ceramics, this time self employed, opening my own workshop and shop together with a friend from “Fachschule". We both earned our master craftsman’s diploma, which is the license to take in fulltime apprentices. In 1990 we started a business in a small town near Cologne, selling out of the shop and doing art and ceramics fairs. We both worked in stoneware fired in electric kilns.

After seven years I moved on, into a small shop all by myself in a small tourist town on the River Rhine. I enjoyed presenting only my own ceramics work and working on commission. During the time I spent there, 1998-2006, I also started teaching adult classes at an evening college and a class for 13 year olds.

I came to Ann Arbor, MI in 2006 and I am now working at the Potter’s Guild, a non-profit organization with 40 members.

Biography	I was born in Würzburg, Germany in December 1960. My love for ceramics started with some classes in high school. After finishing German high school with the “Abitur” after class 13, I took up a 2 ½ year full time apprenticeship working for a pottery studio. We produced kitchenware, wheel thrown and slip cast, which was high fired in a huge cart kiln. After that, to deepen my skills, I worked for a studio in the Black Forest, where we made traditional low fired, wheel thrown and gas fired ceramics. There I worked as a supervisor with 7 apprentices for a year. In 1984 I lived in Marseille, France for 7 months, throwing pots for a small workshop. They were decorated in fayence technique with traditional “provencales” designs and low fired in an electric kiln. In 1985 I returned to Germany, where I was accepted (25/100) at “Fachschule für Keramikgestaltung” in Höhr-Grenzhausen, a school concentrating on ceramics design and technology. It is situated in the Westerwald, one of Germany’s traditional ceramics regions, where a lot of salt glazing is done. I filled the three months until studies started there with a short interlude in another stoneware pottery studio in southern Germany. From 1985 to 1988 I enjoyed studying, experimenting in salt glaze, reduction firing, raku and electric firing and taking classes in design and technology. I finished school, earning the degree of “State Approved Ceramics Designer” (staatl. gepr. Keramikgestalter) and took up employment as a decoration designer with a bigger company that produced high quality enameled cooking pots. During the year I stayed there, two of my designs were chosen for new series, but I felt lost, my work being just a small anonymous part of the whole production process. So I decided to go back into ceramics, this time self employed, opening my own workshop and shop together with a friend from “Fachschule". We both earned our master craftsman’s diploma, which is the license to take in fulltime apprentices. In 1990 we started a business in a small town near Cologne, selling out of the shop and doing art and ceramics fairs. We both worked in stoneware fired in electric kilns. After seven years I moved on, into a small shop all by myself in a small tourist town on the River Rhine. I enjoyed presenting only my own ceramics work and working on commission. During the time I spent there, 1998-2006, I also started teaching adult classes at an evening college and a class for 13 year olds. I came to Ann Arbor, MI in 2006 and I am now working at the Potter’s Guild, a non-profit organization with 40 members.

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