Kimberli Cummings Pottery

Show Notes

Recorded 01/16/2026 15 MIN 35 SEC

Released 01/21/2026

Episode 4 Kimberli Cummings Pottery

This is Shaping Our Story where we talk to exemplary leaders about their success to inspire others to thrive.

Today, our guest, Kimberli Cummings, is an accomplished ceramic artist whose work has been shaped by renowned mentors and international exhibitions. She is a very proud founding member of the Tampa Tour De Clay. She just retired after 19 years of successful shows and continues to work tirelessly creating more custom work, but her passion for pottery didn’t begin until she was in her thirties after she was acting in Los Angelas and working with Jane Fonda and Jane Seymour. 

Information

Louise Krikorian’s outline of questions comes from her years of researching the psychology of learning, motivating students, and researching Dr. Angela Duckworth’s work on Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Scribner, 2016). For more information on Dr. Angela Duckworth, you can visit https://angeladuckworth.com/.

Connect with our guest online

https://kimberlipottery.com/

Links

WEDU Arts Plus Kimberli Pottery

https://www.pbs.org/video/1026-kimberli-cummings-e38cen/

Tour de Clay

https://tampatourdeclay.com/

Stageworks Theatre

https://stageworkstheatre.org/

Pearl’s Instagram

#pearlthesquirrel2023

Acting Class with Mary Rachel Dudley and Eugenie Bondurant

https://www.facebook.com/Station12Studio?mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=xOhqPxE989SFOtKM&share_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.facebook.com%252Fshare%252F17q27JXCsT%252F%253Fmibextid%253DwwXIfr&checkpoint_src=any#

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Creator: Louise Krikorian

Years Active: 2025

Episodes: 4

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Transcript

Welcome, Kimberly Burns Cummings. Hi, Louise. Oh my gosh, what a treat. It's so much fun to see you. Me too. And you're wearing my signature color blue. You're wearing mine.

That's okay. It's periwinkle. Oh, there you go. So, um, I've known you for a while. We've known each other through many different, uh, for, actually it started with TV and then comedy and, um, we meet in lots of different, um, areas. Um, but I know you as a ceramic artist, but I also know that your background is working as a.

As an actress in Los Angeles, but I'm curious, what is your passion or your greatest interest? Oh, goodness. Well, I love ceramics. I love acting. I love teaching acting, and I love my animals and my family. My greatest passion is staying connected and connecting people that I care about. People that I believe need to know each other.

And support each other. That's, that's been forever. Um, you know, I'm the reunion queen, so I love to have reunions to get people together, uh, because we're old now and so many people came to, let's say, our 50th reunion a year and a half ago, plant high school 50th reunion that had never been to a reunion because, you know, I just urged people listen, you know, we.

We have this much time. This much time. Yeah. So connect with your people, connect with your community. That's my passion. So even in my arts, even in my Art Collective group, my Stageworks Theatre group, we stay solidly connected so that we can have that strength and that energy and that passion to connect to others.

And that supports the theater and, you know, it's, it's, um, it's a great domino effect. Yeah. Well, something else that goes along with passion is purpose. So I'm also curious if you agree with a statement. Would you agree that purpose is having a sense of responsibility and then acting with the intention of helping others?

And it sounds like the answer to that question for you is yes. Um, right now, my, my passion, um, in that sense is really saving our community, literally, um, boots on the ground and, you know, doing the right thing, putting my money where my mouth is, where my communities needs are. Um, you know, if people don't talk about how dark the days are in our country right now, they're, they're going to.

Uh, if they're going to get much, much blacker, darker, and so that's important. Um, on a local level. I love, love that Stageworks, some of my very dear friends started, um, these staged readings many years ago. I think Marian McCullough Flowers, Karen Busing, so many other people, Andrea Graham. Um. Tom Scar, I can go on and on.

Uh, started back porch players, I think that ended up being a staged reading group and that benefits unhoused teens in our area in East Tampa and Ybor City and oh my God, to see them in the light booth. Uh, stage managing, you know, writing, directing. That would never happen without this program in this, in this town.

So that excites me. So the staged readings that you do, and that's one, is that once a year? 'cause I was, did you know that I was on the board of Stageworks? Yes. I, for quite a while. For six years. And, um, thank you. And I love the group and I love what they do for the community. Yeah. Yay. Yay. Um, speaking of the work that you've done, what did you learn from your biggest professional failure?

Hmm. Um, whew. I never have talked about it, but I, I would say that, um, I got into, uh, a really hot play, um, just a three person cast, and it was the weekend that my movers. Were bringing everything I owned, uh, from Los Angeles to Tampa. And literally that weekend the movers were at my house and I was headed to rehearsals and I should have been off book.

And I always was, my whole life since I was eight years old. Um, and I wasn't, but I didn't think it was a big deal. But, um, I, I lost that role and it had never happened before or since. And I deserved to have it taken from me. I didn't handle it that well then. But, um, if I think about it now, that led me to say I will never say yes to something that I can't prepare for properly, fully, uh, that I can't focus on.

Um, it, it made me a lot stronger. It also made me. I realize that I can't take anything for granted, just because I knew that I could get my lines, you know, in the next 48 hours to where they needed to be for that day. I mean, I had four weeks, but anyway, it was, it was a huge fail throughout my mind and my body because I, I felt so damaged and it just made me better.

