I usually make one postcard each year depicting a new form or idea. These are then, primarily, handed out at retail shows, workshops, and less often, sent to those on my aging mailing list. This covered jar image is my new card for 2008. If you would like one, I would like for you to have one.

While I was working in my studio today, and coming off my lovely and successful Holiday Sale this past weekend where I could engage with friends, neighbors, collectors and their friends and family directly, it occured to me that my online audience misses out on some of the tangibles. Ironically, the digital age —filled with images and the ability to Goggle everything— has subtracted a small but enjoyable part of what I, as a visual artist, crave: artists’ postcards! To save money on printing and postage, this has gone a bit by the wayside, which is understandable but unfortunate. It’s the artist’s business card; a hand-held visual that doesn’t require you to be in front of your monitor. I always have cards hanging in my studio, or stuck or taped in my sketchbook, or kept to pass on to my students or hung in the studio where I teach as a visual tool.

I would like to extend the opportunity for you, my web audience, to receive my new postcard. Simply drop me an email with “Postcard” in the subject line and your mailing address in the body to stenkief@yahoo.com. (That would be “sten” as in “KriSTEN” stuck to “kief” as in “KIEFfer”, in case you’ve been wondering all these years what on earth my address meant.) That’s it! Something you can hold in your hand allows for some kind of connection beyond the digital. Maybe in the future we’ll meet in person and you’ll take a pot, but for now beyond the ether, you can receive a card and my well wishes.

From my studio this season:
—>On Monday, November 24th, I will be posting new work at my Online Store for the holidays. Click here to shop.

—>There are shows in IL, NM, MA and MN carrying my work for the season newly listed on my Schedule page.

—>Thanks so much to those who were able to come out to my second-annual Holiday Studio Show & Sale November 8th and 9th. I appreciate your patronage and support, and buying my work for gifts this year.

As an aside, but on the topic of buying handmade, there is a neat category to the right on my Store page called Favorites. This allows you to see the artists and objects I have bookmarked: etsy artists and work I respect and would like to own (or do!). There are a lot of talented craftspeople making great work out there, and this feature is one way for you to find them. (You can spend hours leap-frogging from one artist’s favorites to another.) It’s a fun way to shop handmade. Visit my short but growing Favorites list here.

Thanks for buying and gifting handmade.

If you missed the Obamaware sale but would like a souvenir of this historic moment, you can go to this link at MoveOn.org to receive a commemorative sticker marking Barack Obama’s historic victory, designed by groundbreaking artist Shepard Fairey—the same artist who designed the world-famous, iconic “Hope” poster for Obama.

Pictured: Obamaware by Beth Lo, Janice Jakielski, Julia Galloway, Jason Walker, Ayumi Horie, Garth Johnson, Shoko Teruyama, Michael Kline and Andy Brayman.

Pots That Can Take the Heat: Obamaware! Ayumi Horie invited 27 great ceramic artists from around the country to make work for an online exhibition and fundraiser featuring Obama-Biden specific pots in limited editions. In just seventy-two hours (10/19-22, 2008), the sale and auction of these highly thoughtful, collectible and poignant Obamaware pieces raised $10,000 in donations for the Obama/Biden campaign. Click here to read Sarah Archer’s interesting article on pottery’s history in politics and action.

“Potters often talk about the intersection of art and everyday life and functional ceramic’s power to impact people on a daily, intimate basis. Through Obamaware 2008, we [expanded] this dialogue by generating a timely conversation and by supporting a candidate who is brave enough to promote a hopeful, humanistic paradigm.” –A.H.

I am in the process of glazing, and have been thinking about my customers and collectors, my supporters (that would be you), during this process and over the last week.

The image left is about a third of the bisqued (fired once at a lower temp) ware from the my last six weeks of making, sorted and ready for glaze. I will be loading two, maybe three glaze kilns soon to fire work for upcoming shows, workshops and for my own store, but some of the pieces I’m glazing right now are commissions. In this last making cycle, I have received requests for two cups as gifts from FL, one yunomi for a gift from TX, a bowl for a gift from NJ, three cups from NYC and a covered jar and two cups also from NYC. I’ve also just had a customer from IN contact me to purchase a vase as a gift for a relative in GA, and two local friends/customers come by to buy gifts for weddings.

