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November work in progress

threw some cups on the wheel, and added their handles
some work in progress: red stoneware. I’m painting the exterior with white slip. will carve line designs that allow the red clay to show through.
I was able to carve 4 of the 5 cups with bunny horse and bird designs. Now the cups will dry and go into the kiln for a bisque firing. After that
I bisque fired 3 cups then painted colors with thinned underglaze…layering them like i would watercolors.
Then dipped the cups in a clear glaze–now firing them to cone 6.
Should have test final results tomorrow. The colors should be a LOT more vivid. This is a new technique for me, so I’m looking forward to learning how these materials behave.

stay tuned to see how they look after glaze firing!

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Follow me on Mastodon

i believe in the open web, and miss the good old days of Internet– before a couple of monopolies became the gatekeepers of our ability to communicate with each other.

Mastodon is an open source decentralized social network having a moment right now. I just joined and am still learning how it works, but it’s in line with my core values, and I feel good putting my energy there.

If you are using mastodon, you can follow me here:

@kenSwinson@indieweb.social

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snapshots from the 100 cup challenge

I need to practice all the things I learned during my “summer of clay workshops” at Arrowmont. My first project will be to make 100 cups. My goal is to make them all before the end of August, but I like the symbolism of 100 cups in 100 days, so lets make THAT the goal.  

Here are a few cups I have already made. If you are familiar with my work, these forms probably look more refined and less ‘self-taught’! Stay tuned to see what cup #100 looks like. you know what they say about practice makes perfect!

August 2- I had to move things around in my tiny 6x12ft clay studio to make things fit. The new shelf is not as photogenic as my old one, but it holds a LOT more cups! Here are a few of the cups in different stages. My goal is to have enough to fire the kiln next week. I’ll be out of the studio most of today, but I want to get some trimming and handles attached before the day gets started.

100 Cup Challenge UPDATE- August 4

If you caught me throwing cups on the wheel on facebook LIVE this morning, you might remember a curvy, beehive style cup.

I’m sad to announce it lost its battle with gravity, and its final remains will go to the recycle bucket. We already knew that it had some pre existing conditions, so we should be happy that it’s struggle is over. When I tried to flip it over, it wasn’t dry enough to support itself.

Here’s to all the little cups, that don’t make it to the finish line!!! RIP little beehive cup.

100 CUP CHALLENGE UPDATE-August 8
We hit a milestone today! Enough finished cups (i think 28?) to have our first kiln firing! If all goes well, we will have some pretty new cups (or a pile of rubble) to enjoy on wednesday! 

I have 31 MORE cups in different stages of completion. I can already tell, this challenge has been good for me. I’m developing a lot of different skills: throwing, trimming, handbuilding, surface design. 

Stay tuned to see what happens!

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Seth Green Spout workshop at Arrowmont

I was very fortunate to spend last week at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts to learn from Seth Green . It was a wild week and felt like pottery boot camp, so i wasn’t able to think much about video storytelling, but did get enough footage with my phone to give you a little peek at what the experience was like.

I cant recommend Arrowmont or Seth’s workshop enough. If you EVER get a chance to do either, DO IT. I can guarantee you will be glad that you did!

Thanks again!

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Washington Hall – linocut block print

greetings from the log cabin print shop in Historic old washington, ky! today, we are going to take a sketch from spring, and fine tune it into a design for a notecard.

design transferred to linoleum. now time for the fun part: carving!

this one has some details…thank goodness for my tiny little gouge.
carving text is the WORST! especially o’s. grateful that guttenburg invented “movable type” so printers wouldnt have to carve every letter…unless they want to be fancy, like me. lol!
finished carving…with 10 minutes to spare! should we do a test proof?
ok! lets mix some ink and see what we’ve done!
hot off the press!  
washington hall – old washington, ky

click the link below for a better look and more information- if you’d like to add one of these linocut notecards to your art collection

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Surface design with Adero Willard – Arrowmont Workshop

A lot of you know I’m a self taught potter-never had formal instruction. Thanks to a good friend/patron, I’m taking a pottery workshop by Adero Willard at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee…my first pottery class!!!

