About the artist

Kris is the artist and founder behind Studio Mitera. She doesn’t say much about her past, at least not at first. You’ll find no loud proclamations or sweeping statements, no manifesto hanging on the wall. Just the quiet rhythm of clay and water, hands steady at the wheel, and music playing somewhere in the background. What is revealed, is revealed slowly. By design.

Born and raised in Switzerland and shaped by a decade in Vienna, her early life unfolded across borders, soundtracked by music and the art it draws in. She once worked in the music industry. Another life, another tempo. Cities passed through her like refrains: bright, fast, unrelenting. But in 2020, the melody shifted. The silence between notes grew louder, more insistent. And she listened.

Istria called not with grandeur, but with quiet certainty. Here, on the countryside, she found what the cities couldn’t give her: stillness, soil, and a slower kind of beauty. She built a life intentionally, gently, from the earth up.

Studio Mitera is both place and pulse. Its name nods to mythology, but its foundations are humble: stone, clay, and the honest work of hands. Inspired by Istria’s rustic pottery traditions, her pieces are unapologetically imperfect. A curve here, a rough edge there. Reflections of the stones that build villages and hold warmth. In her work, imperfection isn’t a flaw, but an invitation. A reminder to stop chasing polish and instead make space for presence.

Those who come to learn from her, quietly, usually, unsure at first, are met with an unexpected sort of freedom. “Go for it,” she says. “See what happens.” Her teaching isn’t about technique as much as trust: in the process, in the material, in yourself. She believes that somewhere between the turning wheel and the still air, something essential is uncovered. Something you already carry, but maybe forgot.

She rarely tells the whole story. She doesn’t need to. It’s hidden somewhere between the lines of her work.