I can’t relay how happy it makes me when someone calls or emails me to buy something I’ve made for themselves, let alone to buy for a friend or relative. It is truly flattering they think of my work to purchase and/or give, and wonderful when folks choose to buy from an artist instead of a retail store. I agree with fellow potter Ayumi Horie’s comment in the summer ‘08 issue of CM, “Choosing to support individual artists has become a political choice, as is choosing to value their work by paying higher prices.” A $56 handmade cup lasts a lot longer and has intrinsically more value than a $56 meal.

When asked if I do commissions, I tend to widen my eyes, raise my eyebrows, shake my head and say, “Uh, no.” I think commissions have gotten a bad wrap, including by me. The requests (maybe that’s what I should call them instead) I mentioned above are by people who know, like and/or own my work, and who make general or specific preferences based on the forms, colors and surfaces I have. I am happy to do this. The orders have been as simple as wanting a Cornflower blue, medium covered jar to wanting a stamped cup in Honeycomb with that one peacock stamp I use.

So, right now, while I’m glazing, I’m thinking of you.

Thank you for supporting artists,
buying local (your city, state, the U.S.)
and giving handmade.

From top left: “Furniture” by Joan Busquets I Jane; Seating, Osoram by Konstantin Grcic; lamp by Hector Guimard; Tsubomi by Leif.designpark. Second row: side tables by Warren Platner for Knoll; table by Carlo Bugatti; etagere by Louis Marjorelle; Armchair MT1 by Ron Arad. Third row: Cobra chair by Bugatti; Crochet chair by Marcel Wanders for Droog; patterned sofa by Wanders; “bench” by Guimard.

This is a short pictorial of furniture and furniture designers I love covering more than a one hundred year span of time. The formal elements I appreciate in all of these are line, form, positive/negative space and pattern. I draw influence from contemporary and Modern furniture design just as readily as I do from the Art Nouveau era.

I call this series “Corset” (image far left), but it has become more like a small piece of furniture in my mind. The second image is a collage from my sketchbook and how I meld a variety of influences—in this case, Couture clothing and pattern and a bombé chest—into an idea for a ceramic (my design material) vessel.

These are brand NEW forms and ideas unloaded from the glaze kiln last week, and shot yesterday (by me…in my kitchen) to share with you. I have posted alternate and larger views of these on my New Work page too with some additional thoughts.

Once I’m set up, I enjoy photographing (or, “digitizing”) my work. I like playing with close-ups and positioning, trying to stage the piece(s) in the most dynamic and informative way (like the red b-form pair above). Below are some detail shots from yesterdays photo shoot:

Screen vase set (squished together), top image: front-sides, bottom: back-sides

left: Flower vessel; Right: Garter box

left: Flower vessel; right: Pear covered jar

So, many of these new images will be sprinkled around this site.

And in other Kieffer Ceramics news… My studio is in a minor upheaval as we add on a small addition to give us more space, heat and windows down there. Today’s activity involved a couple of great guys cutting a 6′ x 7′ opening into the foundation wall where my work table once stood (pictured below with our beautiful front yard). As they say from my husband’s hometown of Woonsocket, RI: “There it is. Gone.”

Author images from the latest issue of The Studio Potter (left to right): Catherine White, Megumi Naitoh, Michael Sherrill, and Steven Thurston.

I have mentioned before that I am one of many volunteers on the Board of The Studio Potter, a non-profit journal which is no longer just for potters. This is a publication with a unique voice in our field; The New Yorker of ceramics perhaps as the articles are actually thoughtful stories from every kind of maker in clay. A “journal” because with timeless writings and without ads, it is something to keep, collect and refer back to as a maker, instructor or collector. I contribute my time to the board of this unusual publication because I think it is unique, and have read it since I started in clay seventeen years ago.

The summer issue is out with the wide-ranging designated theme of Tools & Technology. In addition to the above, authors for this issue include: John Britt, Beth Robinson, Jeff Zamek, Louise Harter, Michael Kline, Marek Cecula, and many more! John Balistreri wrote an article titled, “Creating Ceramic Art Using the Rapid Prototyping Process” and Lisa Orr wrote, “Backwards Into the Future: Technology and Sustainability”. Scroll down on the home page to see the complete table of contents. This issue also features the winner of SP’s first essay contest for emerging artists, Lindsay Rogers.

Just before the table of contents is a link titled, Pass It On 75. A generous donation enabling 75 young artists to receive a free one-year gift subscription to Studio Potter has been made available, and SP is seeking your referral! Click on the link to download a pdf to recommend a young potter or sculptor who you believe would enjoy and benefit from SP.

