Karrin Burns
Featured Artwork
About the Artist
My pots are made to be used. I make functional stoneware — vessels for everyday life — using stoneware clay. But what makes each piece particular to this place is what goes on the surface.
The glazes are mine. I dig local Illinois clay and gather ash from burning the native plants I grow in my own Oak Park yard. These become the raw material for every glaze I mix. The chemistry of heat and place transforms them into the surfaces you see: matte whites, soft blues, earthy ambers. No two firings are identical.
Working with native plants connects my studio practice to my garden. I tend both. One feeds pollinators; the other feeds people. The ash that glazes your cup once fed a monarch butterfly. That continuity matters to me.