Studio potter and ceramic artist, Kristen Kieffer, makes handmade pottery, decorative porcelain and functional ceramics in her Massachusetts studio, as well as leads workshops and sells online at Etsy and Big Cartel.
Valentine’s Day 2012 happens to mark the two-year anniversary of my DVD release! The ongoing appreciation the video has garnered by fellow makers and instructors from very near (fellow Bay Staters) to quite far (Australia) fills me with warm fuzzies. Thank you so much for all your support! Wanna find out what all the hoopla’s about? See the trailer, read past viewer comments, and get your copy of Surface Decoration: Suede to Leatherhard right here! XO
These are the twenty great artists I spent the first week of 2012 with at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (where I was an artist-in-residence 15 years ago!) for a Ceramic Surface Forum. Jason Burnett brought us all together to spend five days making, conversing and laughing (lots of laughing) side-by-side in the studio. It was a wonderful way to start the New Year. Thanks to everyone for a fun and inspiring week! Hover your cursor over each image to see its maker, and see the full list of artists in our group below.
Ceramic Surface Forum 2012: Amy Santoferraro, Martina Lantin, Kathy King, Julie Guyot, Andy Sloan Jackson, Chris Pickett, Justin Rothshank, Meredith Host, Magda Gluscek, Susan Feagin, Mark Errol, Matt Nolen, Jason Bigge Burnett, Pattie Chalmers, Chandra DeBuse, Tom Bartel, Kurt Anderson, Dustin Farnsworth, Ronan Kyle Peterson, Phil Haralam and me. Yay!
It’s the title I chose for my solo show at Plinth Gallery in Denver. I had jotted down the phrase months ago, but didn’t note the context. I believe I heard it on NPR in reference to something else, but it originated from the delightful 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street:
Look Doris, someday you’re going to find that your way of facing this realistic world just doesn’t work. And when you do, don’t overlook those lovely intangibles. You’ll discover those are the only things that are worthwhile.
~ John Payne as Fred Gailey
The “lovely intangibles” are something I think about when I’m working in my studio and reference about my pots when I teach: the importance of detail (different from decoration), which I define as anything from a slip-trail accent to the ribbed line that delineates a curve. Each of the aesthetic, technical and functional components that make up the whole of a pot —those big and little things that need to be there for me as the maker— may not be definable or even identifiable to the viewer, but if one or more is missing, the whole is no longer the same or as strong. I like the idea that it’s those lovely, imperceptible or even elusive intangibles that are crucial in the completion of a beautiful and useful object. We may not be aware of them when they are there, but somehow we are when they’re not.
The “important” details pictured, first row: 1. The negative space of a pitcher handle and crisp line that defines the handle itself. 2. The stripes that pop the stamped bunny silhouette, and slip-trailed tail. 3. The top flowing line of a cup handle that leads directly into the lip, and the lines the define the glossy interior and satin exterior. Second row: 4. The red stripes that wrap around and define planes and curves. 5. The cut-aways from a jar foot that create shadows and punctuate the softly squared corners of the body. 6. The thrown, altered and ribbed curves of a large pear jar.
Check into AKAR right here to see a wonderful online show of dessert plates, which include my own stripe-y yummies! Each of the 22 artists invited from all over the country sent two sets of four plates, one set of two and two singles. Sets are a rarity for me (more design planning involved plus extras required), but I had fun playing with the details to define and distinguish each. All but one of my plates sent are pictured above with different views below. The Dessert Plate, online exhibition at AKAR Design, 7/22-8/12.
One of my dessert plates is pictured in the lower right corner of the show card.
Here are my five yunomis made specially for AKAR Design’s Annual Yunomi Invitational. These are the first cups to have my new polka dot and striped color accents paired with my stamped and slip-trailed patterns ~ lots’o layers!
The nature of the show (200 potters sending five cups each) means the invite was extended last summer, and the cups were made in December and shipped in January so they could be photographed by AKAR to post online now. The coincidental timing of this exhibition’s opening —almost two weeks to the day since the tsunami disaster in Japan— for a show which celebrates a specific style of Japanese tea bowl used for daily, informal tea drinking is one of poignancy. That the surface decoration of my yunomis was influenced by Japanese Oribe style Mino ware is another layer of reflection for me as well as reminder of our connection to past and present for even those on the other side of the globe.
This online-only exhibition also supports The Studio Potter non-profit journal, and opens this Friday, 3/25 at 10 AM CST right here. This show almost sold out in less than 48 hours last year, so open your account with AKAR now and enjoy the beautiful celebration of yunomis!
Also opening this week is the amazing Handmade for Japan’s auction of artists’ donated works (pots, sculpture and more) to raise relief funds for victims of the catastrophes in Japan. Preview the auction items on Handmade for Japan’s facebook page here and calendar to buy outright or bid 3/24 at 8 PM EST through 3/27 8 PM EST on eBay right here. More info is available in my blog post below (previous) and on their FB page. Thank you for sharing the auction info and bidding.
UPDATE! See auction results and link to give directly
in the blog post below or go here.
