The Potters of the Upper Saint Croix River Valley Studio Tour invite you to visit all seven pottery studios during the 21st annual tour weekend. You will be welcomed by the potters to their unique, rural workshops and you can meet 42 guest potters invited especially for this event.  These special guests will present their work for sale alongside the newest work of each host potter.

Using our map, you can drive through the spring landscape of the Saint Croix River Valley. At each studio you will find useful and distinctive pottery. Visit one, or all of the studios during this three-day, self-guided event. Bring friends to share the day with you.

These Minnesota potters have earned a national reputation for quality and integrity. Each potter’s work has a distinct character, is durable and intended for everyday use. From small cups and bowls to large pieces suitable for display, an intriguing range of pottery will be available. You will find earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain for use in cooking and serving, decorating and display.

The guest artists are distinguished potters who will personally present their work for sale. This is an opportunity to see a substantial body of work and to meet and talk with these visiting artists.

They are coming from fifteen states, as far as North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Montana, Oregon, New York, Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and as near as Iowa, Wisconsin, and other parts of Minnesota, and one guest is traveling from Scotland to show her pottery! Their work is, in turn: handsome, playful, stunning, contemplative, precious, functional, colorful and subtle. 

At every studio you will find the potters themselves welcoming you. Along the way you may find trillium blossoms carpeting the woodlands and warblers exuberantly greeting the spring. Rain or shine, this springtime event is anticipated by all who enjoy handmade pottery.

All the pottery studios are within a one-hour drive of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, and each is a short drive from the others allowing you to visit some or all of the locations in one day.

Maps are available on this web site, at each studio, and at:

Continental Clay Company at I-35W at Stinson Boulevard, Minneapolis, Minnesota and
Northern Clay Center at 2424 Franklin Avenue East, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

As a way of saying “Thank you” for the enthusiastic support we experience with this event, a portion of the proceeds each year is donated to art and educational projects. Recipients have included: the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, the North Branch, MN Middle School Art Department, the Rochester, MN Arts Center, Potters for Peace, the Northern Clay Center, Chisago Lakes Community Education, the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, the Chisago Lakes High School Art Department, Studio Potter Magazine, and the kiln rebuilding fund in Mashiko, Japan following their earthquake event.