Seattle Culture

Elevate Your Serving Ware with Elegant Teapots

Deborah Schwartzkopf's porcelain teapots are a notch above the usual serving ware

By Jennifer McCullum April 29, 2016

A ceramic teapot with a blue and white pattern.
A ceramic teapot with a blue and white pattern.

This article originally appeared in the May 2016 issue of Seattle magazine.

The dramatically different pottery styles of George Rodriguez and Deborah Schwartzkopf of Ceramistas Seattle make it hard to believe both of them create their work in the same West Seattle home studio.

Rodriguez’s large clay figures can weigh as much as 300 pounds, while Schwartzkopf’s smaller-scale, porcelain teapots elevate serving ware. But despite their dissimilar styles, Schwartzkopf says the importance of community is something she and George have in common. Rodriguez adds, “Objects can be a form of bringing people together.

Whether they literally get a little closer to view [the details of the work] or gather for a dinner that’s centered around those objects.” The couple’s own community returned the favor in 2013 by helping to fund a Kickstarter campaign to build an at-home kiln area for firing their work. “There’s something that happens when your studio is at your home,” Schwartzkopf says. “It’s consuming in a very good way.”

Ceramistas’ West Seattle studio is open to the public by appointment only. 206.653.4490; ceramistasseattle.info

 

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