Featured Artists

Featured Artists

	Becky Carr This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. I first became interested in working with clay when I retired from teaching and moved to Roanoke, VA, in 2008. After learning to throw pots on the wheel, I turned to hand-building when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in my hands. As my hands, have improved, I now enjoy working on the wheel again, but hand building has become my passion. I love creating functional and sculptural pieces. Most of my pieces are one of a kind; rarely do I make multiples of any of my work, and I am always searching for a new challenge. Most fulfilling to me is teaching a hand building class at the Brambleton Center. This class allows me to combine my two passions, pottery, and teaching.
	Rebecca Fowler Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Pottery is a passion for me. When I am in my studio creating, time doesn’t exist, hours pass with no concept of how long I have been working. I am at total peace with the clay and my creator. This journey with clay began in 2008, I had become a caregiver for my Mom and it was suggested that Pottery would be a stress reliever. I took one class and was hooked. I joined the BRPG in 2011 after taking Private Art Classes and many Pottery classes and seminars. I choose to do mostly functional pottery because I want my pieces to be touched and used on a daily basis. I love painting in underglazes because it is similar to water colors in the flow and translucent qualities. I hope to have many years to enjoy and explore clay.
	Cole Frantz This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Cole is a Brambleton Center potter who makes pottery that is mostly functional, round and striped. Her pieces are exclusively for sale at the BRPG annual show and sale.
	Debby Freed Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. I live in Montgomery County, VA with my dog, cat, and chickens - and my neighbors' donkeys, and do my clay work from my basement studio, which looks out at the donkey pasture and chicken run. My pieces are all hand built, using slab, pinch pot, coil, and other hand building techniques. I take part in the Potters Guild annual show. My pieces are for sale at the lovely Bell Gallery in Floyd, VA, and I also sell from my studio. See more of my work on my Facebook page for DSF Ceramics - https://www.facebook.com/DSF-Ceramics-355480311138640/ or contact me through email.In addition to clay work, I write fiction, help others with their writing, and play banjo with some of the many wonderful southwest Virginia old-time musicians.
	Nell J. Fredericksen Sugar Grove Studios (540) 365-7400 Email www.nellfredericksen.com The natural world, the beauty that I see in everything around me flows both consciously and subconsciously through all my designs. I love taking the raw materials and making them “move” with my hands into the shapes and textures that I picture in my mind. That, plus the play of colors on those shapes with different glazes, produces pottery that is both decorative and functional. Nell has been a professional goldsmith/jeweler and potter for more than 28years. She is an ACV Juried Master Artisan and Juried Round the Mountain Artisan. She teaches a broad slate of Metalsmithing courses for the Floyd Center for the Arts in Floyd, VA
	Ann Hess Ann Hess Pottery A pleasure to eye and hand. Designed and tested for functionwww.annhesspottery.com I create functional pieces for dining and cooking.Popular for gifts, my stoneware advent wreath provides a base for you to add your creative touch of candles and greens to celebrate the 4 weeks before Christmas.Customers provide the best ideas. Work with me to design your set of dishes or sacramental chalice and communion set.Solar panels provide the power to my electric kiln. I formulate my glazes from naturally occurring minerals. All are lead and barium free. I have degrees in chemistry from Michigan State University (B.S.) and the University of Illinois (M.S.). I studied in the Art Department at Virginia Tech and workshops at Arrowmont School of Crafts, TN and Hood College, MD. International experiences in Korea, Japan and Great Britain inform and influence my work. I am a juried member of the Artisan Center of Virginia and a founding member of the Blue Ridge Potters Guild.
	Josh Manning 540-250-0420 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.parlourpottery.com Instagram Josh Manning is a functional potter residing in Copper Hill, Virginia where his studio is located in the agrarian mountain community of Floyd County where he grew up. He has shown work nationally via juried exhibitions and invitationals, internationally in China, and intermittently taught on a university level and conducted workshops for arts organizations and colleges.
	Steve Mitchell This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.stevemitchellpottery.com Steve Mitchell is a woodfire potter in the Winter and a Crystalline/Porcelain potter in the Summer. He dabbles in many other styles of ceramics on request but prefers to throw porcelain on a large scale. His work is for sale at the Market Gallery in Roanoke Va, and at the Museum store at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Va.
	Jim Privitera (540) 985-8698 email www.stonewareclay.com Long before I started to work with clay I was a purchased many pieces from small studios and individual potters. I was always impressed with their skill at producing unique work. The gifts and collected work were attractive, functional and had character. In the late 90's I took a class in pottery and started on a journey that eventually led to Earthworks Pottery. Earthworks has two major functions: to teach classes in making pottery, and to sell the ware made at the studio. Potters seem to be a special group of people and the classes are always challenging and interesting. There is a gallery attached to the studio and it is open for browsing and sales. For more information check out the website, www.stonewareclay.com.
	Joanne Snyder 703-606-3906 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. I have enjoyed making pottery off and on for over 40 years. It started with an adult education class in the mid 1970s. In between raising a family and working full-time, I found studios in Northern Virginia where I could take classes. After retiring and moving to Smith Mountain Lake, I discovered Earthworks in Vinton. Wheel throwing has been my main focus, but I have recently begun taking classes in hand building and I enjoy it a great deal. Although I am strictly a hobby potter, I continue to improve my skills and have found true camaraderie among the group of members of the Blue Ridge Potters Guild.
	Ron Sutterer 540-250-0420 My interest in ceramics can be traced back to graduate school in North Carolina where my wife and I would occasionally do a day trip to visit some of the traditional farm potteries such as the Cole family, Ben Owens, etc. We started collecting and giving pottery to family members. After we settled in upstate New York in an academic position, my wife developed an interest in ceramics that led to setting up a small studio in our home. Some years later I started playing in the studio and found that I enjoyed the challenge. Most of my training came through some coursework at Syracuse University, workshops, and hanging out with skilled potters. This path in my life was nurtured by moving to the artistic rich environment of Floyd, Virginia where I have received a great deal of encouragement and technical help. A particular shout out to Rick Hensley who has been a terrific friend and mentor. Having access to the gas kiln at the Jacksonville Center gave me a tool not available to many beginning potters. Over the years I have gradually put together a well equipped studio that allows me to pretty much explore anything that my imagination can generate.
	Barbara Wise I began my journey with clay in 2004. I experiment with impressions in plates and bowls. For the last few years, I have been making lamps that look like stacked rocks, raku lamps and vases. My pottery is functional and decorative. Pottery has enriched my life in many ways and has become my hobby and passion.