If you do not subscribe, I hope you will consider doing so. It is an awesome journal —I would not use this personal space or my own time it I didn’t believe it to be so— that can only survive with subscriptions and donations. (It costs less than 28 cents a page for a one-year subscription!) If you decide to subscribe to SP or have questions, please drop me an email. Help spread the word that Studio Potter is a great publication for our entire ceramics community, and show your support by placing a link to SP on your own blog and/or website.

The title for this blog is both literal and figurative. I have been traveling quite a bit (ME, OH and TX, and soon to NYC), thus my long absence from here, but summer does seem to pass by rather quickly, on its own trip to autumn, and this one is no different. The last four weeks have been a blur, so these are more the facts than the thoughts of my away time.

My two weeks (6/22-7/4) at Watershed in Maine for the Artists-Invite-Artists Residency were stupendous! This image shows the very few but thoughtful ideas I explored during this intensive. I used my time to work on forms that have been on my mental back burner or lingering in my sketchbook, unable to be realized during my normal studio hours. Carving out time for new exploration is tricky with deadlines looming and my calendar staring me down, so it was exciting to take the time to make forms “for me”.

Since my studio is at home and I work alone, it was great to be making side-by-side with other artists again. This group was particularly talented, fun and funny: Bryan Hiveley, Ceramics Prof. at Miami International U. of Art and Design, travel guru and Inviter of all; Rebekah Bogard, Ceramics Prof. at U. of Nevada, Reno and Artist extraordinaire; The Bonnie Seeman, Ceramics Prof. at the U. of Miami; Molly Hatch, Vermont Studio Artist and Instructor newly MFA’d from U. of Colorado, Boulder; Lauren Mayer, slip-casting queen returning for her MFA thesis year at UC-Boulder; Rachel Bleil, teddybear-lover also returning for her MFA thesis year, Indiana U., Bloomington; Rebecca Gilling and Judy King, awesome sculptors and Professors at Miami International; Ben Culbertson, the man-of-wire (faceting that is) and Prof. at Shippensburg U. in PA; Wells Gray, awesome potter and Instructor at Mercersburg Academy in PA; Sara Lynch, Studio Artist, Preschool teacher, and lady of the swans with her BFA from Alfred; Sienna Orlando, Artist, traveler and see-er with her BFA from Chico State in CA; and last but not at all least, Kurt Anderson, Studio Artist, new Studio Tech at NJ City U. and humorist. It was also nice to re-connect with Adero Willard –a fellow Alfred BFA student– after thirteen years, and trade with Monica Leap!

I just returned from teaching a three-day workshop (7/18-20) with a fun group in San Antonio at the Southwest School of Art & Craft in TX; great studio, gallery and people. We had a lot of fun.

This Thursday I am heading to NYC to teach another three-day workshop (8/1-3) at Greenwich House Pottery. I love NYC, so am looking forward to squeezing in some glimpses of it over the weekend.

From top left: an Australian illustration; Orchids & Spray Orchids with Hummingbirds painting by Martin Johnson Heade; coloured engraving by Daniel Mackenzie; peacock and peahen illustration; rooster woodcut by J. Hnizdovsky; Golden Lily drawing for wallpaper by William Morris; Second row: image plate from the book Plants & Their Application to Ornament; Passion Flowers & Hummingbirds painting by Martin Johnson Heade; Kingfishers, Dragonflies & Flowering Rush and Butterflies & Wood Sorrel illustrations by M. P. Verneuil; Third row: Tulip & Rose fabric by William Morris (1876); illustration by Mrs. Vallentin from the book Women of Flowers: A Tribute to Victorian Women Illustrators (J. Kramer, 1996); “Neoclassical floral design” weddoing cake* by JollyBe Bakery; Bats & Poppies and Butterflies & Bellflowers illustrations by M. P. Verneuil; A Magnolia on Red Velvet painting by Heade.

Floral, or at least curlicue, imagery has been a part of (i.e. handles) or on the surfaces of my work for a while. But it was a more general reference. In the last two years, I have begun to place some of the botanical and animal (especially birds) imagery I enjoy, more literally into the surfaces. (I purposefully wrote “into” instead of “onto” because I hope the way that I apply slip, stamp and carve the surface makes the imagery feel a bit more a part of the form rather than flat.)

