Petra began her ceramic education in 1983, in the Department for Ceramic Arts at Ortwein School in Graz, Austria, though her interest began much earlier. Petra is the daughter of a wood and stone sculptor: “after school, I did my homework in my father’s studio. As soon as I was finished, I opened the chest where the clay was kept for making models. From this clay, which was often dirty and coarse, just like a sculptor needs, I made vessels and small reliefs, which my father then cast in plaster”. Following her studies in Gras, Petra undertook a degree in the History of Arts and Classical Archaeology at the University of Vienna, graduating in 1998.

Petra’s academic and artistic career has led her to a complex understanding of being a ceramicist: ardent studies of the different approaches to working with clay, from Japan and China to the Middle East and Europe, and the ongoing participation in symposia, workshops and exhibitions worldwide have lended her practical work an expressiveness that brings together Eastern Asian techniques with a Central European understanding of form.

Petra is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC) and of Associazione Pandora Artiste Ceramiste.