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I am the daughter of a Swiss-American father
and a Danish mother. I was born the 9th of July 1965
in Ascona, a small town on the shores of the Lake
Maggiore in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland.
I live and work in a 35o year old town house in
central Zürich, with my husband Peter and our small
children Amalia, born in 2003 and Orlando, born in 2005.

Six years training, including a three-year apprenticeship
as a ceramic painter in the family's pottery,
work experience in Eslau porcelain and
stoneware manufacture in Denmark
and the two-year Studio Pottery Course
at the Harrow College of Art and Design in London
(now University of Westminster), have given me the
technical skills which allow the realisation of my designs.

Growing up in an extraordinary family
encouraged me to have faith into my own vision.
My mother, textile artist Berthe Beretta, spent 20 years
working on one enormous tapestry project.
She is daughter of Ester Boserup,
world-renowned Danish economist and writer,
and Danish-Norwegian novelist Aksel Sandemose.
My father, Efrem Beretta, was the initiator of
the Museo di Arte Moderna in Ascona and concluded his
long career as a judge to be now a full time painter.
His parents, Efrem and Caterina Beretta introduced me to
ceramics in their workshop on the Monte Verità in Ascona.
There I have learned the basics of pottery making.
I run my own studio since leaving college in 1988.

Pic © 1999 Alessandra Tavernini