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Ceramic teacher & potter based in Andijk and Rhodes
As a ceramic artist, I divide my time between Andijk and Rhodes. I alternate between teaching, creating, and organising retreats. My work is rooted in craftsmanship, clear technique, and the simple pleasure of working with clay. I teach and run intensive courses in both countries, and I create ceramic pieces that reflect the places I live in — the calm of the Dutch polder and the warmth of the Mediterranean.
For some reason, my work often leads me back to carving, sculpting, decorating and building with… fish. I let my hands guide me. Sometimes they look like monsters, sometimes aliens, and sometimes the sweetest little creatures. Anything is possible, because when you work with clay, you’re as free as a bird.
About Me
I’m Gudrun Wilsterman – ceramic artist, teacher, and founder of Ceramicaza.
After completing two degrees (Higher Economic Studies and Law at the University of Amsterdam), I started my career in the business world. Until everything shifted: in the year 2000 I moved to Rhodes, Greece, where I lived for twenty-one years, got married, and had children. During that time, I rented out traditional Greek holiday homes and gradually found a different rhythm of life — closer to nature, further from the clock.
I still own one holiday house with a pool in the beautiful village of Lahania, in the quiet, non-touristic south of Rhodes. If you’d like to enjoy a peaceful holiday near the sea, you can find my house here.
In 2018 I touched clay for the first time, thanks to Greek ceramicist Litsa Paraskeva — and that moment changed everything. From 2019 onward, I travelled regularly between Greece and the Netherlands, taking a semester at the Klei Academie, wheel-throwing and hand-building classes at the Amsterdams Kleibedrijf, several glaze courses, and a masterclass with Camille Verbunt, José Mariscal, plus workshops with one of my great idols, Alberto Bustos.
In 2022 I settled permanently back in the Netherlands and started the three-year professional training at the Dutch Ceramics School (NKO), which I have now completed. I then followed an additional year of advanced wheel-throwing with Matthieu van der Giessen. At the same time, I began the three-year part-time ceramics programme at the Art Academy for adults and slowly started teaching and selling my work. That became a bit too much at once, so I paused the last programme — something I hope to finish in the future.
Meanwhile, I built my own studio in Andijk, equipped with two kilns, a raku kiln, a slab roller, an extruder, a spray booth and five electric wheels. Since September, I’ve stopped my office work, and the studio now hosts courses and workshops.
On Rhodes, a fully equipped studio will be built by the end of 2025. Two kilns, eleven wheels and all tools are already in place. From April 2026, I will host pottery retreats there at The Dream House — my Greek-style B&B, in the place where it all began for me, where I raised my two children, and where I lived and worked with joy for 21 years.
My true love lies in hand-building. One of my pieces is now part of the collection of the Museum of Gouda. In recent years, I’ve increasingly explored the interplay between wheel-throwing and hand-building — discovering how much beauty emerges when form, play and stillness meet.
For me, clay is not a product but a process. In my classes and retreats, it’s never about perfection — it’s about feeling, slowing down, and thinking with your hands.
That is the essence of Ceramicaza.
