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Cannon River Clay Tour

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Northfield, MN
Cannon River Clay Tour

Our collective brings a wide range of handmade pottery and sculptural work for sale. We welcome you to spend a day enjoying the area and the Tour's four stops.

Join us on our self-guided tour, August 15th & 16th, 2026, 10am-5pm each day Welcome to the Cannon River Clay Tour, brought to you by the Cannon Clay Cooperative; a collective of clay artists from the Northfield, Minnesota area. This free, self-guided studio tour features the work of 20+ artists at four studio stops: nine host artists plus a rotating roster of featured guest artists. The Tour take

s place every third weekend in August in and around historic and charming Northfield. Northfield is located just 40 miles south of the Twin Cities Metro.

08/13/2025

Everyone loves ✨Larchill Farm✨! One of four stops on the self-guided Cannon River Clay Tour (happening THIS WEEKEND!). Located just outside of Northfield, on Glynnis Lessing Ceramics’s ancestral family farm. 🌾🌲🏺🌼🐐
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Host artists: Glynnis Lessing, and Barbara Zaveruha

Guest artists: Bekah Bliss , Dane Hodges, Amy Sanders, Amy VonBargen

Emerging artists: Lizzy Fraser, Parker Gamino, Emily Rose Pfaltzgraff
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Come to the Cannon River Clay Tour on August 16th & 17th from 10am-5pm!
Visit our website (link in bio) for the complete tour map.

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Photo credit: Amy Goerwitz

08/11/2025

Ceramics lovers, you’ll feel right at home at✨Holmquist Pottery✨! One of four stops on the self-guided Cannon River Clay Tour. Visit the Holmquists’ charming show space THIS Saturday & Sunday, and find your new favorite ceramic treasure! 🏡💙🏺
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Host artists: Chris and Sue Holmquist

Guest artists: George Lowe, Steve Hemingway, and Andrew & Katie Webster
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Come to the Cannon River Clay Tour on August 16th & 17th (this weekend!!) from 10am-5pm!
Visit our website (link in bio) for the complete tour map.

Photo credit: Amy Goerwitz

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08/07/2025

It’s always a party at✨Eureka Pots✨! One of four stops on the self-guided Cannon River Clay Tour. Venture through miles of wide open fields to Eureka Pots of Minnesota’s property in Farmington on August 16th & 17th and experience pottery paradise! 🌈🌾🏺🌻
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Host artists: Colleen Riley, Donovan Palmquist, and James LaChance

Guest artists: Wendy Eggerman, Luci Haas, and Jonathan Walburg

Emerging artists: Colleen Baillie, Connor Isenberg, and James Reid
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Come to the Cannon River Clay Tour on August 16th & 17th (next weekend!!) from 10am-5pm!
Visit our website (link in bio) for the complete tour map.

Photo credit: Amy Goerwitz

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08/04/2025

Introducing ✨Connole Studio✨, one of the four stops on the self-guided Cannon River Clay Tour! Here you’ll find an amazing assortment of exquisite pottery & sculptures amongst Kelly Connole’s magical gardens. 🌷🌻🏺🐇
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Host artists: Kelly Connole and Joel Froehle

Guest artists: Margaux Claude, Alex Olson, Clarice Allgood

Emerging artists: Sequoia Wyckoff and Mariko Matsui-Bolton
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Come to the Cannon River Clay Tour on August 16th & 17th (next weekend!!) from 10am-5pm!
Visit our website (link in bio) for the complete tour map.

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Photo credit: Amy Goerwitz

08/02/2025

Meet the emerging artists of the 2025 Cannon River Clay Tour!

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Connole Studio 🐇

Mariko Matsui-Bolton grew up in Williamstown, MA, and graduated from Carleton College in 2025 as a Studio Art major. They are currently the Educational Associate for Carleton's Studio Art department.

Sequoia Wyckoff is a 22-year-old potter living in Minneapolis, about three years in to working with clay. She loves making simple functional shapes, some more strange functional shapes, and playing with sets and groups in her work.

