KenSwinson.com

Category: Pottery

  • Pottery intensive June – recap

    At the beginning of June, I decided to make June a ‘pottery intensive’ month in the studio. Looking back at the month, it was a lot of fun, and I made some really nice pots. I fired the kiln twice. After each firing, i put the pots on the porch, where they sold out in a matter of days.

    Pottery Intensive June was a success! You can see a gallery of each kiln load by clicking the thumbnails below:

    gallery of pottery
    June 9, 2020
    gallery of pottery
    june 20,2020

    July is going to be a little bit different. I am going to keep making pottery. But i’ll also take brakes to do some more printmaking and painting too. The big thing for July is that I am participating in the facebook boycot #stopHateForProfit by not logging into facebook or instagram for the month of July.

    I am a frequent facebook user, so this is going to be a challenging month for me. One of the bright sides of this boycott is that I plan to give my personal website and email newsletter some TLC, so stay tuned for more art and updates!

  • 30 June 2020 – printing ink and playing in mud

    I spent the last day of June split between the clay studio and the printshop.

    US Route 62 Linocut - with map in background
    The finished block. Ready for ink!

    I have been working on a special print for one of my US Route 62 neighbors who lives all the way over in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

    Us Route 62 linocut notecards in drying rack
    The finished print. Hanging to dry

    Today I got to put first ink on the block and then print an edition at the log cabin print shop.

    pottery being underglazed
    Pots in progress

    After printing, I had some time to put some handles on mugs, put some glaze on bowls, and then throw a few cream pitchers and bowls

    pottery forms on the wheel
    Bowls and creamers just thrown from the wheel.

  • The Potter – by Tania Horne

    You never know where it will take you when you put your creativity out there:
    Late friday night, i made a live stream while throwing pots…no words, or instruction, just an hour of making pots.
    I don’t know who all watched, but poet, Tania Anderson Horne , saw it, and it inspired a poem! I liked the poem so much, we made this short video together. Thank you Tania! I’m honored!!!

    Tania is participating in Lexington Poetry Month. A project, where every June, poets are challenged to write a poem every day. You can learn more at https://lexpomo.com
    #lexpomo

  • June 10 new pottery

    I’m excited to share some of my latest pottery after last weeks firing. I’m as proud of the photography as the pottery. There has been a learning curve to photographing pottery, and I think I am finally getting a good representation of what the pots look like.

    NOTE: I have already sold all the pots from this firing, but plan to have more soon.

  • Transferring woodcuts onto pottery – via screenprint

    I work in a lot of different media, and am always looking for ways to cross the different mediums. One dream I have is printing woodcuts onto ceramic. After some research, I learned that the woodcut process does not work well with ceramic materials, but screenprinting does.

    screens for screenprinting

    Using a technique that i learned while studying in Oaxaca, Mexico, I copied a few of my favorite woodcut designs onto a screen

    silkscreen loaded with blue ceramic underglaze

    then printed the designs onto rice paper using ceramic underglaze as the ‘ink’

    screen printed design using ceramic underglaze on rice paper

    then, i transferred the underglaze onto unfired clay…in a technique similar to old fashioned temporary tattoos

    rice paper decal of squirrel playing fiddle and banjo
    animation of rice paper being removed from clay surface.
    an underglaze plate covered with blue pig and acorn decals
    a plate, decorated with my woodcut designs!
    holding a greenware mug with decal of squirrel playing guitar
    a mug, decorated and ready to fire!
    holding a small greenware pitcher decorated with blue pig with acorns and oak leaves
    …and a pig on a mug…keep watching to see how they look ofter the firing!

  • Pottery Intensive Update – 6.4.2020

    My big, exciting event for this summer was going to be a week long pottery workshop at the Arrowmont School of arts and crafts. It was a gift from a friend, and was going to be a really special treat. To be safe during the coronavirus, the workshop was cancelled. I was really looking forward to visiting Arrowmont, and having a pottery intensive experience. My hope was to get better at throwing, and to learn a few new surface decoration techniques.

    a view of the potters studio focused on 2 shelves holding newly thrown mugs

    just because I can’t go to a famous arts and craft school, and learn from a popular potter, doesent mean I can’t still have a pottery intensive experience. I decided to give myself a summer of pottery making!!! So far, I’ve thrown about 20 mugs.

    a shelf with unfired pottery, including pots decorated with a house, a dog, a goat and other animals

    Most of them are being decorated in a style, called sgraffito.
    If you haven’t already seen it, here is a short video explaining the process:

    an unfired pottery plate, with a decoration saying, we will get through this together

    I learned a new technique to throw plates. Thanks @Dennis Allen ! So now I’ve been working on a few sgraffito plates.

    an unfired pottery plate with two decorative squirrels

    This squirrel design is based on one of my linocuts.

    unfired pottery plate with blue decorations of 2 birds on a tree branch

    Another plate…with BLUE underglaze.

    These are works in progress…they still need to be glazed and fired, but I’m really excited about making plates…and hope to the have enough to fire the kiln soon.

  • Pig Mug – Sgraffito video

    I’m back in the clay studio, working with a decoration technique, called sgraffito. The word comes from Italian and means; to scratch away.

    The way the technique works, a pot is covered with colored clay, then I scratch the top layer, reavealing the design.

    Since i have a printmaking background, this technique feels familiar. It’s the same way I would make a woodcut.

    The idea for the mug i’m working on is tow pigs enjoying a field of clover, and they both found a four leaf clover at the same time. What a lucky pair of pigs!

    If you are interested in seeing how these pots turn out, stay tuned, i’ll show them off once they are fired in the kiln.

    UPDATE: i forgot to mention…i don’t sell pots online. I believe a pot has to be experienced in person, so the owner can hold it before deciding to take it to it’s ‘forever home’. Hopefully a drive in the country to Old Washington, ky isn’t impossible for you. Thanks again everyone for the great response!

  • New Pottery – LIVE VIDEO

    New Pottery – LIVE VIDEO

    Hey everybody! I haven’t made any functional pots since October, but this morning, I opened my kiln and have a fresh batchl!!! I’m really excited about this one, because it’s my first time firing porcelain.

  • Blue Bird – sculpture update

    Sculpture update: my little bird has gone from a white dove, to a red breasted robin, and now appears to becoming a blue bird. Just goes to show that sometimes the art tells me what it wants to be…especially on april 1st.

    sculpture of blue bird

    Hope you all are healthy and well. Stay home and make art if you can.

  • LIVE VIDEO cold finish clay sculptures