Not counting the aether kineticist, the kineticist manifests their element from the associated elemental plane into the material plane to blast the target(s).
Any non-blast manipulation of material that exists on the material plane would require utility talents that allow for it. For example, the geokineticist has talents that allow them to move earth and stone. The aquakineticit needs a talent to create flows or currents.
I got linked to this recently in a debate on reddit about whether or not geokineticists can fling rocks enchanted by Magic Stone. It seems somewhat abusable to allow Kineticists to throw magical or hazardous elements about without language similar to the telekineticist's blast. Is this ruling still effective? Should my aquakineticist start carrying around tanks of a water/acid solution?
The RAW answer is that powers do strictly what they say they do. Nothing more or less. Just like you can't use Scorching Ray to push rocks at your target to get additional damage.
When asked if kineticists needed to be surrounded by their element to use their powers, or if they conjured up the matter out of nothing, the creator of the kineticist has stated that bother were true. A kineticist can use the surrounding elements AND conjure up elemental matter from the elemental planes. The only way to deny a kineticist his powers, was to cut off their access to the elemental planes AND to deprive them of any elemental matter in their vicinity.
Hope that helps to answer your question.