Already, the workshop has been a transformative experience for me -and the way I think about ceramic surface design. It’s been intense, working in the studio from morning until we are kicked out of at midnight.

I have to process the firehose of information she is sharing with us before I share any pictures of the pots we are making, but look who came to join us for lunch today!!!

I’ve never seen a bear in the ‘wild’ before. It was a magical experience! This place is an artist dream come true!

I decided the bears were my muse, and I used it as a model for some of my pots during Adero Willard ‘s workshop. These are early pots from the workshop:

An early pot from the workshop:


At this point in the workshop, i was learning about layers, wax resist and slip trails using Amaco Brent underglazes. I was really curious about firing the underglaze and redware pottery at that temperature (cone 2)…it comes out very lovely! 

More pots from the workshop:

The main lesson (of MANY) that I took from the workshop was to be curious (what if?) and to experiment (try it!) while in the studio. While remembering to keep records and notes, so that we could duplicate the successful combinations, and avoid the not so nice ones.

If you are familiar with my work, you know this kind of mark making is WAY out of my comfort zone. It wasn’t easy to loosen up and just work with pattern and colors, but it sure was FUN, once I got into it! Don’t worry, i’ll still make cute little bears,goats and bunnys, but there’s a good chance there may be some new pattern and colors in future work.

a big thank you to everyone who made this wonderful experience possible!

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An artist collaboration and opportunity to support Maysville Empty Bowls

I have been experimenting with ways to print on porcelain. After firing, I sent my VERY FIRST porcelain test tile to the Kentucky artist, Greta Gundersen. She assembled a beautiful necklace with a black cord, silver beads, jump ring, clasp and few of my other handmade porcelain beads.

I LOVE it! It’s beautiful and unique. Neither of us wear jewelry. It’s a fun and experimental work, and we don’t want to sell it. Greta and I thought we could give the necklace away as a way to help raise money and awareness for Maysville’s annual Empty Bowls Fundraiser.

Empty Bowls is a grassroots movement by artists and crafts people in cities and towns around the world to raise money for food related charities to care for and feed the hungry in their communities.  Last year, Maysville’s Empty Bowls raised $7200 for the Mason County Food Bank.

If you would like a chance to win the necklace and/or support Maysville Empty Bowls, You can use the ‘add to cart’ button to make a contribution. For every $5 contribution, we will put your name in the 14 April 2022 drawing for the Ken/Greta’s jewelry collaboration. (If you contribute $20, we will enter your name 4 times, etc.)

This is just for fun. Neither of us are going to profit in any way from this. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to Maysville Empty Bowls.

Thanks for supporting Maysville Empty Bowls, and good luck!

UPDATE: we raised a total of $115 for Maysville Empty Bowls, and the winner of the jewelry was:

Congratulations Sara! Thank you EVERYONE for supporting Empty Bowls!

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Daffodils in Augusta with friends

In Augusta, KY, getting ready to paint Dafodyls with my Plein air buddy Sue Ellen Gorman
Here’s my underpainting. Color time!
Working on the colors…it’s at that difficult stage. Time to pull it all together
I am really struggling. Don’t let these innocent looking flowers fool you. They are little yellow monsters.
A day painting is never a waste of time..

Enjoyed being outside with friends. Didn’t get a painting, but learned a lot about what NOT to do when painting flowers.

I’m sorry if I upset any of you when I shared yesterday’s video of me wiping the painting from the canvas. I fail at paintings ALL THE TIME, and I’m used to it. I know a lot of people never give themselves a chance to take a risk and develop as artists, because they think everything they do has to be perfect–or don’t make anything at all. sure, it feels great when a painting succeeds, but the failures are where I learn and grow as an artist.

On a more cheery note, here are more pictures from the same day. Honestly, I could have painted the Sistine chapel, but nothing is more valuable to me than a sunny spring day outside visiting with long time artist friends. Thanks Elizabeth Kordis Laskey and Sue Ellen Gorman for sharing the day with me!