Joy Knepp: A Lifelong Journey in Craft, Color, and Community

Joy Knepp Members Exhibition Feature;

For artist and educator Joy Knepp, Touchstone has been a creative home across decades — beginning in the 1970s when the organization was originally known as the Pioneer Crafts Council. Those early pottery workshops sparked a lifelong passion for craft, teaching, and exploration. In the 2025 Touchstone Members Exhibition, Joy’s works reflect her love of experimentation, creative challenges, and the endless possibilities of molten glass. Her necklace “Playful Balance” highlights her fascination with color and texture, while her sculpture “Ocean Menagerie” showcases her imaginative approach to sculptural glass inspired by fantastical sea life. Today, as an artist, educator, and board member, Joy continues to help shape the welcoming, ever-growing creative community that first inspired her decades ago.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyknepp/ Website: https://www.joybeadzglass.com/

Read more about Joy’s work in this interview by Andrew Thornton, Touchstone Communications Committee member, professional artist, and Co-Owner of Allegory Gallery and Star Cottage Studio.

What is your Touchstone story? How did you first hear about it and what drew you to be involved?

My Touchstone story began way back in the mid 1970’s when Touchstone was Pioneer Crafts Council and I discovered and fell in love with pottery by taking summer workshops that were taught by Zeljko Kujundzic in Mill Run, PA. Those workshops led me to take more of his classes at Penn State and that led me to my career as an art educator. After many years, raising my children, teaching, etc, I was finally able to get re-acquainted with Touchstone again in the early 2000’s when I was introduced to glass flame working with Kate Fowle-Meleney. This again was a “game changer” as I fell in love with melting glass! I continued to return to Touchstone again and again for more classes. Later, I also shared the magic of Touchstone by bringing my students to the first Touchstone Teens program. Today, I have come full circle, teaching classes, taking classes and serving on the board for Touchstone, as I continue to make Touchstone a big part of my life.

Can you tell us about your journey as an artist—where did it begin, how has it evolved?

As an art education major at Penn State, I explored a variety of mediums, but felt myself drawn to 3-dimensional works, mostly with ceramics. But when I discovered flameworking in glass, something really clicked and I loved learning about the many ways glass can be manipulated in the flame to make glass beads and the jewelry that could be made with them. I continued to learn more and more about glass, I started experimenting more with the sculptural aspects that glass can take. This has led to a new interest, to create small sculptures with my glass, in addition to the beads and jewelry.

How do you describe your work(s) in the Touchstone Members Exhibition? Where did you find inspiration?

My piece entitled, “Playful Balance” is a necklace that speaks to my interest in color and texture as the focal bead’s shape and dark base color is highlighted with the raised dots of brighter colors and are balanced with the same dark and light colors of beads surrounding the necklace.

My second piece, “Ocean Menagerie” is a sculpture with fish and sea life made from glass and displayed on an organic piece of wood burl. I love the contrast between the bumpy dark shapes of the wood with the bright and shiny colors of the sea life. I am inspired by tropical sea creatures, some almost seem otherworldly. While I have not had the experience of scuba diving, or seeing them first-hand, I love to imagine what it would be like to discover these creatures in their world. As I create the pieces in glass, I am using the shape, form and colors to indicate the “personality” of the creature more than a realistic interpretation.

How do you hope viewers engage with or interpret your work? What would you like them to take away?

I love working with glass in the flame! My approach involves creative challenges I give myself to work out. Be it a theme of sea life, birds, a particular style of a bead, or experimentation using the chemistry of glass for discovering how this effects the color or texture of the glass pieces. I continue to ask myself, “what would happen if I did this?” Or “how can these new colors work together?” The results can be varied and when they are successful, I am very pleased. I hope the viewers will enjoy the results I have here in the exhibition.

What does it mean to you to be featured in an exhibition at Touchstone?

I feel honored to be included in an exhibition at Touchstone. I understand and appreciate the high quality of work shown by unbelievably creative artists from around the country, and I am very humbled to be sharing the gallery with them.

Do you have anything else you would like to share?

I would like to thank the staff at Touchstone for all the work they continue to do to keep Touchstone thriving and growing.

Visit the 2025 Touchstone Members Exhibition, on view until December 20, 2025, in the Bea Campbell Gallery at Touchstone in Farmington, PA. Click for gallery hours.