Our Featured Artists
Nell J. Fredericksen, Sugar Grove Studio, LLC
Nell Fredericksen
Email | (540) 365-7400 | Website | Facebook | Instagram
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 from different glazes in tans, blues, and greens, produces pottery that is both decorative and functional.
Nell has been a professional goldsmith/jeweler and potter for more than 30 years. She is an ACV Juried Master Artisan and Juried Round the Mountain Artisan. She is currently the ceramics instructor at Ferrum College in Ferrum, VA. She also teaches a broad slate of Metalsmithing courses for the Floyd Center for the Arts in Floyd, VA
Nell’s pottery can be found at New Leaf Gallery in Floyd, VA and at the Southwest Virginia Cultural Arts Center in Abingdon, VA.
Cole Frantz Pottery
Cole Frantz
In her home workshop, Cole makes pottery that is mostly functional, round and striped. Look for her pieces for sale at the BRPG annual show and sale.
Chialing Hsieh Ceramics
Chialing Hsieh
Email | (540) 353-1882 | Website
Chialing Hsieh currently resides in Roanoke, VA. Many of her creative works are inspired from travel and experiences through life. Her work focuses on experimenting with glazes, leveraging the effect achieved with high heat in glazed layers that melt and blend to create a myriad of new colors.
L N POTTERY
Lee Niebuhr
Email | (540) 420-7420 | Facebook
Hello ceramic fans and collectors! So glad you found the Blue Ridge Potters Guild website to view a sampling of just some of our amazing artists. I happened upon the world of pottery after my retirement, looking for a hobby to keep me busy. I feel so lucky to have discovered this craft, and haven’t looked back. I’m continually developing my creative side with clay through structured classes and knowledge sharing within the clay community. I’m a work in progress, and have found my passion!
Barbara Wise
Barbara began working with clay in 2003. Her work is both functional and decorative. Lamps are now Barbara’s main focus. Some of her lamps look like stacked rocks but are made of clay. She also enjoys making small bowls and pieces with impressions. Her pieces are either electric or raku fired. Pottery has enriched her life in many ways and has become her hobby and passion.
Ronda Lamb Jones
Email | (540) 365-7400 | Website | Facebook
Ronda’s clay pieces range anywhere from utilitarian kitchen bowls and mugs to highly decorated sculptural wall pieces and lots to choose from in between. Her designs stem from an affection for the local Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Signature colors are unfinshed brownstone clay in combination with glazes of blues, greens, and copper colors.
Sinking Creek Pottery
Zenah Orndorff
Email | (540) 365-7400 | Website | Facebook | Instagram
I work with a variety of clays, glazes, and decorative techniques, to create stoneware pots that are both functional and artistic. I make all kinds of pieces – dinnerware, vases, tiles, and various accessories – ranging from simple to elaborate in styles and designs. The majority of my work is wheel-thrown, and often embellished with freehand carvings, sgraffito, wax-resist designs, and/or surface textures, which adds a little extra flair to pots intended for enjoyment in everyday life. My favorite pieces to make are one-of-a-kind mugs, and I look forward to adding more hand-built elements to my practice. In addition to making pots, I enjoy studying glaze chemistry and development.
Stephanie H. Firestone – Sculptures
Stephanie Firestone
Email | (703) 635-6139 | Website | Facebook | Instagram
Stephanie H. Firestone is a sculptor and a painter who recently transplanted to Roanoke City from Annandale, VA. Her sculptures are of the human figure, and are mainly cubist or abstract. She makes vessels and wall sculptures for the Raku firing technique. Her works have been juried into many shows including Washington Project for the Arts’ “Select 2014” chosen by curator Olivia Kohler-Maga, and a catalog was produced. Her piece, “Nest” was included in a show in Germany and mentioned in a Washington Post Review article.
After a 30+ year career as a graphic designer, she enjoys expanding her fine art roots by way of her website blog, and entering local shows. See more of her work at The Market Gallery, 22 Campbell Ave SE, Roanoke, VA.
Slip N’ Clay Pottery
Candace Bell
Email | (540) 524-8693 | Website
My name is Candace Bell and I work out of a home studio in Roanoke, VA. I make mostly functional pottery with a whimsical flair: mugs, vases, jars, tumblers, plates, platters, pitchers, and teapots. The pandemic was a very productive time for me, as it created space without the pressure to produce work, to just play and finally find my voice in the clay. I like to create texture and interest using slip, carving, and by altering forms. Most of my current work uses Laguna B-mix fired to Cone 5 or 6 in an electric kiln using a combination of commercial and custom glazes. However, I like the effects of high fire with atmosphere, since it accentuates form and texture the best. I prefer a wood kiln, but have had some good results with a salt gas kiln too. Each year I make a load of pots specifically for high fire using stoneware that flashes in rich brown tones.
