Artist Profile: Amber Kendrick

I decided to start something new—artist profiles on my blog. Selfishly, it’s a way for me to get to know artists in the area, peek into their studios, and find out more about their work. In exchange, writing a blog is a way to showcase them and their amazing creativity. Artists are well known for being challenged in self-promotion and while my blog isn’t anything notable, any plug for an artist is worthwhile in my opinion. So let’s begin!

Amber Kendrick graciously agreed to be my first profile artist, going into it knowing that I haven’t done this before. She lives in Del Ray, is my yoga teacher at the local Y, pixie petite, and is laced with beautifully tattooed writing and feathers. She moves us through yoga positions we didn’t think we could do to the backdrop of decidedly non-yoga music. She’s awesome.

It was no surprise to discover she was an artist and soon we were exchanging each others website addresses. Here’s hers, if you are now curious: cloudterre. Amber is a ceramic and glass artist and her recent work is designing custom tableware for high-end restaurants. She describes her work as “minimal and subtle design with an emphasis on details and craftsmanship.”

Amber adjusts the damper while firing the gas kiln filled
with tableware for an upcoming restaurant, Sūna.

Amber’s inclination has been more theoretical, studying architectural theory and philosophy of art. It wasn’t until later that she decided (and it was a huge decision) to study architecture. She spent seven years in San Francisco as an architect and two years ago moved back to DC. It was her mom, an accomplished artist herself, that lured her into ceramics. She taught her everything she knows.

The studio!

One of two potter’s wheels.

Bags of clay nearby. One interior side of their garage holds
boxes of different types of clay, from the floor halfway to the ceiling. 

A bisque load in the kiln, which is located in the garage.
Clay plates and bowls are fired at extreme temperatures
to remove the moisture, making it easier to apply glazes.

The plates and bowls are stacked before
their next phase, glazing and a final firing.

One gorgeous set is a recent commission for Ashby Inn that Amber has just finished—bread and butter plates meticulously designed to cradle the butter knife of the inn’s new silverware. Thirty prototypes were developed for chef Tarver King before settling on the final form and look. The ceramic body is porcelaineous stoneware with a satin white glaze and a modifier to form the crystals around the edges, giving it a glassy look.

Amber works thoughtfully with her clients. In the case of chefs, the first meeting is to understand the concept for the restaurant, to learn how they plate, to get a sense of the menu, and discuss intentions for the tableware. She encourages the chef to share inspiring images that hint at their thinking—be it color, space, form, word, or mood.

“My creative process still originates with schematic sketching. I can’t escape an architectural approach to design... I begin to sketch forms and simultaneously think about surface, function, how the piece will be transported from kitchen to table, how it feels, how the plate or bowl might serve as a ‘blank canvas’ for the chef while creating an inspiring backdrop. It’s very similar to architecture to me, designing walls and openings, creating a space or an object for some event or experience to take place.”

Above are final prototypes from a current commission by chef Johnny Spero, who is opening a restaurant in DC this fall, Sūna. There are ten forms, with a total of 600 ceramic wares by the times she’s done.

Amber and her studio companion, Gusto. 

It’s not luck that Amber lands these great commissions. Her talent, dedication to form and expression, and insane perfectionism are exactly what is needed to create tableware for high-end restaurants. When she was starting out she would send prototypes to a few restaurants to get their honest feedback. She gets her work out there, knows how to network, and draws on word of mouth.

Amber reflected that it’s important to strive to always do good work, to keep working on yourself, and continue to refine one’s craft and design. She’s looking forward to an upcoming intensive workshop at Arrowmont to take her craft further and is already poised to take on new commissions.

Her greatest challenge at the moment is emerging from her studio, which is not a bad challenge. At all. But I get it. I’d love to be working in my studio all the time, too!