 Kingsley Weihe Pottery
Kingsley is a potter
working in Brookline, Massachusetts, who has been making and selling
her work since 1993. Her formal training and professional background
are in architecture. She is a registered architect who initially became
involved in pottery as a hobby, but soon found it to be a more
rewarding and satisfactory medium. Her study of architecture arose out
of a simultaneous interest in science and art, but it was the need to
actually make things that made clay a more appealing medium — things
that still satisfy the needs for form and function that architecture
does.
"Many of my designs
are inspired by primitive decorative motifs, particularly African. I
delight in the slight inexactness of handwork. I do not layout my
designs beforehand, and often end up with too much or not enough space
when I come full circle, but it is just this deviation that excites me.
The marks reflect the tools and the hands that made them. No two
designs are ever alike — rather, each one builds on the ones that came
before.
"The purses came
about unintentionally, when a canister slumped and looked more like an
old worn leather bag. I put a long droopy strap on it and voila!
Inspired by a childhood fascination with my mother's evening bag
collection, and the uncanny resemblance of my black glaze to patent
leather, I created the first series of bags, and began experimenting
with ways to make them functional — cookie jars, teapots, jewelry boxes.
"I half-jokingly
tell my friends (and former professional colleagues) that the only
thing I miss about architecture is the clothes I got to wear; perhaps
the purses are a way of satisfying my interest in fashion and
accessories, and of a certain formality lacking in the casual and
ever-dusty world of the pottery studio."
Kingsley has been a
member of Feet of Clay Pottery in Brookline Village since 1991, and has
been a manager there since 1996. She sells her work in several local
galleries, as well as the bi-annual Sales at Feet of Clay. Current galleries
include the Sign of the Dove and Cambridge Artists
Cooperative, both in Cambridge, MA.
All of the work is
made of high-fired stoneware and fully functional. All pieces are
food-, dishwasher-, microwave-, and oven-safe.
Email: kingsley@kwpottery.com
Website: kwpottery.com
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