A mug should fit as well as a good pair of shoes, says Maya Machin, an Ashfield potter featured in this weekend’s 13th annual Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour & Sale.
“I want my work to be used, and not just decorative,” said Machin, has been a member of this group of nationally recognized potters since 2013. “Whenever people buy a mug, I tell them to try it on, hold it, see how the handle feels.”
On Saturday and Sunday, July 27-28, people will have the opportunity not just to “try on” and buy a mug but to see potters in action during the tour.
Machin, along with the eight other potters in the group, will open their studios in five different towns — Ashfield, Cummington, Westhampton, Worthington and Windsor — from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for visitors. Also on view will be work from 13 guest potters, including some from Vermont and Minnesota as well as Massachusetts.
Potters will do demonstrations in which they’ll show people how they throw plates, decorate pottery using paper stencils, cook with flameware pots and more. In addition, food will be available at every stop on the tour, including fare from local vendors such as Hearth + Timber Pizza, Backyard Bread and Prem Sangar’s Famous Samosas.
And on Saturday night from 5 to 9 p.m., Project Art in Cummington, the nonprofit organization that hosts workshops and artist residencies, is having a party to celebrate the tour and to benefit Studio Potter, a nonprofit group that publishes a ceramics journal of the same name. Tickets for the party are $15, but the rest of the tour is free.
Now a group of nine potters, the Hilltown 6 first formed when the original six members — Christy Knox, Hiroshi Nakayama, Michael McCarthy, Connie Talbot, Mark Shapiro and Sam Taylor — decided they wanted to strengthen the Hilltown ceramics community. Why not bring people who had visited their galleries or craft shows directly to their studios to see how they actually made the pottery?
Then when Machin and two other artists — Robbie Heidenger and Eric Smith — established themselves as potters, they also joined the group, though the potters have kept the original Hilltown 6 name.
“The tour is really different from a craft show,” said Knox, who lives in Cummington and has been a potter for around 40 years. “If you buy a pot in a gallery, you know a little bit about it. If you buy one during a craft show and talk to the artist about it, you might see a third of what happened to make this work.”
On the tour, she added, “You see all of it. Knowing a work’s history, I think, is the only way to fully appreciate it.”
During their demonstrations, potters say they’ll be able to provide insight into the history of their work. For example, McCarthy, of Westhampton, will talk about inline decoration, a pattern of pencil-thin squiggles drawn over parallel lines.
“The patterns I decorate my pots with can often kind of mirror the patterns of human behavior,” McCarthy said during a recent interview in his studio, as he held a white mug with the inline decoration design. “The inline decoration definitely reflects that. It’s a pattern, and I’m thinking of behavioral patterns.”
What most guides his pottery practice, however, is functionality, he noted.
“My inspiration is a desire for my work to be used, to be of use,” McCarthy said. “I want the thoughtfulness that went into making the object to enter a person’s daily routine. We live in a time where we think so much about what goes into our food, where it comes from, so why shouldn’t we be that thoughtful about what we put our food on?”
Some potters also said that the rolling hills, forests and fields of the Hilltowns themselves inspire their work.
“My environment is very important to me,” said Knox. “Cummington is very peaceful, very conducive to making art. And the Hilltown community is very warm. We all know that if any of us ever needed anything, we have a huge community that will help you out.”
The environment of the Hilltowns, too, can directly affect how the work looks. Because the communities there produce a lot of wood waste, Machin said, potters can use a wood-fired kiln.
“I wouldn’t be able to do what I do if there wasn’t all this waste wood,” said Machin. “And using that wood in my kiln helps complete the wood waste process.”
Machin mentioned that you should take two days to do the tour. “You’re walking around in someone’s garden, looking at their studios, and time can get away from you,” Machin said. “It’s not something you should rush.”
More detailed information about the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour & Sale, including profiles of individual potters, a schedule of events and driving directions to studios, can be found at hilltown6.com. Advance tickets for Saturday’s party at Project Art can be purchased at the site for $15; tickets are $20 at the door.