Ceramicist Kala Stein finds natural inspiration
FOR Sonoma-based ceramicist Kala Stein, a piece of clay pottery is much more than reshaped sediment. It is a way to connect to the land from which the clay comes, and a bridge between the people who share it.
That ethos—the celebration of a region and its people—led Stein to Sarah Anderson, proprietor of bespoke home goods store Chateau Sonoma, and, eventually, to a collaborative collection of beautiful tableware imprinted with Sonoma Valley’s seasonal botanicals.
Inspiration for the collection was animated by the work of Astier de Villatte, founded by Ivan Pericoli and Benoit Astier de Villatte, whose ateliers in Paris are a favorite haunt of Anderson’s. Using the Parisian studio’s iconic French rustic aesthetic as a jumping off point, Stein ideated and created a collection marrying le rustique aesthetique with the Sonoma lifestyle: casual but elevated, and rooted in the natural beauty of the Valley.
“I’ve always felt very connected to the land,” Stein says. “I go through the world noticing what’s around me, then bring my observations and seasonal influences into what I make.”
Raised on a farm in rural New York, Stein had long been sold on back-to-the-land living, but incorporation of botanicals into her ceramic designs was born from her visits to Anderson’s Fifth Street Farm in Sonoma. “On her farm, Sarah has amazing fruit trees, lavender fields and a vegetable garden. Being on her farm and in her world made me realize ‘OK, I need to integrate this somehow.’ The plants seemed like the best way to do that.”
Stein first explored the juxtaposition of land, clay and art at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. After completing an MFA and teaching ceramics for a time she migrated west to the Sonoma Valley, where she set up shop at the town’s Community Center and served as its director of ceramics and art from 2015 to 2022.
As artistic mediums go, clay is uniquely hospitable to innovation. “It’s a process-based material,” Stein explains. “Clay doesn’t already come in a form, like wood comes in a slab. One of the things that I like is it has endless possibilities. I think about my process not only as a collaboration with the material, but also as an intervention with it.”
To create the designs featured in her botanical line, Stein forages year-round from Anderson’s farm and the surrounding neighborhood to gather local herbs, flowers and native plants to print into the ceramic pieces.
“It’s been an interesting process of discovery; the work changes throughout the year because of what’s available to forage. The pottery and the patterns on the clay will change depending on what’s in season. That’s been a really lovely discovery. Even though I’m making the same platter form, the works are all one of kind.”
Forcing permanence onto something inherently impermanent appeals to Stein’s sense of process, too. “I’m taking something that’s very time-based and making it permanent,” she says, “fossilizing and capturing the essence of place in clay, capturing a moment in time. That’s how I think about firing [clay].” Materials that might have been filtered away by seasonal rains can anchor family tablescapes, instead.
Stein’s popular botanical line is expanding this spring. On March 16, a full dinnerware service is set to launch at Chateau Sonoma, plus fun tabletop additions like candlesticks, vases and a berry colander.
A ceramic artist and teacher well-loved and admired across Sonoma and beyond, Kala Stein continues to create new works at her downtown Sonoma studio. You can view her large-scale ceramic installations locally at Opus One Winery in Oakville and Darling Wines in Sonoma and visit Stein’s studio by appointment. To learn more about the artist and her work, visit kalastein.com and @kalasteindesign. Kala Stein’s tabletop collection can be found at Chateau Sonoma, 453 1st Street West, Sonoma, and chateausonoma.com.