Eureka Pots 🌻
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Colleen Baillie is a functional potter from Minnetonka, MN. Her work blends clean lines with natural textures and colors, inspired by the patterns she sees in nature. Colleen earned a BFA from the U of M, and spent time as an apprentice with master potter Mel Jacobson.

Connor Isenberg is a young potter and kiln builder from Cannon Falls Minnesota. He’s been making pots on the wheel since 2018 and has been educated in ceramics from many different people within that time.

James Reid is Minnesotan born and raised. His atmospheric-fired functional pots reflect on the beauty and chaos of the natural world.

Larchill Farm 🐐

Emily Rose Pfaltzgraff would make more pottery if she weren't gardening, baking sourdough, reading books, or wading through nettles looking for wild mushrooms. Despite the odds, she persists and is exploring in clay.

Lizzy Fraser is a self-taught multi-media artist taking inspiration from vintage advertising, art nouveau and the arts and crafts movement to create functional pottery honoring the small rituals of daily life.

Parker Gamiño crafts high-fired pottery using chattering, wood and gas firing, and Talavera-inspired techniques. He aims to create pieces that bring a sense of joy that spark emotion, invite connection, and leave a lasting impression through form and surface.

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Come out to Northfield and support this exceptional group of young artists on August 16th & 17th on your self-guided !

07/29/2025

Colleen Riley returns to the as a host of the Eureka Pots stop! Mark your calendars for August 16th & 17th and make sure you don’t miss out on her magnificent pots!
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Colleen fell in love with ceramics 30 years ago, when on a whim she took the first class offered at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. Fifteen years later, she transitioned from a graphic design career to a full-time ceramic artist, living and working in rural southern Dakota County.
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“My work captures and reveals the patterns and textures of my rural landscape. Each piece chronicles the seasonal cycles of growth and decay, as observed through a carpet of leaves in the woods or the contours of a freshly plowed field, serving as a reminder that our environment is constantly changing, yet resilient.

My formal education is in journalism and graphic design. This compels me to record my interactions with my surroundings. Pivotal family relationships also play a strong role in my narrative. My mother was an accomplished seamstress and musician. At an early age I became intrigued by the designs of the patterns and fabrics she used. My own studies of music imprinted a sense of cadence and harmony. My father was an exuberant craftsman in many disciplines, who taught me to appreciate the beauty of good design, such as the Airstream trailer and an anvil storm cloud. These influences have made their way into my work.

I strive to make functional pieces that are elegant, yet comfortable for use and inviting to the touch. My work celebrates the historic ceramic tradition of employing decorative botanical themes, while making an intimate connection to my surroundings. The raw piece serves as a canvas to explore imagery, layers, textures and color.”
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07/26/2025

Today we are featuring the amazing Glynnis Lessing! She is a host of the Larchill Farm stop and the mastermind behind our hilarious promo reels! Come out to the farm and see her magnificent sgraffito work in person on August 16th & 17th!
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Glynnis Lessing began a lifelong love of ceramics at 9 when she learned to throw from a Japanese potter at Carleton College. She made pots in high school and apprenticed to a potter and went on to study art and earn a BFA from Macalester and the University of Minnesota.
Directly after college, a move to Chicago led her to Lill Street studios where she began working & teaching pottery there as well as at several other institutions.
In 2012, Glynnis moved back to Minnesota where she began teaching and continues to work full time as a potter. Her work and studio were recently featured in the 2023 December issue of Ceramics Monthly.

