Karrin Burns Pottery

05/30/2026

We’re all setup at booth 46 at What’s Blooming on Harrison, 11-7PM (music and drinks until 9PM. It’s going to be loads of fun- the festival is huge this year! My assistant charges a premium, but he’s doing a fine job ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ highly recommend ❤️Come see us and buy David a beer!

05/28/2026

This came out of the kiln tonight: it reminds me of a solar eclipse. This one has my local clay and ash from my garden, as well as some finely crushed Manhattan Schist from my visit to NYC a few weeks ago. The stone made the clay crawl, and I like it

05/25/2026

My work is simple; quite plain, in fact! I prefer the glaze to tell the story. This is a glaze made from an ochre-colored clay I dug on a bank of the Des Plaines River near my house, with ash from Blue Vervain, Oak, Eastern Redbud, and native asters (mainly Hairy Oldfield and New England). This is the end of the ash from my summer 2024 garden…after nesting season, I will burn my piles of dried stalks, leaves, and wood from last year’s plants.

05/24/2026

I added some cobalt carbonate to the garden ash and clay on these…very different effects. The pouring bowl was fired twice, (same glaze base; once before the addition of cobalt) which accounts for the different look. The other is rough and quite matte. Both red stoneware.

05/23/2026

What can you do with this tiny cup? I got into ‘throwing off the hump’ (if you watch The Great Pottery Throwdown you know this means centering a large piece of clay on the wheel and throwing multiple pieces off the top) and created lots of these gorgeous kotsuke. In Japan, kotsuke and kobachi are little dishes to hold condiments, sauces, seasoning, etc.; in Korean they are jongji (banchan bowls).

These handmade cups are glazed in Savanna ash (oak, dogwood, goldenrod, asters, bluestems) from my native plants and clay from a big underground work project at the corner of Ridgeland and Berkshire in Oak Park. Pretty cool, huh?

I’ll have these and lots more available next Saturday 5/30 at What’s Blooming on Harrison in Oak Park ❤️

05/22/2026

Earthenware tokkuri and ochoko set in a commercial coppery glaze

05/20/2026

I’m excited to share my latest work!

High-fired functional stoneware glazed with
Illinois native plant ash
and local clay

What’s Blooming on Harrison
Saturday, 30 May
11AM-7PM

05/20/2026

I finished this sweater a few weeks ago and I forgot to give a proper introduction: this is Cardigan No. 11 by .knitwear in Silkiull and Silk Mohair ❤️

05/20/2026