Kelly Farley — Process

“It is from fibre that all living organisms are built, the tissues of plants, leaves and ourselves… Our nerves, our genetic code, the canals of our veins, our muscles. We are fibrous structures.”

— Magdalena Abakanowicz

Discovery

SPACE STUDY, REFERENCES, AND PROJECT GOALS.

Where do my ideas come from? Sometimes from a dream that drifts into a suspended form. Sometimes, from a walk down a long, winding trail where the land teaches me rhythm and proportion. When I look up into the stars, I imagine planets spinning color around a bright orb—an ice world forming its thick white crust, and I carry that cosmology back into clay.

But my vision doesn’t end in the sky. In the flames of my inferno, I forge the magic that remains on the surface of my spheres. I study form and the way space and gravity pull the mind toward a point of reference. I plan carefully and sometimes spontaneously, allowing a whirlwind of decisions to take shape—guided by curiosity, intuition, and the intelligence of materials.

This is a landscape to explore, a vast field of the imagination, and a foundation for actualizing the concept and bringing it into the real world. Discovery is monumental even if it rests in a quiet space and retains the bold expression of gravity itself.

Design

Modeling and client review.

When I create a custom project, I lean into conversation to understand why the work resonates—and how it can serve the architecture and energy of your space. Because my work is modular, it can scale from something simple and elegant to something vast and grand—like a towering shard of gravity suspended in air.

Once we’ve identified the right direction, we commit to a drawing and review it together with care, ensuring the composition, scale, and intent feel exact. And still, there is always a pleasant surprise: the kiln introduces variables beyond control, and those atmospheric shifts are precisely what make every sphere unmistakably unique.

“My wire sculptures are made from the same loop...there’s only one way to do it. The idea is to do it simply...That shape comes out working with the wire. You don’t think ahead of time...You work on it as you go along… It’s like a drawing in space.”

— RUTH ASAWA

Fabrication and Creation

Firing, assembly, and installation.

After I make the spheres in my studio, the true transformation happens in the firing. I cannot be separated from ceramics because of my love for flame. Like a painter’s palette and brush, I use slips, glazes, and flame paths to “paint” the surface—so it carries the memory of its atmosphere.

My work moves through multiple firing processes, from the ancient rhythms of an anagama to the focused intensity of reduction. I can stay up late tending a catenary hard-brick kiln, throwing in rock salt and watching it volatilize—an elemental ritual that leaves its mark. I can spend sleepless days stoking the anagama, watching wood ash drift, settle, and melt at extreme temperatures, forming the spontaneous patinas that define my surfaces.

These atmospheric firings give me a wide vocabulary. I pick and choose from different outcomes, then assemble spheres across processes to build the scope and character of a collection. I’m not exclusive to one firing method—each project calls for its own decisions, and I follow the path that best serves the work. The kiln is my collaborator—unpredictable, exacting, and essential to the final voice of each piece.