About

Who is Marijke Fortuin?

Marijke is a certified ceramist currently focused on designing vases and scales with the goal of combining this with the Japanese flower arrangement art of Ikebana.

Ikebana

After visiting multiple Ikebana expositions a few years ago I was triggered. What stood out most for me in this Japanese art of flower arrangement, was the synergy between the vases and the flowers. The vase really carries the entire flower arrangement and the flower arrangement revalues the vases by so much.

Full of inspiration I started creating vases and scales out of ceramics for the purpose of this newly discovered way of flower arrangement. It didn’t take long before I realized that I needed more knowledge in this Japanese art to really create the perfectly fitting ceramics. I knew what I had to do.

I went to Ilse Beunen and arranged a set of 10 introductory lessons and soon got a taste for it. Much like ceramics though, I realized that it would take at least a few years to even master the basics of this Japanese art. I enrolled for the full training and finished it. One thing though was clear, in the creations she makes while using my ceramic creations the synergy is very clear.

Ceramics

The first steps in my creative live started in a ceramics studio in Strombeek-Bever, where Hugo Meerts taught. As a first assignment we were challenged to create our own hand out of ceramics. A few weeks and a hand later I was convinced; “This is what I want to do.”

Over the next years I would discover all the elements this ceramic world had to offer. I passed in ceramic classes in Grimbergen and Asse and participated in several workshops. I learned how to use a pottery wheel to create vases and scales, I learned hand-building techniques to create my own head, sculptures of monkeys and coiling techniques to build huge pots and finally even learned slip casting.

During this journey, I switched to the ceramics academy of Anderlecht where I started my education to become a certified ceramist and graduated in 2020.

Now I have my own ceramic studio and give ceramic classes

Intressed in taking classes?

Contact marijkefortuin@hotmail.com