MEET
KATY TAYLOR
Katy Taylor has been a professional ceramic artist for over twenty years. With a formal education in ceramics from Alfred University and The Art Institute of Chicago, She began her career as a sculptor and academic, with numerous artist residencies, faculty appointments and exhibitions at prestigious institutions across the country.
Eventually, her professional pursuits led her to Cape Cod in 2011, where she put down roots with her family. Katy continued teaching and wrote a book about ceramic glazes with her potter husband, Brian Taylor. As they say, the days are long and the years are short when raising young kids, and once her girls entered school, the tides turned again and it was time for the next adventure. Katy developed a creative practice where her life-work balance can be prioritized while building on her passion for art making, thus her jewelry business was born.
Katy works out of her home studio in Brewster where she lives with her husband, two children and Elliot the cat. When she’s not in her studio, you may find her working on her next DIY house project, paddleboarding out on the pond, or having an epic dance party with her girls in the kitchen.
KATY TAYLOR'S WORK
sea into
shell into
clay into
rock into
gold
As we journey through this world, we take on many roles and wear many faces. Even the things we own carry within them many lives that they have lived. These layers of identity and the marks of time they carry have long been sources of inspiration in Katy’s work. The shell itself is a potent metaphor for transformation, which Katy continues to mine for deep meaning in her work.
With the ebbing tides releasing gifts from the oceans’ depths and the weather constantly shaping and reshaping the shorelines, Katy is never at a loss for inspiration. She marvels at the human sensorial condition and how our environments shape the perception of our experiences. With reverence and curiosity, Katy loves her “research and development” days when she heads to the beach to comb for treasures.
“For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea”
—e.e.cummings
excerpt from poem: maggie and milly and molly and mae
Back in the studio, Katy extrapolates meaning from these moments and explores her ideas through material processes. Each shell found in this carefully curated collection was selected while walking the local beaches, then cast and meticulously transformed into hand-crafted fine porcelain pieces adorned with luminous 22k gold or platinum luster fused to the surface. The jewelry is finished with either sterling silver or 14k gold filled hardware. Each one of a kind piece of jewelry is a memento that speaks to the wonderful discoveries and transformations that happen when time is spent with the ocean.
