August 15-16 | 10-4pm | $175.

Learn how to design, make, and use a bisque mold to create variety in your forms. We will sketch ideas on paper or with clay. We will create a bisque mold (thrown and handbuilt) to aid in making a medium-sized plate, a small tray, and a bowl. The exploratory demos will offer several places to start! Use your favorite influence or inspiration as a starting point. You will come away with three greenware molds to use in your studio, after you bisque fire them. In addition to making the molds, we will experiment with using them. We will be draping slabs on the molds and then adding elements that are either thrown or handbuilt to create a finished design. Find solutions for creating relationships between different forms even while using multiple building techniques. While we are exploring these fun processes, let’s have a lively conversation about all topics related to our studio practice and making! From surface development to writing a newsletter, managing a studio to developing your style, and from causes of cracking to marketing your pottery. Let’s dive in!

Deb Schwartzkopf is a studio potter, instructor, and active community member of Seattle, Washington. She has taught at Ohio University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, University of Washington, and University of Georgia’s study abroad program in Cortona, Italy. She was named Ceramics Monthly and Ceramic Arts Daily’s 2019 Artist of the Year, one of the most visible awards in the field.

Deb has worked as an artist in residence nationally and internationally at the Archie Bray Foundation (MT), Mudflat Studios (MA), The Clay Studio (PA), Pottery Northwest (WA), Watershed (ME), Red Lodge Clay Studio, (MT) Sanbao in Jingdezhen, China, and the Center for Ceramics in Berlin, Germany. Since 2002, Deb has also taught widely at top ceramics centers including Penland School of Craft, Gaya Ceramics Arts Center (Indonesia), and IARE (France). Her artwork is included in collections such as The Rosenfield Collection, the Kamm Teapot Foundation, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, and the Washington State Arts Commission, among others.

Deb recently wrote a book! Creative Pottery: Innovative Techniques and Experimental Designs published by Quarry Books. She has been included in numerous publications including What Makes a Potter: Functional Pottery in America, Ceramic Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated, and Studio Potter magazine; has contributed to Tales of a Red Clay Rambler podcasts; has served as the director of the Washington Clay Arts Association; and is currently a board member at Pottery Northwest. In 2013, Deb founded and launched what is now Rat City Studios, a community pottery studio where she offers adult classes, studio memberships, and opportunities for emerging artists. Learn more at http://ratcitystudios.com

Sign up for workshop here!

Here is a list of what you will be responsible to bring to this workshop:
-Sack Lunch
-Your own reclaim to make the molds with – ideally around 15#
-Clay for experimenting and using the molds. 10-20# – I’ll be using B-mix
-If you are flying in clay can be ordered through Alayne Tetor (atetor@gmail.com)
-Banding wheel
-Basic pottery tools + metal and rubber ribs, knife, rasp or sure form, smoothing tools, small scoring tool, rolling pin, serrated rib
-Card stock paper/ manilla file folders 2-3, scissors, pencil
-Bats 3-4 per person
-Packing materials to get your new/ wet molds home