Visit the Solo Exhibition from November 8 to 16, 2025, at the Kesemy Design studio in Amsterdam.
This collection started with a single brush — a symbol, a tool, a beginning. It became a way for me to explore the act of creating itself. Brush It Off brings together several years of exploring the creative process through handmade ceramic brushes — each one I cast from liquid clay and paired with grasses and leaves. Every plant in this work holds something of the ground it came from. Some I picked myself while traveling — gathered from different places and times. Each one is carefully catalogued, a quiet record of where it was found and the moment it was collected.
The project began with a spontaneous impulse: to shape a brush that symbolizes creativity and growth. That impulse grew into action, then into design, allowing the piece to evolve organically, without a fixed plan. These brushes, made from clay and plants, aren’t intended for traditional use. They’re not for painting, but for imagining. They function as symbols of process, curiosity, and creative instinct.
Somewhere between tool, sculpture, and ritual object, they blur the line between thinking and doing — between function and artwork. What happens when the tool becomes the artwork?
During the exhibition, most brushes are displayed, while some are available for visitors to paint with — inviting stillness and action to coexist. This is a space for questions rather than fixed answers, presenting craft as a living, evolving practice that celebrates the simple act of doing.
Brush It Off is more than a playful twist on a familiar phrase — it’s a mindset I bring to my work as a designer and as a creativity coach in how I support other creatives. It speaks to the tactile act of creating — the movement of real brushes — and the emotional rhythm of the creative process itself: letting go, trusting the flow, and continuing even when things feel messy or uncertain. It’s about permitting ourselves to experiment, to release perfectionism, and to find lightness and freedom through making. For me, Brush It Off is an invitation to every creative soul to keep moving, keep making, and keep brushing away the doubts that hold us back.
Slip casting, Hand building. Earthenware and slip-casting clay, Ceramic Glaze, grass, leaves.
Concept, design, and handmade production: Kesem Yahav Exhibition setup and installation: Yoncho Cao, Kesem Yahav Art consulting: Ronny Lao Koren Graphic design: Sebastian Kladniew Motion design: Inbar Kranz Photography: Kesem Yahav, Jody Liu Digital support: Mariano Cao
Brush it off, 2025
Brush It Off by Kesem Yahav
Visit the Solo Exhibition from November 8 to 16, 2025, at the Kesemy Design studio in Amsterdam.
This collection started with a single brush — a symbol, a tool, a beginning. It became a way for me to explore the act of creating itself. Brush It Off brings together several years of exploring the creative process through handmade ceramic brushes — each one I cast from liquid clay and paired with grasses and leaves. Every plant in this work holds something of the ground it came from. Some I picked myself while traveling — gathered from different places and times. Each one is carefully catalogued, a quiet record of where it was found and the moment it was collected.
The project began with a spontaneous impulse: to shape a brush that symbolizes creativity and growth. That impulse grew into action, then into design, allowing the piece to evolve organically, without a fixed plan. These brushes, made from clay and plants, aren’t intended for traditional use. They’re not for painting, but for imagining. They function as symbols of process, curiosity, and creative instinct.
Somewhere between tool, sculpture, and ritual object, they blur the line between thinking and doing — between function and artwork. What happens when the tool becomes the artwork?
During the exhibition, most brushes are displayed, while some are available for visitors to paint with — inviting stillness and action to coexist. This is a space for questions rather than fixed answers, presenting craft as a living, evolving practice that celebrates the simple act of doing.
Brush It Off is more than a playful twist on a familiar phrase — it’s a mindset I bring to my work as a designer and as a creativity coach in how I support other creatives. It speaks to the tactile act of creating — the movement of real brushes — and the emotional rhythm of the creative process itself: letting go, trusting the flow, and continuing even when things feel messy or uncertain. It’s about permitting ourselves to experiment, to release perfectionism, and to find lightness and freedom through making. For me, Brush It Off is an invitation to every creative soul to keep moving, keep making, and keep brushing away the doubts that hold us back.
Slip casting, Hand building.
Earthenware and slip-casting clay, Ceramic Glaze, grass, leaves.
Concept, design, and handmade production: Kesem Yahav
Exhibition setup and installation: Yoncho Cao, Kesem Yahav
Art consulting: Ronny Lao Koren
Graphic design: Sebastian Kladniew
Motion design: Inbar Kranz
Photography: Kesem Yahav, Jody Liu
Digital support: Mariano Cao