Jennifer Fowler
Email | (540) 798-2281 | Website | Instagram
I identify as a maker and doer, and in the realm of creation, clay is where I find my deepest roots. Working with clay connects me to the earth, and I’m drawn to its tactile and transformative qualities. Alongside clay, I also embrace the fluidity of paint and the experimental nature of printmaking. I hope to one day blend the elements I love from each medium into a cohesive body of work.
Armed with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from JMU and a Masters in Teaching from Hollins University, my artistic journey is rooted in technical proficiency and a lifelong love of learning. Clay, with its malleability and responsiveness, serves as my primary medium, inviting me to explore and grow through playful experimentation.
Beyond the studio, I am an art teacher committed to sharing the joy of creation, with a special focus on teaching ceramics. In this dual role as both a maker and educator, my art acts as a bridge between my personal connection to nature and the collective journey of craftsmanship and technique with my students.
In addition to my artistic and academic pursuits, I am a wife and a mother of two boys, accompanied by our loyal black lab. Outside the studio, my hands find solace in the earth, whether through gardening or exploring the outdoors. These roles and hobbies enrich my perspective, infusing my creations with a profound personal connection and a celebration of the beauty inherent in everyday life. And, of course, they keep me quite busy!
Scott Maynard
I often tell people that when I sit down at the potter’s wheel I lose all sense of time. The enjoyment of taking such a common, simple material and then molding it with my hands into a functional object never gets old for me. My main focus over the years has been on sturdy, utilitarian hand-made pottery that makes people feel good about eating, drinking, and looking. My inspiration and aesthetic has been inspired by my time growing up around the Great Lakes of Michigan, ground breaking work of Bernard Leach, and the Appalachian aesthetic. I don’t try to copy any of these, I just know they show up in my work. Ultimately, I love to make pots that people will use and enjoy for a long, long time.
Jim Privitera
I have been producing pottery for over 25 years and, until recently, owned Earthworks Pottery. Production now is at my own studio and I have begun using the name “Mill Mountain Pottery’.
My work is a mix of functional, raku, and slab pottery. The glazes are formulated and mixed at the studio. They are food safe and do not have lead, barium, or cadmium.
My work is available for sale at Explore Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Susanne Sellars
After teaching art for 30 years, I’m focusing on pottery. Although I do some wheel throwing, I really enjoy hand-building. I also enjoy painting images on my work, sometimes realistic, sometimes abstract, and sometimes stylized. I take advantage of Blue Ridge Pottery Guild’s workshops and community, always excited to learn a new technique.
Bob Campbell
Bob Campbell got his first touch of love with pottery when he saw a PBS show of a Japanese potter who went through the entire process of digging clay, throwing pieces, firing, and glazing. “I had done some painting, some drawing, some stained glass, some candle making, some photography, etc. and just thought I’d like to give pottery a try,” he says. He made the remark to his wife, who decided that for his 50th birthday she would surprise him with the gift of his first round of classes held at a local Roanoke elementary school with instructor Phil Weaver. “That was 27 years ago,” Bob states with a smile, “and I don’t plan on stepping away from the wheel or the slab roller any time soon.”
“The feel of the clay is most rewarding.” Bob shares about what makes clay so appealing to him as an art medium, “I am primarily tactile and then visual, so clay meets those needs. It’s really the therapeutic benefits above a certain look or style that keeps him mired in the clay. “Aesthetically,” he explains, “the beauty is in the process.” Rather than having a definite shape or goal in mind when he sits down at the wheel, Bob says he prefers to let the work evolve as he handles the clay. “I don’t always know when I cut a piece of clay and sit at the wheel exactly where I want to go,” he shares, “This keeps mystery in the process for me.” Perhaps it’s the willingness to “go with the flow” that give his work a balanced and fluid style.
Two Dogs Clay
Cynthia Deutsch
Email | Website | Instagram
I like to create work that is colorful, playful, and full of pattern. The intent is to bring happiness through use of daily objects, whether it is on the cup that we use to sip our drinks or the vase that we use to decorate our living and working spaces. Each piece is designed with the intent to bring joy and celebration into our lives.
Each pot is a blank canvas for me to play on. I coat the surfaces of my work, made with stoneware or porcelain, in brightly colored underglazes. Once dried to leather hard, I hand carve my design, patterns, and illustrations, adding additional colors to highlight the designs. The final surface of each piece bursts with shapes contrasted by dancing lines that are meant to complement the form of the pot, bringing a sense of movement and life to an otherwise still object.
There is an intimacy in both the making and in the use of the created piece. As a maker, I am immersed in the experience of creating a piece; feeling and understanding the movement of the clay as I work towards the final form. When a piece is complete, the sensory process continues with touch from our hands and sometimes our lips, our eyes engaged in observing the shape and the beauty of a piece in our surroundings. As the maker of functional ware, I think about this every time my hands touch the clay, focusing on the intention of the piece and imagining how it will be used. From the way the piece hits the eye, to the touch sensation and how it feels as we use it, every part of my pottery is created with daily use in mind.