On Thursday, April 2, 2009, Kristen Kieffer visited MontCo for a demonstration of some of her techniques. She specializes in very stylized pieces with a beautiful glazing enhanced by a series of surface textures. Much of her work is done by altering wheel-thrown pieces, operating mostly with mid-range porcelain fired at cone 7 in an electric kiln. Many of her decoration ideas come from fashion of a bygone era, both in textiles and metalwork.

We were treated to examples of many ways to alter and decorate pieces. Making stamps by scribing a plaster slab, cutting darts out of pieces to drastically alter shapes and creating surface textures with stamping, slip trailing and also using paper masking and textured sponges. The final results must be seen to be believed. She uses combinations of satin and gloss glazes which break over the surface texturing to create subtle shadings. It was a fun day full of useful tips for all steps in the process.