Studio Cycles Pictorial 2019

31 December 2019

This is my ninth, year-end roundup of favorite and meaningful images featuring new ideas, important moments, and my pottery journeys. It’s always interesting for me to look back on the collection of images I’ve shared over the course of a year, and reflect on what continues to excite me and what was new in 2019 for me as a maker. Some of these were shared on Facebook and Instagram, but others you haven’t seen. My June post about how Pottery Saved My Life was indeed one of the most liked and commented on ever. If you missed it, you can read it here. As with past years, this is not an order, it’s a cycle.

As always, thank you for your continued support of my work and studio.
A happy, healthy New Year to you and yours!

Kristen Kieffer demo at Mud Queen Pottery, Harrisburg, PA

Studio Cycles Pictorial 2015

31 December 2015

6 Comments

Kristen Kieffer Arabesque mod tumbler in action

Kristen Kieffer stamped mug with blue flowers in progress

Kristen Kieffer Deluxe clover cups Stripe Dot Floral in progress

Kristen Kieffer dessert plate and cup in action

Kristen Kieffer Arabesque mod tumblers in action

Kristen Kieffer dogwood stamp and sketches

Kristen Kieffer dogwood yunomi with lady bug in progress

Kristen Kieffer standing to throw in home studio

Kristen Kieffer loaded kiln and empty ware shelves

Kristen Kieffer new glaze color, Buttercup Yellow

Kristen Kieffer slip-trail detail on covered jar in progress

Kristen Kieffer stamped cupcake mug in progress

Kristen Kieffer pierced fruit basket in progress

Kristen Kieffer stamped mug with hedgehog

Kristen Kieffer stamping mugs in home studio

Kristen Kieffer Super Stripe Deluxe Clover cups

Kristen Kieffer with workshop participants from View Art Center, Old Forge, NY

Kristen Kieffer wall pillows in progress

This is my fifth, year-end roundup of in-progress and in-action images from my studio and of my pots, plus a workshop image for good measure. It’s fun for me to look back on the collection of images I’ve shared, and reflect on what’s continued from past years and what was new in 2015 for me as a maker (lots!). These are just a selection of favorites I posted throughout the year on my Facebook and Instagram. As with past years, it’s not an order, it’s a cycle.

As always, thank you for your continued support of my work and studio.
A happy, healthy New Year to you and yours!

‘Valenspringtine’ In Progress

13 January 2015

6 Comments

Kristen Kieffer yunomi (in progress) w. flowers, Colorized series

Kristen Kieffer Deluxe clover cup (in progress), Arabesque modern series

Kristen Kieffer Deluxe clover cup (in progress) w. stripes and polka dots

Kristen Kieffer yunomi (in progress) w. Honey bees, Pollinator series

Pictured are my in-progress, Deluxe clover cups and Yunomi
at the leatherhard stage with completed decoration.

December tends to be a quieter time in my studio, a month I try to use for play and development in the midst of ongoing deadlines. For the last six weeks, I’ve focused on color, specifically more.

Around 2012, I began to add hand-brushed color in my stamp patterns, from bits to a bit more. Since this past spring, I’ve been hand-brushing several colors into one or two whole stamps (an image stamp vs. an abstract pattern) creating what I refer to as my Colorized Series. For me, the dazzling color from one completely colored image creates a focal point. The surrounding, uncolored stamps feel wistful and softer, like memories. Hand-coloring every stamp would be prohibitively time-consuming, but more importantly, full color on every image would feel commercial. I want to entice the cup’s owner to turn it ’round in the hand to find, appreciate, and ponder each honey bee (above), for example, colored and uncolored.

The delightful reception to my new Colorized cups encouraged me to delve deeper into cherry reds and cupcake pinks during my December play month. I’m a huge lover of color, but the technical logistics of color in ceramics, in addition to my general glacial aesthetic growth (in no small part because I allow myself to be a precise maker) slowed my figuring of how exactly to bring color to my pots. Suffice it to say, color is happening!

This particular color palette and my ongoing desire for it to be spring year-round (which does not happen here in Massachusetts) lead me to spend my six weeks of play on Valentine-inspired cups, a new series with colorful shapes I’m calling Arabesque Mod (a nod to my love of Islamic art, juiced with contemporary color and mod flair), new flower stamps, and as many polka dots and stripes as I could fit on a cup (above).

The ‘Valentine/Spring in Feb’ or ‘Valenspringtine’ cups, tumblers, and few tableware pieces will be listed in my online shop on Friday, January 30th at noon EST.

Studio Cycles Pictorial 2014

27 December 2014

Kristen Kieffer tumbler and wild daisies

Demonstrating with Chandra DeBuse (l) and Kristen Kieffer (r) at St. Pete's Clay

Kristen Kieffer new stamps, florals and bees

Taping the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler podcast w. Michael Kline (l), Julia Galloway (m), and Kristen Kieffer (r)

Kristen Kieffer chop signatures, cup mandala

Demonstrating with Kathy King (l) and Kristen Kieffer at Southern IL U., Carbondale

Poster girl, The State of Clay exhibition, MA, Kristen Kieffer Grande jar

Vases and Visiting Artist month at The Archie Bray Foundation

Kristen Kieffer wall pillows in progress, May at the Bray

Demonstrating with Matt Long (l), Adam Field (m), and Kristen Kieffer at the Mary Anderson Center, IN

Kristen Kieffer's pots as contour drawings, studio

Kristen Kieffer flower brick stages in progress

Kristen Kieffer Arabesque mod tumblers in progress

Kristen Kieffer Arabesque mod plates in progress

This is my fourth, year-end roundup of goings-on images from my studio and on the road as a workshop presenter, and this year, Visiting Artist. It’s fun for me to look back on the collection of images I’ve shared, and reflect on what’s continued from past years and what was new in 2014 for me as maker. These are just a selection of favorites I posted throughout the year on my Facebook and Instagram. As with past years, it’s not an order, it’s a cycle.

As always, thank you for your continued support of my work and studio.
A happy, healthy New Year to you and yours!

Studio Cycles Pictorial 2012

16 December 2012

I enjoyed putting together this second annual, end of the year group of images from my studio of in progress and new work. These are just a selection of images I posted throughout the year on my Facebook page. As with last year’s, it’s not an order, it’s a cycle. I just completed two glaze firings, so more to come —immediately!— for 2013 here and in my online stores. Keepin’ on, keepin’ on!

Thank you very much for your continued support of my work and studio.
A happy, healthy New Year to you and yours!

Studio Cycles Pictorial 2011

13 November 2011

6 Comments

I’m certainly in no rush for 2011 to end, though as the holidays approach and attentions (mine) get divided, now seems as good a time as any to post some of my studio and in-progress shots for the year. Ceramics is very much *make, fire, glaze, fire, repeat,* so these images aren’t in order, but rather the repetition is the order. Most all these pictures I’ve shared throughout 2011 on my Facebook Ceramics page (my favored place to post a quick pic, musing or update in between blog posts), but seeing them all in one place is a reminder of my productivity and progress over the last eleven months. 2012, I’m ready for more!