From Slab of Clay to Work of Art

Kristin Ettinger has been an artist since she was a little girl, eventually earning her B.F.A. in college, where sculpting became her passion. Years later, a chance meeting with a potter/dental technician led her into the dental technology field and it’s a perfect match. 

“As an artist who primarily works with clay, I already had an understanding of firing, glazing and staining,” says Ettinger, who worked as a chairside dental assistant for eight years and now works as a technician at an in-office dental laboratory, Creative Dental Studio in Big Rapids, MI. 

Her Art in the Park piece, titled Grandmother’s Love, is indicative of her signature artistic style: connecting humans with nature. To create the piece, Ettinger made a plaster cast of her own face and impressions of her grandmother’s...