After forty years of designing jewelry and interiors, Karl Stittgen has found a new ‘voice’ in ceramics. Years of images and thoughts appeared ready to be shaped by his hands; half forgotten forms that lingered on the edges of his memory became signposts on his path of life helping to unearth shapes drawn from his surroundings. The verdant nature of his Pender Island home, a lifelong study of architecture, and a love of poetry all combine to guide his creativity.
Karl Stittgen arrived in Vancouver in 1952 as an immigrant from Germany and worked for P. J. Lipp at International Jewelers. In 1953 he started his own company European Watchmakers and opened a retail store in West Vancouver in 1954. After attending a craft conference in Esalen, California in the late 1950’s and visiting with potters Margaret Wildenhain and Beatrice Wood, Karl formed a craft cooperative Creative Hands and became active in the craft movement- teaching, among other things, enameling art at his local community center. In 1960 he joined the Frank Lloyd Wright fellowship and opened a studio workshop in Vancouver and gold and silver shops in Calgary and San Francisco. Karl sold Stittgen Jewelry in 1974 and moved to Pender Island with residences in Arizona and California. In 1983 he opened Karl Stittgen Jewels on South Granville in Vancouver with representation in New York.
Upon his retirement in 1995, he built the Frank Lloyd Wright inspired ‘Halcyon Days’ home on Pender island where he currently lives with wife Noriko, and has since set up a ceramic studio for further sculptural exploration. In 2009, Karl Stittgen received the BC Creative Achievement Award of Distinction in Vancouver at the 5th annual presentation event for the BC Creative Achievement Awards for Applied Art and Design.