Katya’s formal art education involved full-time study as a sculptor, mould-maker and ceramicist. She studied for 2 years at the Tel-Aviv Art Centre and for 4 years for a BFA at Bezalel Academy of Art & Design in Jerusalem. After graduating, in 2002, she was offered a job in a glass studio in Israel: a non-profit organisation dedicated to the rehabilitation of youth at risk, selling glass products made in the factory throughout Israel and the USA.
Here Katya was responsible for the development and design of functional glass products, overseeing the production process, programming kilns and advising on all stages of production – here her love of glass became fully established. She was then offered the freedom to explore glass as a creative medium.
In 2006 she took classes in Pilchuck glass school in the USA and the Glass Furnace in Turkey. In September 2008 she was invited to participate in Pilchuck’s EAiR – 2 month residency and later was invited by Noth Lands Creative Glass to take a combined residency with the Scottish Sculpture Workshop.
In 2009 Katya moved from Israel to the UK to take an MA at the University of Sunderland which she accomplished with Distinction. In 2010 her project ‘Pain Killers’ was purchased for the Tyne & Wear Museums Contemporary Glass Collection. She was awarded a grant by the Stanley Picker Trust and a representation in their London Collection.
Her studio was based at the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK where she produced her sculpture and undertook bespoke casting commissions. These include 15 Stag Head casts for William Grant, Glenfiddich Whisky for international airports and sculptures for the Royal Victoria Infirmary hospital in Newcastle Upon Tyne and AkzoNobel.
In 2018 Katya moved back to Israel and established a studio in Tel-Aviv.