After graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 1994, Iris Eichenberg worked as an independent artist, art educator, part-time curator, and organizer of art-related events. She began teaching at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 1996, where she became Head of the Jewelry Department in 2000. Eichenberg held this position until 2007. In 2006 she accepted an appointment as Artist in Residence and Head of the Metalsmithing Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and has been teaching there full time since. She is regularly invited to lecture, act as visiting critic, and give workshops at various art programs in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America.
A number of institutions have recognized the quality of Eichenberg's work with awards supporting her practice. These institutions include: Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Herbert Hofmann Prize, Gerrit Rietveld Academy Award, and The European Ceramic Center in Den Bosch.
Eichenberg’s work can be found in several museums including The Cooper-Hewitt (New York), The Museum of Arts and Design (New York), The Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), the Schmuck Museum Pforzheim, the Fondation National d’Art Contemporain (Paris), and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Texas). Her work has also been collected by private foundations including the Francoise van der Bosch Stichting (Amsterdam) and the Rotasa Foundation (California).