It, it did it, it really made me better at everything that I planned to do, wanted to do, wanted to learn to do. I always had that kind of lingering, which just sounds awful. It was kind of awful. Um, but it's, it sounds like things don't always come easily to you. Oh God, no. Nothing comes equally to me. It does.

How would. So I wanna do it because it's not easy. I'm like, hold my, hold my beer. Okay. Because it's gonna take a minute. But I, um, I religiously sign up for these incredible workshops and it used to be theater workshops, but then it grew into 35 years ago into clay workshops. And I take the workshops that I go.

How did they make that? Mm. And when I leave, I now know how to make that. And you showed how to make it, how to make, um, like your sangria picture, which is absolutely beautiful. You showed how to make that on the WEDU Arts Plus segment that we did. Oh, oh. Um, that was a tango dancer. The tango. Well, the Tango dancer.

And you also showed how you learned how to make this the um, oh, the hollow, the candle. Yes. Golly. Okay. Wow. Right. Um, yeah, that was in 2021. Oh, our secrets. Yeah. So Hayne Bayless, uh, was my workshop that I've taken two times the exact same work. Well, there's no exact, but same workshop with Hayne two times, four years, five years apart.

And he. Taught us how to make these hollow, square, freaking amazing handless that can go on anything. And so, um, yeah, nothing comes easy and workshops are expensive. I tried to sign up for a workshop today, I just have to say. And the $350 fee that didn't include housing when you go to Amont or Penland are $760.

For the workshop, not including room and board and travel, um, and all the way up to $1,100 for the week, not including everything else. So, um, yeah, it's not cheap to, uh, to not be good at everything because, um, I have to pay for what I want and it's, it's worth it. It's really worth it. Mm-hmm. So what keeps you inspired?

Oh my god. We have an albino, well I know you know, but we have an albino squirrel and they're only like 20 in the country. And there are actually two albino squirrels in Tampa. I can't even go there 'cause I just get goosebumps and emotional. But Pearl came to us, April will be three years. And, um, I don't know why I named her the second I saw her or why I took 300 pictures, you know, within five minutes because I thought I'd never see her again.

Um. So we see her three times a day because she, she's very smart and she knows that she gets, uh, walnuts that my friend Melissa just brought. From Portugal because we ran out of the walnuts we brought back from Portugal. Yeah. Oh my goodness. And our other friends bring mangoes and berries and, and nuts.

Mm-hmm. And um, so she's quite costly. So she is, she's our life. She is our children left us, I'm sorry, I mean, moved and. Pearl didn't, didn't leave us. Yeah. So she's Pearl's our squirrel, pearl, the squirrel 2023 on Insta, and we have three cats and they're precious and they need our love. So we, we get to just love on them and smash kisses on them.

And, um, and my husband's amazing. So, you know, I have a pretty precious, pretty precious life right now. Mm-hmm. Yeah. What's your advice for someone starting their own journey, whether it be in, um, working in ceramics or working in the arts? Um, that could include acting, it could include filmmaking. Sure. Um, practice, practice, practice, uh, is an old saying and, um, yet it's true today, always.

Uh, so I believe as I was just telling you about workshops, um, there are acting workshops. Uh. Um, there are, there are acting classes in St. Pete. I think there might be some in Tampa. Sorry, I don't know that. Um, but there are great people in St. Pete, um, and Mary Rachel and Eugie, um, have a class in

St. Petersburg right now that is, I think, pretty full. But for acting, I would do that for Clay. Um. City of Tampa has a place. There are places in Ybor City workshops. They're, I just said they're expensive, but Morean workshop space in St. Pete is incredible. I love it. Um, I go every year and I do, um, highly recommend calling Val at, um, Morian workshop space.

How do you spell Morean? M-O-R-E-A-N. Okay, so there's Morean Galleries, um, uh, uh, yeah. Morean Gallery. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, on Central. And then there is, you know, there's so many moron, so they're all over. That's why you have to call the workshop space. Right. And you were also talking about Mary Rachel, so that's Mary Rachel.

Dudley. Dudley, yeah. And, and Eugenie Bondurant. And they have a, a film class and et cetera. So please reach out to them. Mm-hmm. If you're, you know, I don't, about just starting out. Yeah. I don't know about, just starting out maybe I don't know that, but I know that, um, people that have some talent that have had some work on their resume, that's where I would send them.

Okay. And if you lived anywhere, you would just, you could just Google that? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So finding a good class and then also finding a mentor to give you feedback. That's important. That's very challenging. Yeah. Yeah. But well, thank you so, so much. What's, yes, definitely a gift. You need feedback in order to become better.

Yeah. And, um, what's the best way to learn more about you online? Oh, just reach out. I love having conversations and I think I've made it clear that I love connecting with others. So I am, uh, Kimberly, that's. Kimberly with an LI, Kimberly Pottery on Insta and Kim Burns Cummings on Facebook, um, messenger. And, um, I'm in my home studio.

I live, um, in Tampa. My home studio at my clay studio is downstairs. So, um, I'm, I'm local and you have a website, kimberlipottery.com. Yes. Okay. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time. You, Louis. Thanks for connecting. All right. I can't wait to see you. Save the world with me. Okay, bye. Take care.

Bye.