studio

Koen Jan Piet in the Amsterdam studio

Amsterdam, 2024

Koen Jan Piet
ceramicist

Working from a studio in the Pijp, Amsterdam since 2018. Each object begins as a response to a specific room — its light, its scale, the weight of what else is already in it. The work is made by hand, fired in a kiln, and finished in small batches. Nothing is produced twice.

the process

Raw clay, prepared and ready for forming

material

Local clay,
long preparation

The clay comes from two sources in the Netherlands, blended for a body that holds detail without becoming fragile. Each batch is wedged by hand — a process that takes longer than it appears necessary, and matters more than it looks.

Lamp section being formed on the wheel

forming

Thrown, built,
or assembled

Lamps are built in layers or slabs and pressed into a form that feels right. Murals are hand-sculpted, tile by tile, into a form built specifically for the commission. Sculptures combine both methods. Nothing is cast.

Glazed ceramic surface, detail

glaze & fire

Once in the kiln,
no two come out the same

Glazes are mixed in the studio from raw materials. Firing takes fourteen hours at 1100°C. The surface you receive depends on where in the kiln the piece sat, how the temperature moved, what was fired alongside it. This is not a flaw. It is the beauty of imperfect materials, and the reason each object is unique.

A room
in mind?

Most pieces begin with a conversation about the space.
Send a brief, or just an image.

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