The 26th Annual St Croix Valley Pottery Tour and Sale will welcome visitors on Fri., Sat., & Sun., May 11, 12, 13, 2018 to seven pottery studios. Each studio/pottery is just a short drive from the others allowing some or all to be visited in a single day.
This springtime, self-guided tour is anticipated by all who enjoy handmade pottery. It is nationally recognized as a gathering of exceptional potters. Always held on Mothers’ Day weekend, “The Tour” is an opportunity to enjoy the hospitality of local potters in their rural studios. This year, you can meet 54 accomplished guest potters from around the nation who have been invited by their host potter especially for this weekend event.
Begun in 1993 as an outgrowth of potters’ individual studio sales, “The Tour” has maintained its welcoming “open house” hospitality. It has grown to be a once-a-year place to lay your hands on thousands of pots and to meet and talk with a total of 62 potters. This friendly, face-to-face connection between makers and users of pottery has proven satisfying to visitors and potters alike. Visitors have reported finding, “Unexpectedly warm hospitality”, “The highest quality anywhere”, and “Stuff that I can afford and is American made”.
The seven host pottery sites are: Linda Christianson’s unique studio and log home nestled in a clearing in the woods, Will Swanson and Janel Jacobson’s studio close by Wild River State Park, Richard Vincent’s oak-shaded backyard studio, Guillermo Cuellar’s hilltop home and studio overlooking the St. Croix River, Jeff Oestreich’s early Minnesota farmstead remade into home and studio, Ani Kasten’s pottery gallery-in-a-barn (formerly Connee Mayeron’s), and Matt Krousey’s picturesque, woodland home and studio.
“The Tour” has earned a reputation as a source of high-quality, functional pottery and an intriguing array of distinctive, ceramic expression. Visiting potters repeatedly say that they enjoy the knowledgeable and appreciative audience that they find in Minnesota. This year the potters are coming from seventeen states and England. They are bringing a wide range of handmade pottery to offer for sale. Their work ranges from everyday functional to decorative and/or sculptural, from rustic to refined, from whimsical to sublime. One visitor remarked about his day in the country, “It’s the kind of event where you want to bring your friends along so you can talk about what you saw!”
The seven pottery studios are located in the upper St. Croix River valley, in Chisago County, less than a one-hour drive from Minneapolis and St. Paul. Admission to all the studios is free and open to everyone.
As a way of saying “thank you” for the enthusiastic support we experience with this event, a portion of the proceeds each year is donated to arts and educational projects.