Medium: Functional Clay

Liam Cofell-Dwyer is a Minnesota native and St. Olaf graduate who calls Northfield home. Working from his home studio on the edge of town, he crafts ceramics using locally harvested materials. Rooted in the natural beauty of the Cannon Valley, Liam’s ceramics are crafted with passion and purpose; they are pieces that are made to…

Colleen gave up her graphic design business over 20 years ago to pursue ceramics full time. She took her first course at the Northern Clay Center, and has since received a non-traditional education in ceramics, through concentrated coursework, intensive workshops and informal mentorships. She has benefited from the generosity, camaraderie and inspiration of the Minnesota…

The pottery that I am making reflects my personal desire to combine the things that I love most in the clay making process with my love of drawing. Making beautiful pots and creating surface design for them is big for me and I also love drawing in my sketchbook. I am now able to apply…

After wandering through engineering, sociology, anthropology, motherhood and technical writing, Barbara finally found her true calling in the mid-1990s, when experiences with found natural clay led her to take classes at the Northern Clay Center. She then did an informal apprenticeship with Richard Bresnahan, at the St. John’s University Pottery from 1999 through 2002. She…

Sue and Chris are a wife/husband team and have been making pots together since 1976. Their home and studio are located in the beautiful countryside east of Northfield. Their work combines the love of creating pots with beautiful form / function with the joy of creating whimsical imagery for each pot. . Their pots are…

My slab-built low-fire clay vessels and boxes are part of a continuing experiment in creating simple objects that have a timeless look; both ancient and modern. I am interested in revealing texture and color in multiple layers with a dry and matte glazed surfaces.

Juliane Shibata is a ceramic artist and educator based in Northfield, MN. Her work is informed by the Japanese concept of mujō (mutability and impermanence) as well as the Pattern & Decoration movement. Juliane celebrates the beauty she finds in the artifacts of mundane labor by emphasizing the material aspects of fabrication. Juliane received her…