06/13/2026
Making art in a welcoming, nurturing place like the Willamette Art Center can be healing and beautiful.
WAC artist Karin Kayfes created this stunning jar as part of her own healing journey.
“When the WAC reopened in January, I was recovering from hand surgery and grieving the loss of my mom,” Karin said. “I decided I wanted to throw an urn for her ashes. That was the beginning of a journey of learning to throw bigger while moving through the slow work of grief and healing.Talking to people at the studio about what I was working on took us from small talk to deeper conversations in one sentence. These connections and conversations nurtured me in my growth and in my processing of my grief.”
Karin made this wonderful vessel on the wheel out of Oregon White clay.
The bottom glaze is Amaco Obsidian, with bands of Amaco's Blue Rutile, Ancient Copper, and Seaweed above that, each overlapping the previous glaze. The white swooshes are Amaco Snow. The top third of the cookie jar is Mayco Norse Blue topped with zigzags and dots of Spectrum Running Hot Chowder and then covered with Amaco Mulberry. The lid has that same combo. All glazes were applied three layers thick.
“This form was a failed urn- I had to learn how to keep the width from getting away from me-but I still liked it and turned it into a cookie jar. There's a lesson in there somewhere, but if it's about cookie jars and urns, failure and growth, or sweetness and sorrow, I'm not sure,” said Karin.
No matter what Karin decides to call this piece, we think it’s breathtaking.
