Een kast vol passie voor Marieke van ‘The Clay Shaper’

A cabinet full of passion for Marieke from ‘The Clay Shaper’

A cabinet for your collection of books, kitchenware, model trains, hobby materials: at Lundia, we encounter the most wonderful questions, often born from a passion. That's what energizes us! That's why, under the banner of "a cabinet full of passion," we visit people who passionately share what drives them.

In a cozy workshop in Haarlem, surrounded by colorful plates, vases, and other pottery, Marieke tells her story. A story about daring to choose, following your passion, and a childhood dream that came true - in the unexpected form of an online shop with her own pottery.

Felgeel open rek met keramische objecten en decoratief bord naast wand met foto van citroenen en blauwe bloemen

From Willy Wortel to fashion design

"As a child, I wanted to be an inventor, like Willy Wortel," laughs Marieke. "And actually, I kind of succeeded. Because even as a designer and ceramicist, you're constantly creating new things." That urge to create is a common—if sometimes a bit meandering—thread throughout her life.

After studying fashion design at AMFI in Amsterdam, Marieke consciously chose a different path. "The fashion industry wasn't really my thing. It's a very fast-paced and volatile world." Even after graduating, her interest shifted to interior design. "In interior design, trends stick around a little longer; there's more timelessness to them."

Her graduation project involved creating a collection of tactile fabrics and wallpaper for people with visual impairments. Materials you can perceive by touching them, by feeling them. This proved to be a precursor to her love of the tangible. Through a stint as a stylist at Loods 5 and as a freelancer, her career path slowly took its own course.

The garage where it all began

"I often had ideas for things I couldn't find anywhere, so I made them myself," says Marieke, describing her first steps in ceramics. What started as a hobby quickly led to a house full of handmade items. This led to the idea for her own webshop: www.theclayshaper.com. And it proved a success! Orders followed from all sorts of unexpected places. "When I was allowed to send a flowerpot to Hong Kong, I thought: wow, this is serious."

The garage became her workshop. Every morning, she rode her cargo bike outside to make room for the potter's wheel, a secondhand one from Marktplaats, over forty years old. And with a kiln to bake the ceramics, the real work began.

Last year, she reached a new milestone: her own studio. Here, Marieke creates the unique ceramic pieces she sells in her webshop. She also shares her passion through courses and workshops. "I love getting people excited about working with clay. I often see them come in, convinced they're not creative—and then beam as they hold their own mug. Children and adults, sometimes entire families who've attended a workshop together. Those moments touch me."

Making ceramics is a slow process. And that's precisely where the magic lies. Marieke: "After shaping and sculpting, your creation has to dry for a week and then fire. After that, you apply the glaze, and the ceramic has to go back in the kiln." So you need patience, but the result is always remarkable. A new creation awaits on her worktable: a vase with graceful swirls, made with an extruder—a kind of piping bag for clay. Marieke is still unsure about the finish. "Should I leave it natural? Or should I give it a color?" That constant search, that experimentation and reinvention; that's what drives her.

And how does Marieke see the future of 'The Clay Shaper'? "I'd love to see the webshop grow. I'd need staff to handle production, though. The most important thing for me is maintaining control over the production process. I want to keep pushing the boundaries and regularly get my hands dirty with clay. Because that's what makes me happiest."

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