Ceramic sculpture · 2026

Reflections
in Clay

An exploration of memory, silence, and the quiet forms through which we learn to speak.

Illuminated earth-toned sculptural ceramic lamp on a wooden surface

Artist statement

Reflections in Clay

The things we carry often speak before we do.

My work begins with what is difficult to say. I use clay to explore the space between silence and voice, where memory settles into the body and begins to take shape. Each surface records touch, pressure, repetition, and time.

In Reflections in Clay, the forms shift between vessels, bodies, and shelters. Clay carries memory, wood provides structure, and light gives the work a voice. Thread moves between the forms, connecting them in an ongoing conversation.

I work mainly in black, brown, and white, colors drawn from the earth. Together they hold a sense of tension and balance: shadow beside light, weight beside openness, and silence gradually giving way to expression.

Reflections in Clay · 2026

Selected works

Scroll or swipe to view the series

Rows of ceramic ring forms arranged on a wooden wall structure — Selected work01 / 11

Group of hanging ring sculptures joined by thread and wooden beads — Selected work02 / 11

Tall brown ceramic floor lamp with a glowing central opening — Selected work03 / 11

Four slender ceramic floor lamps with illuminated thread and wooden beads — Selected work04 / 11

Four black hand-built ceramic vessels with horizontal ridges — Selected work05 / 11

Two black ceramic vessels with open centers crossed by pale thread — Selected work06 / 11

Wall arrangement of black, brown, and white looped ceramic sculptures with hanging thread — Selected work07 / 11

Speckled ceramic bowl with cascading thread and wooden beads on a pedestal — Selected work08 / 11

Black and white teardrop ceramic sculpture with thread and beads on a pedestal — Selected work09 / 11

Black ceramic bowl with cascading pale thread and beads on a tall pedestal — Selected work10 / 11

Four tall dark ceramic vessels with layered horizontal bands — Selected work11 / 11

Making · Material · Form

In the studio

Scroll or swipe through the process

Stacked rounded clay forms with textured surfaces — Surface and repetition

A newly formed clay vessel supported on a studio worktable — Building the form

Maria shaping a tall clay sculpture by hand — Hand-building

A group of freshly formed clay vessels on the studio table — Forms in progress

A tall segmented clay vessel on a wheel — Building upward

Four narrow ceramic forms arranged inside a kiln — Before firing

Maria centering clay on a pottery wheel — At the wheel

Maria shaping a clay vessel on a pottery wheel — Shaping the vessel

Maria holding a tall clay sculpture in the studio — Scale and body

About the artist

Maria Emilia
Steiner

Maria Emilia Steiner is an Ecuadorian ceramic artist and educator based in Southwest Florida. Her sculptural practice draws on material memory, interior space, and the ways objects can hold what language cannot.

Clay holds memory.

Wood offers structure.

Light becomes voice.

Thread continues the conversation.

Reflectionsin Clay

The things we carry often speak before we do.

Selected works

In the studio

Maria EmiliaSteiner

Reflections
in Clay

Maria Emilia
Steiner