About Arnis

Arnis Preiss has worked in clay since 1976. Fifty years. One studio in Zelmeņi, one kiln, one man.

Crystalline ceramics

His field is crystalline ceramics — one of the most technically demanding areas of glaze work. The crystals are not painted or drawn. They grow on their own while the kiln cools slowly from 1290 degrees. The temperature cannot be rushed. Cool too fast and there are no crystals. Too slow and the glaze runs off the pot. Every successful piece is a controlled risk that worked.

The result can never be fully predicted. Opening the kiln shows what temperature and time have decided. That is why every piece is the only one — not a pretty phrase, but a consequence of physics.

The material

The clay comes from Germany — stoneware nr. 208, chosen because it holds 1290 degrees and holds its form even at large scale. The work runs from small cups to seventy-centimetre vases — throwing a form that size so it survives drying and firing takes a hand built over decades.

The colours — cobalt blue, turquoise, yellow, green, white. But no crystal ever repeats, so even two pieces in the same glaze are not the same.

Zelmeņi

The studio stands in Zelmeņi, in rural quiet. Beside it, apiaries with 250 bee colonies — more on the Honey page. The studio can be visited — Visit Us.

Three generations

The clay did not stop with Arnis. His son, Tenis Preiss. His grandson, Matiass Preiss, works in Iceland under his own ceramics name — matiasspreiss.com. Three generations, three hands, one material.