Irma Starr

Irma Starr is a Kansas City ceramic artist and one of the world’s foremost practitioners of 17th-century English slipware, a near-extinct decorative pottery tradition she has worked in for roughly half a century.¹² Her hand-thrown, slip-decorated pieces — built with combing, feathering, marbling, and slip-trailing — have been commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution and the White House, and her work is held in major museum collections including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.¹³ She works from a Kansas City studio and sells through her own gallery, museum shops, and annual open-studio holiday sales.³⁴

Description

Irma Starr is a Kansas City studio potter who specializes in 17th-century English slipware — a labor-intensive, earthenware decorating tradition in which liquid clay (“slip”) is trailed, combed, feathered, and marbled across the surface of a piece before firing.¹² She is widely described as one of the very few living artists working at a high level in this historic style, and her pieces are produced by hand using the period techniques she has studied for decades.¹²

Her output ranges from large commemorative and commissioned plates to functional and decorative ware, and — most visibly to a Kansas City audience — a line of whimsical hand-decorated holiday ornaments (Santas, snowflakes, menorahs, and her signature mermaid figures) released annually.²⁴ She sells through her own studio gallery and website, through museum shops (including the Nelson-Atkins shop and Plimoth Patuxet), and at seasonal open-studio events.³⁴⁵

The studio’s published contact/address is 610 W. 51st Street, Kansas City, MO 64112.¹ Multiple sources describe her working from a Kansas City home/working studio and hosting open-studio sales around the holidays rather than operating a conventional walk-in retail storefront; a publicly advertised storefront with regular retail hours is not confirmed.⁴

Ownership and history

Irma Starr’s slipware career traces to her time as a senior at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI), where — by consistently cited accounts, around 1963 — she was given an assignment to choose a piece from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s collection and reproduce it.²³ At the Nelson-Atkins she encountered the museum’s renowned Burnap Collection of English ceramics and a slipware mermaid plate attributed to English slipware artist Ralph Toft; that piece set the direction of her entire career.²³ She has cited her KCAI teacher, the celebrated ceramicist Ken Ferguson, as a defining influence, crediting him with the perfectionism that marks her work.²

Over the following decades Starr became one of the foremost practitioners of 17th-century English slipware, mastering period techniques — slip-trailing, combing, feathering (applied with a goose feather), and marbling.¹² Her reputation produced a series of significant commissions:

• Smithsonian Institution — the Smithsonian commissioned commemorative work from her, including a 36-inch plate created for the Renwick Gallery’s 30th anniversary (cited as 2002), which the gallery has displayed; sources indicate the Smithsonian commissioned her more than once.¹³
• White House — Starr created a White House Christmas tree ornament, with sources noting recognition from then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.¹³
• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art — she has produced reproductions for the museum’s shop for roughly four decades, and her work is held in the museum’s collection.³
• Other commemorative commissions include corporate/anniversary plates (e.g., a plate marking Kansas City Life Insurance Company’s 125th anniversary referenced in a February 2024 profile).³

Her work is reported to be held in collections including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Kansas City Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.¹

Living/working status: Sources through at least February 2024 describe Starr as actively working — including a 2021 KCUR feature showing her producing ornaments and a 2024 profile referencing a current-year commission.²³ No source reviewed reports that she has died; this page does not assert a living/deceased status beyond noting she was documented as an active working artist as recently as 2024.²³

Links

• Official site: https://www.irmastarr.com/
• About: https://www.irmastarr.com/about/
• Press: http://www.irmastarr.com/press/
• KC Studio profile: https://kcstudio.org/the-artful-life-of-irma-starr/
• KCUR feature: https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2021-12-24/a-kansas-city-ceramic-artist-is-inspired-by-a-350-year-old-mermaid-to-create-holiday-ornaments

Sources

Disputes

None at this time.

Footnotes

1. Irma Starr, official website — About page — https://www.irmastarr.com/about/ — asserts: slipware specialty and classic techniques (combing, feathering, marbling, slip-trailing); Smithsonian commission (2002, 36-inch plate for Renwick Gallery 30th anniversary) and commissions from “private connoisseurs, museums, companies, and the White House”; work in Nelson-Atkins, Denver Art Museum, Kansas City Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum; studio/contact address 610 W. 51st Street, Kansas City, MO 64112; phone 816.506.6775. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. KCUR, “A Kansas City ceramic artist is inspired by a 350-year-old mermaid to create holiday ornaments” (Dec 24, 2021) — https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2021-12-24/a-kansas-city-ceramic-artist-is-inspired-by-a-350-year-old-mermaid-to-create-holiday-ornaments — asserts: Starr is one of KC’s best-known ceramic artists, expert in 17th-century English slipware; senior at KCAI when given the Nelson-Atkins reproduction assignment (~five decades earlier); Burnap Collection / Ralph Toft slipware mermaid as inspiration; Ken Ferguson as teacher; whimsical holiday ornaments; actively working as of 2021. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

3. KC Studio, “The Artful Life of Irma Starr” (updated Feb 6, 2024) — https://kcstudio.org/the-artful-life-of-irma-starr/ — asserts: studied under Ken Ferguson at KCAI; Smithsonian commissioned her three times for large commemorative plates; White House Christmas ornament with Hillary Clinton recognition; ~four decades of reproductions for the Nelson-Atkins shop; Halls annual Starr ornament; working on a Kansas City Life Insurance 125th-anniversary plate that year (active in 2024); works from a Kansas City home studio. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

4. KCUR, “Explore Kansas City’s ceramics scene with these pottery classes and artisan shops” (Dec 23, 2023) — https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2023-12-23/explore-kansas-citys-ceramics-scene-with-these-pottery-classes-and-artisan-shops — asserts: Starr hosts a holiday open studio and produces a new slipware ornament annually (open-studio sales model rather than a standing retail storefront). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Plimoth Patuxet Museum Shop — “Partridge In A Pear Tree Slipware Ornament” — https://www.plimoth.com/products/partridge-in-a-pear-tree-slipware-ornament — asserts: Starr’s slipware ornaments are sold through museum retail channels. ↩