Christy Knox works around her studio and showcases how she incorporates plants and flowers from her garden into her work. Her studio in Cummington is one of the eight locations attendees can visit in this year’s Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour.
Reminder Publishing photo by Trent Levakis
Eight nationally recognized potters will open their studios in the Hilltowns of Western Mass. to guest artists and visitors on the last weekend of July for the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour, which returns to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
The tour, which began in 2005 highlighting six local potters in several studios, has grown into a beloved and unique art experience that offers visitors a rare chance to step inside the creative spaces where functional and sculptural pottery is made. Visitors will witness firsthand live pottery demonstrations courtesy of the host potters and the guest artists featured during this event.
The weekend tour, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Saturday, July 25, and Sunday July, 26, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eight local pottery studios will participate within a 20-to-45-minute radius of Northampton, drawing ceramics enthusiasts, pottery collectors and curious first timers from across New England. The tour includes stops in Ashfield, Cummington, Westhampton, Williamsburg, Worthington and Windsor, where potters have worked for decades.
Each potter will bring a distinct voice and approach to their work — from functional tableware to sculptural art — making the tour as much a journey through different artistic visions as it is a tour of the Hilltown landscape, according to organizers. Maps, pottery bios, demonstration schedules and directions are available at hilltown6.com.
“Potters tend to be tucked away in these little quiet hidden places, by in large working on their own. So, you would never even know we were here, but we tend to like beautiful places,” featured potter Christy Knox told Reminder Publishing. “At the beginning, it was little and like starting any kind of event or business or whatever, you start out with nothing, and you build from there. We are really fortunate though. I can’t believe it’s been 20 years.”
Knox is one of the hosting potters involved in the event and has been actively involved in it since its origins. Fellow host potters will include Robbie Heidinger, Maya Machin, Michael McCarthy, Hiroshi Nakayama, Mark Shapiro, Constance Talbot and Sam Taylor. Across the different host studios, 20 guest artists from around New England and as far away as Georgia will be present, leading demonstrations and sharing their own personal work.
The tour was born two decades ago after Shapiro and other potters came together to brainstorm how they could recreate a local version of a popular pottery tour they learned of and visited in Minnesota. Knox quickly joined in on the effort and as a frequent seller at craft fairs, was looking for an opportunity to essentially cut out the middleman and bring people in direct contact with potters and their work.
Knox explained that when people purchase an item from a gallery, they only know so much about the piece and its creator. When people buy from an artist at a craft fair like the Hilltown tour, there’s more of an intimacy to that experience.
“If you come to an artist’s studio and buy a piece of pottery, you now have the opportunity to have the full story of what went into that pot,” said Knox. “You can have a friend that you always meet somewhere else, but when you go to their house, you know so much more about who they are and how they live and what they want around them. And it’s like that in an artist’s studio. You can see where the work was made, how it was made, the kilns that were used. The environment in which that artists lives and thinks and creates.”
She added, “It’s just the best opportunity because I do think with handmade pots, an artist lives inside of this. When you go home then and use that pot, every time you pick it up — I can’t tell you how many people tell me, ‘Christy, I live with you every day. Your mug is my favorite mug, and you greet me in the morning every day.’ I live in these pots.”
Christy Knox works around her studio and showcases how she incorporates plants and flowers from her garden into her work. Her studio in Cummington is one of the eight locations attendees can visit in this year’s Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour.
Reminder Publishing photo by Trent Levakis
Knox added that potters will showcase various techniques and materials to attendees during the scheduled demonstrations and participatory events throughout both days. One of the unique features of Knox’s work is how she utilizes her home garden in Cummington by incorporating different plants. She said she’ll take different plants and mold the different textures and patterns into her clay and onto her work.
“My work is hand built as opposed to being thrown on the potter’s wheel. The surface decoration that I use incorporates plants and flowers from my garden,” explained Knox. “I’ve been following that line of thinking all of these years, just drilling down into the idea, developing different forms along the way and developing my embossing technique.”
She credited one of the event’s co-founders, Mark Shapiro, for creating an emphasis on education around pottery, and she added that the event has grown over the last two decades.
“I think one of the things that really differentiates us is that Mark really pushed to have an educational component in the tour, which is brilliant. So, we have free demonstrations that are scheduled on the website throughout the weekend in all the studios,” Knox added. “It’s endless. You could study ceramics full-time your entire life and at the end, you would only know the pie shape of what you were able to study. You would never know everything about ceramics. It’s what keeps me constantly fascinated.”
During the tour, visitors will witness clay artists crafting teapots, vases, pitchers and more from start to finish. They will also see artists throw pots on a foot-powered treadle wheel, walk inside a giant wood-burning kiln and taste fresh bread baked in a ceramic flame-proof cloche.
“It’s self-guided so you can see what there is this year. You can decide where you want to go and whether you want to go to four studios in one day or go to all of them and spend the whole weekend doing it. It’s up to each person,” Knox said. “The host potters are constantly growing and developing our work. If you came to my studio five years ago, you’re going to see more developed work now. But with our guest potters that are always changing, you get to see new potters every year.”
Keeping in that tradition, potters and other artists will donate a portion of their proceeds to local food pantries.
“Giving back to the community just seems like a great opportunity when we do an event like this. We’ve supported local arts programs in schools for a long time, but the last few years it seemed like the place that is most in need is the food bank, more so than ever before. Through the pandemic and now through government cuts in funding, if you ask any food bank, their need just continues to skyrocket,” Knox said.
Knox said the opportunity for attendees to purchase work on site is a great economic driver because the money stays within the communities these potters call home. She added that she is very thankful to have been involved in the pottery tours since its beginnings and is excited to celebrate 20 years of the event.
“I most appreciate the beautiful community of pottery collectors who come through these doors that are in many cases old friends, some new friends, but all lovers of pottery. We all share this passion in one way or another, and you can feel it. It’s palpable in this room during that weekend. Everyone is so thrilled,” Knox said.
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