Terry Acker

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Terry Acker received a degree in Fine Art at the University of South Florida. After traveling about the country one summer, she fell in love with Colorado and moved to the Fort Collins area, where she has lived ever since. She has always been interested in nature and has drawn much of her inspiration and ideas from it; using leaves, shells,plants and birds to create textures and images in clay. Bowls, platters, pitchers, vases, cat trays, rabbit trays and other pottery pieces are her standards. Special orders are also possible.

Cynthia Ryals Cynthia graduated with a BFA in Ceramics in 1973, and worked in Washington, D.C. for 20 years. She was happy to escape the stresses of the East Coast, and moved to the mountains where she can peacefully concentrate on her art and enjoy the slow and friendly pace of life. Cynthia's pottery is functional, and includes pie plates, bowls, honey jars, pitchers, chip and dip sets, mugs and more.

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Lou Beatty has been working with clay for the past 25 years. After receiving a BA in 1974, she ventured west to help establish a cooperative studio in Fort Collins. There she taught classes and produced a line of pottery.

In 1982, she moved her studio to the foothills where she currently lives and works with her husband and two children. Her stoneware pottery is greatly influenced by the beautiful wildflowers she sees on her daily walk in the mountains. As a painter she enjoys the variety of colors and techniques she can explore using her pottery as a canvas to decorate. She also paints in other media and has shown her work throughout the U.S.

The stoneware pottery is lead-free, microwave, dishwasher and oven friendly. Care should be taken not to submit the pottery to sudden temperature changes.

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Patty works in both two and three dimensions, creating both clay monotype prints and sawdust fired pottery. She lives in the Grand Lake area, and her studio overlooks the Colorado River. Her porcelain sgrafitto vase range from $130-$150. Her pit-fired pieces are priced from $50 -$100. Patty's porcelain vases range from $40-$65, and her tea cups are $40.

Her pots are painted with layers of different colors of terra sigillata - a very fine colloidal slip, burnish and bisque fired, and then layered in a can of sawdust, with chemicals added for various effects. After firing, the pots are cleaned and waxed both for protection and to enhance the shiny surface.

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Karen's work is stoneware, meant to be used and enjoyed in our homes.

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Chaucy has combined her skills as a potter and sculptor to create functional dinner ware with the whimsical feel of nature and wildlife.

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The spirit of natural land forms in Colorado influences Alice's hand thrown high fire pottery. Representations of native plants and animals often appear in the designs.

Now at home in Bailey, Colorado, she lived and produced pottery in western Colorado and southern New Mexico. She was president of the regional potters' guild of Los Cruces, New Mexico for two years and active in organizing workshops, juried shows, sales, and the Empty Bottle Project. "The mentoring and sharing of the love of clay was a very enriching experience."

Alice's high fire stoneware is lead-free, oven proof, and dishwasher safe. Alice creates functional art to hold the ordinary and precious.

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Sanna Adams

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Sanna creates crystalline vases using specialized glazes and a highly controlled firing process. The crystals are allowed to grow for 4 1/2 hours.

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Karen Stauffer

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Karen Stauffer has more than 20 years experience in clay. Working with high fired stoneware and porcelain clays, her pottery is hand built, or hand thrown on a kickwheel. Karen strives for the timeless combination of form and function. She mixes her own glazes and fires her pottery in the gas kiln she designed and built. The high fired stoneware and porcelain clays are durable and oven, microwave, and dishwasher safe.

A full time studio potter, Karen lives in Lakewood, Colorado. She is a frequent visitor to Grand Lake for fly fishing, hiking and cross-country skiing.

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Etta Satter

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Etta is a Colorado native who has lived in Clear Creek County since 1981. Her "philosopher ware" stems from her love of philosophy. She is a passionate conservationist and community activist.

Bil Buhler

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Bil started his journey in clay in the early 1980's, when he saw a pot being made on a wheel in Ghiradelli Square in San Francisco. Bil continues to take workshops, always enhancing his chosen avocation. Bil works primarily on the wheel, creating objects that are basically round.

The temmoku (dark brown) is one of the most famous and admired old Chinese glazes. The porcelain clay is high-fired to a very durable, non-porous state that is oven, microwave and dishwasher safe. The wood ash pottery is a new pattern of pottery for Bil.

Raku firing is very different, and no two pieces will ever be the same. When a piece has reached temperature, it is submitted to various post-firing processes, perhaps involving an iron bearing oxide, horsehair, paper or other combustible material. Raku is suitable for dry flower arrangements only.

