Creating Sacred Space with Clay
A conversation with Krista Brenner, founder of La Luce Studio and 2026 BYF presenter.
As the Bend Yoga Festival unfolds across movement, learning, and connection, some experiences ask to be integrated rather than rushed past. Krista Brenner’s altar-making workshop, co-facilitated with Rach Huff of Pine & Prism, offers exactly that pause. Scheduled as a grounding, reflective session near the close of the 2026 festival, this hands-on clay experience invites participants to process what they’ve felt, learned, and embodied—shaping it into a personal object they can return to long after the weekend ends.
BYF: Your work with clay feels deeply grounded and almost ceremonial. How did clay become such a meaningful medium for you?
Krista:
The moment my hands touch clay, everything quiets—the noise, the rush, the weight of the day. Clay asks me to slow down, to breathe, to listen. There’s something meditative about shaping something from nothing and letting the process lead.
“An altar isn’t about perfection or function. It’s about intention, presence, and meaning.”
I first found clay in college, drawn to creating directly with my hands, without distance from the material. Life took me in many directions—especially after becoming a mother—but no matter how long the pauses, clay was always there. During some of my most demanding seasons, especially while supporting my son through health challenges, clay became my place to breathe again. It has been my balance, my meditation, my way back to myself.
BYF: This workshop focuses on creating a personal altar rather than a traditional ceramic piece. What draws you to altar-making?
Krista:
An altar isn’t about perfection or function—it’s about intention and meaning. It becomes a physical space for reflection, ritual, and grounding. Creating one invites people to slow down and ask what truly matters.
Clay is uniquely suited for this work because it’s alive in your hands. It responds to care, pressure, impatience, gentleness. You can’t rush it. It carries fingerprints, movement, breath—evidence of the maker. I’ve seen how transformative this can be. People often arrive carrying stress or uncertainty and leave feeling lighter and more grounded.
BYF: How can making something with our hands help integrate an experience like the Bend Yoga Festival?
Krista:
I believe touch has memory. Our bodies remember long before our minds have language. When we create with our hands, we bypass analysis and allow the whole body to express.
The festival offers such layered experiences—movement, teaching, connection, emotional release. Creating an altar gives people a way to physically hold what moved through them, anchoring transformation into something tangible. The piece becomes a vessel, carrying what was felt and who you became during that time.
“The piece becomes a vessel—carrying what was felt and who you became during that time.”
BYF: Some people feel intimidated by clay if they’re beginners. How do you make the space feel accessible?
Krista:
From the moment someone arrives, I want them to feel accepted exactly as they are. Clay isn’t about skill or perfection—it’s about play and curiosity. We focus on sensation and intention, not outcome. There is no “right” way to create in this space.
When people let go of rules, fear softens. Laughter comes easier. Creativity opens… and my role is simply to support that meeting in a way that feels joyful, healing, and free.
A participant using lace to create pattern and texture on her piece.
BYF: What do you hope participants leave with?
Krista:
I hope participants leave with a deep sense of calm and clarity, and with an inner stirring that encourages them to listen more closely to their hearts. I hope they feel more rooted in themselves, more trusting of their intuition, and more open to living fully and presently in their lives.
The altar they create becomes a sacred place to return to. It’s a reminder of transformation, of breath, of grounding. A place to pause. A place to remember who you are and what you’ve moved through. My greatest hope is that both the object and the experience continue to support them long after the workshop ends, quietly, gently, and lovingly.
A workshop in progress at Tumalo Lavender Farm with Krista Brenner.
The altar-making with clay workshop is one of many thoughtfully sequenced experiences at the Bend Yoga Festival 2026, designed to help participants not only explore new practices, but integrate what they discover. This session requires an add-on ticket that includes the cost of all materials, guidance and ritual by Krista and Rach, the firing and glazing of your piece, and shipping to your home address.