“My pieces are created with the hope that it will find an intimate niche in the daily lives of people who own them. These pieces are designed to be pleasing to look at, balanced for use, scaled to the hand and satisfying to employ daily.
I make my work using Grolleg Porcelain. Most of the work is thrown on a wheel. After it is leather hard, it is finished with trimming and handles. I decorate the pots with black slip and carve a narrative image. I work freehand so that no two designs are ever exactly alike. I often apply some colored underglazes for added color. The pots are clear-glazed and high-fired to cone 10.
The surface decoration is a reflection of my love of the natural world and the belief in the restorative power of being outside. It is my desire to share the pleasure I take in noticing my environment: patterns of leaves, how a bird perches on a reed, the silhouettes of trees just after sundown.”
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07/23/2025

We’re excited to welcome James LaChance back to the Cannon River Clay Tour as a host artist at the Eureka Pots stop! Mark your calendars for August 16 & 17th!
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James LaChance was raised in the Red River Valley, the northern border of Minnesota and North Dakota. He received his M.F.A. from the University of Washington in Seattle and B.S. in Art Education & B.A. in Fine Arts from Minnesota State University Moorhead.
James has had the privilege to work with some of the finest architects, educators, artists and craftspeople in this country and abroad. He credits these talented individuals with helping him develop his skills and knowledge in creating high quality work. Skilled and comfortable working with a range of materials, James’ approach to food, paper, paint, clay, metal or wood is allowing the material, technique and design to work together to become something beautiful.
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07/21/2025

We are overjoyed to welcome Kelly Connole back as a host artist of this year’s tour! She will be showing an assortment of sculptural and functional work amongst her impressive gardens. Stop and smell the flowers (and perhaps buy a beautiful vase to put them in!) at the Connole Studio stop on August 16th & 17th!
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Kelly Connole is a studio artist and professor at Carleton College. Her sculptural work depicting animals and addressing relationships within environments, has been exhibited nationally and is included in several publications and periodicals. She is the recipient of many awards including the McKnight Fellowship for Ceramic Artists in 2014 and 2019, two MN State Arts Board Grants, and a MN Campus Compact Award for her long standing Empty Bowls Project at Carleton. Kelly Connole’s work includes an incredible array of possibilities in ceramics— from sculptural work to functional cups and vases that celebrate her love of gardening and the natural world.
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She is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This, and many other of her activities in 2025 are made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
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07/19/2025

Today we are featuring the incredible Chris and Sue Holmquist! They are the beloved hosts of the Holmquist Pottery stop. Pay them a visit and see their wonderful work in person on August 16th & 17th, 10am-5pm!
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“We are a wife/husband team whose home studio is located in the beautiful countryside just east of Northfield. Our work consists of creating beautiful pots and then hand painting each one with our original whimsical imagery! The pots are painted with underglaze colors and then are glazed and fired in our kilns. Our goal is to make pots that will make you smile each time you use them!”
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07/17/2025

Donovan Palmquist is back as a host artist of the ! You’ll find him at the Eureka Pots stop on August 16 & 17th, 10am-5pm!
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Donovan has been working in ceramics for over 40 years. He makes pots when time allows, and is well-known in the ceramics world as owner of Master Kiln Builders. He received his MFA in Ceramics at the University of Minnesota. He exhibits his work nationally, and has received numerous grants and awards, including the 2018 McKnight Fellowship. He has served on the Board of Directors at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, and has taught at the Northern Clay Center and Anoka-Ramsey Community College.
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“My current work in clay is focused on one-of-a-kind functional pieces fired in wood and soda kilns. My work is influenced by the long history of pottery traditions, from British and Japanese folk pottery to primitive Iranian pots, as well as by fabricated metal pouring pots such as oil cans, tin teapots and watering cans. I strive for simplicity and clarity, with a minimum of embellishment.
The majority of my work is thrown on the wheel and then stretched, altered, cut and assembled into new shapes. I work slowly and usually in a series, arranging parts, varying proportions and making subtle changes in each firing cycle of pots, always trying to introduce something new. Through this process and search for defining form, I try to develop pieces that are not only functional for food, but which also have the potential to enrich the routines of our home environment and bring beauty to our daily lives.”
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Address

Northfield, MN

Opening Hours

Saturday	10am - 5pm
Sunday	10am - 5pm

Website

http://CannonRiverClayTour.com/

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