Anke grew up on a farm in Northern Germany where she studied Agriculture. She immigrated to Canada in 1985, where she and her husband Harro built up a farm near Kincardine, Ontario. For the last thirty years their farming consists of Organic Production.

In 2005, Anke was introduced to Pottery after a bad accident. She took classes with Ruth Dalton in Ripley. Pottery was her new passion and it felt like therapy. After her health improved, it was back to farming with little time to play with clay and she almost stopped. Fortunately, that all changed when in the summer of 2017, she took part in a throwing camp at the Haliburton School of Art and Design. At first, Anke made functional pieces but gradually became more curious about the aspect of the abstract and artistic side of the ceramic world after studying under Christopher Reid Flock, at Mohawk Collage.

Lately, Anke is also exploring the aspect of Wood Firing, a term used to describe pottery fired in a kiln fueled with wood. The duration of the firing can last 24 hours to 7 days, depending on the type of Wood Kiln. During the firing, ‘fly ash’ from the fire is drawn into the chamber, settles and eventually fluxes and melts to form a natural ‘ash glaze’ on the surface of the pottery. The position of each piece in the kiln determines just how much ash settles on it and consequently how much of a glaze, or flashing is achieved on its surface. The flashing is therefore a direct reflection of the passage of the flame through the kiln during the firing. The duration of the firing, the design of the kiln, and the clay body used are all contributing factors of the effects achieved.