In-Person | Sweetwater Art Center

Hands-On Hand-building Workshop & Show: October 23rd-26th, 2025 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Workshop Often include ideas and techniques shared below:

Led by Seattle-based studio potter, instructor, and inspiring artist Deb Schwartzkopf, this exploratory workshop is for everyone working in clay with an interest in blending wheel throwing and handbuilding techniques. Let the process lead you to new inventions and ways of piecing together functional forms.
These immersive studio days will set in motion your ability to build complex forms with simple parts. We will discuss how expressive shapes spring from sketches, patterns, our environment, and the process of making itself. You will be able to bring home lots of notes captured in photos and sketches, maybe some greenware, and a host of new techniques that will enliven your studio practice! Come ready to experiment and have fun!

Join into an exchange of ideas as you foray into throwing, altering, cutting templates, molding slabs, deriving and defining inspiration, and then assembling. Contemplate the presentation of clay inspirations while browsing local markets, nearby villages, or historic sights. Build memories and share fabulous meal-time experiences with fellow participants. In addition, enjoy all the opportunities the area has to offer! 

Nitty Gritty

Learn new ways to move clay with skill-building exercises.

Conversations may roam from surface design solutions to managing small businesses and from art/ life balance to mealtimes as inspiration for form, and much more!

Demonstrations will offer techniques for

·      Working with slabs & wheel thrown parts

·      Combining wheel-thrown and slab-built sections

·      Altering simple wheel-thrown parts

·      Basic template making

·      Creating bisque molds to shape slabs 

·      Making handles

·      Inspiration gathering

About the Artist

Deb Schwartzkopf (she/her) has worked in clay for over 20 years. After receiving an MFA from Penn State in 2005, Deb Schwartzkopf taught at Ohio University, Mass. College of Art & Design, University of Washington, as well as for the University of Georgia’s study abroad program in Cortona, Italy.  She participated in residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation (MT), Mudflat Studios (MA), the Clay Studio (PA), Watershed (ME), Red Lodge Clay Studio (MT), the Ceramics Workcenter in Berlin, Germany, and San Boa in Jingdezhen China! Deb teaches and exhibits nationally and internationally. Deb established Rat City Studios (2013) and Rain City Clay (2022) with a mission to engage and build community through clay. She maintains a lively career in the ceramic arts, loves to garden, tends honey bees, and also works with stained glass! Ceramics Monthly Magazine awarded Deborah Schwartzkopf Ceramic Artist of the Year for 2019. Deb wrote Creative Pottery in June of 2020 which features 192 pages of clay working techniques.
(Read further about the artist here)