A Path to Clay
The year 1983 has stayed in my memory to this day. As a fresh graduate of the ceramic school in Bechyně, I stood in the Moravian Museum holding the original Venus of Dolní Věstonice in my hands and creating its copy from it. In that moment, I realised how deeply ceramics reaches into human history and how this material has accompanied humankind from the very beginning. And that I had to return to it and devote myself to it fully.
But it was not easy. In those days, the road to my own studio was long and winding. It was only in 1985 that I built my first kiln — and from that moment, things finally began to move forward. Four years later, in 1989, Šárka Hanzálková and I founded Ceramic Studio.
Then came the journeys — Japan, Korea, Canada. On each of them I gathered experience, observed how others worked with clay, and, through many trials and errors, gradually found my way to stoneware, cobalt-decorated structures, coloured glazes, and the play of surfaces. I enjoy that broad range — from large sculptures to an ordinary mug that someone picks up in their hands every morning.
In 2000, Šárka and I founded the author gallery Galerie Zlaté rybky. In 2005, our daughter Barbora joined us — and the circle was complete. Today, Ceramic Studio and Galerie Zlaté rybky stand side by side as the work of two generations of one family, a place where our friends also exhibit and sell their work.
From the clay Venus of Dolní Věstonice to the gallery bearing the name Zlaté rybky. One journey, one clay, one family.