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Nancy Zoller

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"In the summer of my 12th year (some time ago now), my parents introduced me to the Grand Lake area. They came from Arizona to manage, and later purchase the El Navajo Lodge on Shadow Mountain Lake. Since that time, a large part of my heart has always remained in this area.

Zoller Pottery is wheel-thrown and hand built stoneware. It is completely handcrafted and hand painted. Because of the uniqueness of this process, there will, naturally, be variance in color, shades, and brushstrokes. No two items will be alike. "My clay body is a mixture of porcelain and white stoneware - giving the piece the depth and beauty of porcelain and the versatility of stoneware. Life is created in the piece with an awareness of form, different surface textures, overlapping colored stains, and the beauty of the gas firing."

"When I am throwing on the wheel, all of life comes into balance for me. It is my hope that Zoller Pottery will also satisfy a need for beauty and balance in the lives of others through its use in their daily lives."

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Jan Rowen Jan grew up in the midwest, and earned her masters degree from the University of Northern Colorado. Now retired as a high school art teacher, she enjoys working with clay, and particularly the raku process. This process provides spontaneity and surprise. Jan finds the creative process a way of connecting to a more real world. She aligns with the tenets of wabi-sabi, a Japanese aesthetic which encompasses the spiritual/philosophical as well as the material/sensual.

Jan's raku pieces range in prive from $45 to $90.

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Danni Bangert

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About 25 years ago, I saw a beautiful set of handmade pottery dinnerware and became fascinated with the possibility of learning to make my own. Since that time, I have made both functional pottery and sculptural forms. And you might say that I have become "addicted" to clay. I live with the various aspects of the clay process almost every moment of the day and night. By day, I sculpt or throw pieces, and at night I dream up solutions to clay problems. I am active in several organizations that allow clay artists networking, marketing and inspirational opportunities. My most supportive critic and best studio helper is my husband, Merv.

My journey with clay is spiritual as well as physical. You will see the outward meandering of my inner journey in the decorations, designs, and forms I produce.

I hope you find joy, service, pleasure, and perhaps some new inspiration as you live with my work!

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Lee Wolff

Sumi von Dassow

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Sumi von Dassow is an award winning ceramic artist who lives in Golden, Colorado. Her love of color and form is expressed in a varied and unique body of work ranging from brightly glazed functional pottery to unglazed burnished work.

Sumi's work is well-known to Colorado art lovers, appearing in the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, the annual juried "Colorado Clay" at the Foothills Art Center in Golden and the invitational "From the Earth" at the Arts Bridge in Lakewood. She was chosen to present her art in an exhibit entitled "The Object of Colorado" for world leaders during the G7 Summit in Denver.

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Connie Christensen

Connie is a full-time potter, whose studio is located in Arvada. She has taught ceramics at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities since 1997.

"The first time I touched clay, my life changed. From that day on, clay became my life. My passion is for functional pots that one may hold, caress, and that enrich your everyday life. Coffee in the morning with a favorite mug, your hands familiar with every curve and ridge is the way life should be lived. I want to create pots that are graceful, alive and quietly ask to be touched."

Connie's work is wheel-thrown and she prefers using porcelain clay for the vibrant and rich color it gives to the glazes.

Lane's bells range from 8 to " long, with one to three bells, and from $24 to $70. His studio is in Masonville.

Vince & Carolyn began making pottery in 1975. Today they live in the Rockies in a 1904 log house. All their pottery is weatherproof, lead-free, and dishwasher and microwave safe. The landscape plate is $75, and is made from soils and clay slips hand dug from throughout the Rocky Mountain west. The covered jar is $38,and the vase is $80. The Tolpos also make mugs, bowls, pitchers, and casseroles in various sizes and prices.

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Brenda Neeley

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Brenda lives and works from her home in southeast Denver. Each figure is sculpted in a natural brown clay, porcelain, terra cotta or white sandstone. Much humor is displayed in her works. Nativity sets are $48, angels range from $12-$36, the lop-eared rabbit is $24. Brenda also makes tea bag holders ($8), wall masks ($24-$45 ), coasters ($10), dishes ($15), and more.

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The gallery represents numerous other potters, including Kim Peterson, Mark and Susan Rittman, Les Kitchen, Wendy Kochar, Kim Glidden and Francis Mackey. A sampling of their works appears here. See more of their work when you stop by the Gallery, located on the boardwalk in Grand Lake.

Kim's horsehair pot is $165, the Rittman's blue vase is 50, Wendy's green vase is $100, Frances' tea pot is $50, and Les' goblet is 22.

Check to see which new artists have joined us when you visit the gallery.