I Love Pots (and Tattoos)!

A studio potter and the founder of @nonclaypots and @potterytattoos shares how and why she began sharing her passions on social media.

By Kristen Kieffer
August 28, 2025

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Essays

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All photos courtesy of Kristen Kieffer

Cups and plates by studio potter Kristen Kieffer.

Do I love pots because I’m a potter? Or am I a potter because I love pots? I think the latter is actually the real truth, because I remember admiring pottery and vessels in museums, antique shops, and even the mall well before officially becoming a potter in the early 90s.

Ten or so years ago, when Pinterest started to become a way to save and collect images, I started a board called Non-Clay Pots because one of my main sources of inspo has long been vessels that aren’t ceramic. That board and others are a useful tool to scroll through for ideas in my studio, as well as for PowerPoint presentations at workshops.

One of the things I suggest when I teach is for folks to look at what other artists are inspired by, rather than simply getting ideas directly from their work. After being on Instagram a few years, I realized that potters’ posts of their work were becoming a key source of inspiration for other potters. So I decided to start Non-Clay Pots on IG and FB in early 2018 to share objects and artists that inspire me in the hopes of inspiring others with art outside our medium. Basically, I thought I could bring something new to social media that I wasn’t seeing.

From the outset, I sought to showcase the widest variety of artists, mediums, and eras as possible, alternating between 2D and 3D vessels. What defines a non-clay pot can be literal (a vessel in another material than ceramic), but sometimes it’s a vague vessel reference or even an object that utilizes clay but is not utilitarian. How items in each post are defined, as well as what gets posted, is completely up to me. Though I do enjoy it when folks dm or tag me to share non-clay pots they’ve discovered.

In the intervening years, I’ve discovered other feeds to follow to find artwork, learned about artists, genres, and mediums I’d never known, and highlighted artists and artwork relevant to current political events and social issues as much as possible. Around 2020, I started organizing work by hue to give the page a slight consistency from one post to the next, as well as help me narrow down what to share. (I have a couple hundred non-clay pots saved in my IG bookmarks, so it can be a bit overwhelming to pick.)

An image capture from Kieffer’s Instagram account, Non-Clay Pots.

Illustrations in support of Palestine by Lina Jaradet, 2023 to present.
Log Cabin Murrine Pot: Numbers 1, 2, & 3 by Corey Pemberton, 2024.
Sweeting the Pot by Derrick Adams, acrylic and fabric collage on wood panel, 2024.

Sharing work by everyone from hobbyists with just a few followers to highly-collected artists with thousands has been a joy. I quickly learned it’s common courtesy to include the artist’s name and handle within the first line or two of a caption, as well as tag the artist so they are readily identified in users’ feeds. I research the artist and artwork so I can include titles or series names, materials, dimensions, location, and the year of creation. When available, I include bios, artist statements, quotes, and relevant hashtags. I try to avoid simply posting a screenshot with minimal info (which is way more common and much easier). I want to showcase each artist and their work and hopefully introduce their art to new admirers.

My biggest takeaway from hosting Non-Clay Pots for seven plus years is the importance and ubiquity of vessels across time, mediums, genres, and continents. Everyone from drag queens to couturiers, architects to activists have a connection to the vessel. My sole disappointment with the feed is the lack of engagement in the last couple of years because of IG’s ongoing algorithm upheaval. It can be a lot of work and is not very rewarding if only a dozen folks see each post, so unfortunately, I don’t post as often as I used to. But I do see daily engagement on old posts and hope the feed remains a living record despite less current activity.

Non-Clay Pots used to occasionally include photos of people with tattoos of a vessel, but as I got more tattooed and followed more tattooers, I decided they needed their own feed and started Pottery Tattoos in spring of 2021. Vessel tattoos seem a fairly recent phenomenon. There’s an occasional basket shape with bouquet in early American Traditional circa 1920s, but it’s become quite common in the 21st century with the vase being by far the most popular tattooed vessel.

Pottery Tattoos (‘Vessel Tattoos’ didn’t have a good ring) features tattooed vessels—alternating posts between color and black and grey—in all styles on all folx by tattooers all over the world. Blackwork and black and grey vessels are the prevailing choice over color by about 3 to 1. And Greek pottery seems to be the most common historical reference. All of which has been fascinating for me to discover as a tattooed potter, as has discovering how many tattooers also do pottery!

An image capture from Kieffer’s Instagram account Pottery Tattoos.

Tattoo by Joseph Bryce, Portland, Oregon
Tattoo by Martin Pescador, Santiago, Chile.
Tattoo by Becca Genné Bacon, New York, New York.

Both feeds began with me wanting to actively contribute to social media, not just passively scroll. Many of the artists I’ve featured have taken the time to drop a thank you, some expressing their delight in the unusual focus of the feed or to connect over human rights. Since each IG feed is so narrowly themed, the feeds garner a fewer, yet fervent following. High audience numbers have never been the point. The goal has always been to share and uplift artists’ work, introduce folks to unfamiliar artists and different types of art, and of course, delight in the seemingly universal love of pots.

kiefferceramics.com | @kiefferceramics

@nonclaypots | @potterytattoos

Kristen Kieffer resides in Massachusetts and has been a full-time studio potter since 2003. She received her BFA from N.Y.S.C.C. at Alfred University and MFA from Ohio University. Kristen has work in numerous public and private collections, has exhibited internationally in juried and invitational exhibitions, and taught workshops around the country at craft centers and universities.

Potter Kristen Kieffer in her Massachusetts studio.

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