When I look at the illustrations above, what I like are the soft, repetitive lines that resolve themselves into symmetrical, organic pattern iced with color. The botanicals are easy to come by at antique shops, and I own a few. These drawings appeal to me more than a photograph would; they have a different kind of detail, slightly stylized and romantic. The Nouveau drawings and prints appeal to my sense of pattern and layering—a bird disappeared into a thickness of leaves.

I’m pretty sure the first Martin Johnson Heade painting I saw was at the National Gallery in D.C. a few years ago. They are striking in person, especially for their modest size. They have a wonderfully mysterious atmosphere and depth I would like to capture in some of my own bigger pieces.

My favorite class as a kid —other than art— was my fifth grade science class with Mr. Morton in Louisville. He could imitate the sound of every bird in the field and trees behind the school, and describe their peculiar behaviors. I thought that was really cool. Between him and my parents, my interest (that curiosity and admiration) in nature, has been there for awhile, but I’ve only just now figured out how I might include it in my work. I think too, in our current culture, we need to reconnect with what’s outside.

Briefly, the peacock and rooster images have popped up in my work lately as an amusing way to quietly question the gender of decoration. If a decorative male bird is featured on work that is perceived as feminine because it is decorative, is it [the work] feminine or masculine? (Did ya catch that?)

I just completed the two greenware covered jars pictured here (not a great image, sorry). This is a new form for me, and bigger too. The one on the left (15″h) has lilacs, and the other (13″h) reminds me of wallpaper.

On a different note, I am off for two weeks to play in clay with a group of other artists during a residency at Watershed called Artists-Invite-Artists. So I’m signing off for that time. May I suggest, while I am stepping away from my computer, that we all spend some of the summer reading real words on paper, like the imminent issue of SP hitting theoretical newsstands post haste!!

*Another cake, I know, I couldn’t resist. I also forgot to mention in the post below that I listen to CAKE all the time. These cakes from JollyBe are amazing, and will probably be featured here every time I mention an influence because she has one for everything! The one I pictured above stated with the image, “…design derived from a mattress cover chosen by the bride who uses mattress design as a source of inspiration for her own art.” How perfect is that for what I’ve been writing about?!

Back in July!

From top left: Wayne Thiebaud’s painting Let Them Eat Cake; Painted Bird Cake, (a real cake) by Amanda Streeter; Floor Cake by Claus Oldenburg; and couture wedding cakes. Second row: another couture wedding cake; Wedding Cake by Wayne Thiebaud; a real wedding cake by Margaret Braun; a great blog entry from Trend de la Cremé pairing runway fashion with couture cakes; Third row: cupcakes by Dozen Cupcakes; architecture as cake; and Julia Jacquette’s painting White on White (Thirty-six sections of wedding cake, swans).

I started looking at wedding cakes eight years ago for decoration ideas. It seemed an obvious reference for me as slip-trailing (squeezing liquid clay through a bulb syringe) is the clay equivalent to cake-decorating.

I’m not sure when I first came across Wayne Thiebaud’s pastry paintings from the ’60s, but I love them. If I could paint, that is the style and possibly content I would choose. I enjoy his fantastical and exaggerated use of color (hard shadows of electric pink) and style that reminds me of the vintage ads I like. The paint is thick, and somehow simultaneously gestural and precise. Some of my influences are abstract ideas, and that last sentence would be a good example of something I see [in a Thiebaud painting, for example] that I would like to emulate in my work —a feeling, a presence.

I also just like the word, cake (the title of and text on the left tile, actually). I am drawn to the sound of certain words (Who doesn’t like to say rutabaga?), especially if they can have different meanings and contexts. I don’t know where I picked this up, but I sometimes use it as an expression to mean, “exceedingly lucky”. As in, “He is in a pretty cake situation since he married a millionaire,” for example. (There are of course the phrases “cakewalk” and “take the cake” which, in my estimation, have racially questionable origins.)

I chose Claus Oldenburg’s Floor Cake to show because it fits today’s theme, and because I am drawn to his sculpture and drawing for making real, hard forms soft and humorous. Both elements I look to capture in my own work.

It may or may not be obvious from the images I chose above (and from my last post below): many of my influences overlap. In these things, I see hard and soft lines, humor, form, context and content. A couture dress looks like a tiered cake which looks like a Victorian home, which could be a covered jar—or maybe that’s just me. As I’ve said before, we artists are the blenders of the disparate creating the unified.