In summer 2026 I am continuing to develop my SSHRC project titled “16th Century Meets the 21st Century – the Historical and Contemporary Impact of Anabaptist/Haban Ceramics.” After travels in Europe in 2025, searching out collections and exhibitions of Anabaptist/Haban ceramics, I have continued studio experimentation informed by the traditional forms and surfaces found on the tin-glazed Haban forms dating from the mid 16th to the late 19th century. This research brings into focus my desire to create something new using 21st-century technology to reimagine the traditional ceramics connected to my own Anabaptist heritage.
This post traces the process of reverse engineering a traditional Anabaptist/Haban jug to create a 3D-printed PLA plastic model from which to make a plaster mould, to use for casting multiple ceramic forms. We saw the original piece in an exhibition at the Ethnographic Museum of the National Museum in Prague, Czechia. The exhibition is titled “Pleasures and Vices” and the jug chosen for the reverse engineering experiment was made in 1786 by Anabaptist/Haban potters. Ironically, despite the present-day taboo surrounding the consumption of alcohol by Anabaptists in North America, the “pleasure and vice” of alcohol consumption by the Anabaptist/Haban population in 16th to late-19th-century Europe wasn’t deemed as an un-Christian indulgence.
Michael Zajac photographed the jug in situ in the museum and created a 3D digital model from his combined images. The end goal of the jug experiment was to 3D print a PLA prototype of the jug for plaster mould-making. Once the 3D printed model of the jug was complete, I produced a four-piece plaster mould of the form with the assistance of University of Manitoba MFA student Galateia Kefalas in July 2026.
The next step is to begin slip casting the jug forms, then altering each slip-cast form using traditional Anabaptist/Haban processes such as piercing, splattering, marbling, stencilling, and painting overglaze stains onto white or coloured maiolica glaze. By situating the jugs within contemporary art practice, envisioning and shaping the forms using my own voice and sensibilities, I place the forms into the broader context of my SSHRC project, where the artwork I’m making is informed by Haban ceramics, but the goal is not to replicate the historical forms.
Through my fresh interpretation of the traditional cultural forms and practices, my project will bring awareness to Haban ceramics and pay tribute to the exquisite works made by the Anabaptist/Haban masters, overlooked by ceramics art history in North America. When Anabaptists began to flee to North America in large numbers in the late 1800s to escape the hostility and persecution they experienced in Europe, the rich tradition of the tin-glazed maiolica of Anabaptist/Haban ceramics was left behind. The high quality of the traditional works and the complex culture driving its production, helped insert order and beauty, as well as prosperity, into a life that was often precarious and difficult. The contribution made by Anabaptist/Haban potters to the long history of the ceramics medium deserves to be highlighted and celebrated. That is my ultimate goal.
Photos and digital images by Michael Zajac
With gratitude for funding from the SSHRC Insight grant program and thanks to the University of Manitoba for continued research support.