Jiri Duchek

Jiri Duchek was born in Prague in 1970. After the former Czechoslovakia was liberated in 1989 he worked as a jigger-man (wheel operator) at a ceramic workshop in the capital and studied at a local school of Arts and Crafts. In 1995 he set up his first workshop in Prague and combined this with teaching at a College of Education but wanted to move out into the country in order to develop his pottery techniques. This he did in 1999 when he moved to a former farmhouse in the Czech Republic near to Mutejovice. He uses local materials in his clay bodies and glazes and wood to fire his work. Jiri produces a variety of functional wares, including plates, vases, mizusashis, and mugs.