Last updated on June 11th, 2026
In Minnesota, spring brings an abundance of both flowers and ceramics to the scenic Saint Croix River Valley. Take it all in on the annual Saint Croix Valley Pottery Tour!
The 2026 Saint Croix Valley Pottery Tour will be held May 8-10. It includes seven sites and work by nearly 70 potters from Minnesota and beyond.
Mike Helke’s work at Linda Christianson’s studio.
For more than 30 years, potters in Minnesota’s Saint Croix Valley have invited colleagues from around the country to join them for a multi-site spring pottery show. The three-day event features thousands of ceramic pieces of all types and draws visitors from across the region.
And, as spring in the Saint Croix Valley is (usually) gorgeous, you get a lovely road trip along with your pottery viewing and buying.
I’ve written about the St. Croix Pottery Tour several times in the past. This post replaces those earlier stories. Most photos here are from the 2024 tour when I spent two days visiting every site on the tour.
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Studios participating in the 2026 pottery tour
While the participating studios and guest artists change some over time, many sites on the first tour in 1993 are still part of the tour. Some of the hosts’ names have changed as new generations of artists have stepped in to replace older potters and keep this spring tradition going.
While the number of sites on the tour has remained pretty stable over the years, the number of guest potters has greatly increased. Guest potters travel from around the country (and sometimes from overseas), with many returning year after year. Still, there are always changes. And, while I miss seeing old friends and favorite artists who are no longer part of the tour, I’m always discovering additional favorites. Each year promises a nice mix of the new and the familiar that never gets boring.
This list runs from north to south because that’s usually how I do the tour. (More on that in “getting there” below.) I’ve included work by potters that will be at the host studios on the 2026 tour, HOWEVER, all photos are from 2024 or earlier.
Matthew Krousey Ceramics
A long-time guest on the tour, Matthew Krousey purchased Robert Briscoe’s studio in 2016. Briscoe was a key tour founder, so it is nice to see Krousey carry on the tradition here.
Looking over some of Krousey’s pottery. . . is there something here that has to go home with us?
We hadn’t stopped here in a few years, and I was delighted by the number of playful pieces available in 2024.
Of course, there was much more, both more whimsical pieces as well as more traditional ones.
Expect a wide variety again in 2026, as 2025’s guest potters all make a return appearance. Expect new work by Dan Finnegan (Virginia), Suze Lindsay (North Carolina), Matthew Metz (New York state), Hironobu “Nishi” Nishitateno/Nanten Pottery (Illinois), Catie Miller (West Fargo), and Minnesota potters Adam Gruetzmacher (Harris), Kip O’Krongly (Northfield), Adama Sow (Hopkins), and David Swenson (Clearwater).
Will Swanson & Janel Jacobson’s Sunrise Pottery
Will Swanson and Janel Jacobson have been part of the St. Croix Pottery Tour since the very beginning, and their Sunrise Pottery studio has long been a favorite stop of mine. I love the simplicity of Will’s bowls and plates, and we’re always awed by Janel’s intricate carving in clay or any number of other materials.
A selection of Will Swanson’s pottery displayed outside the studio.
Sunrise always has a great line-up of guest potters. So, although a few old favorites no longer participate, they’ve been replaced by equally wonderful artists.
2026 brings returning guest potters Hayne Bayless (Connecticut), Becky Lloyd (North Carolina), Ikuzi Teraki & Jeanne Bisson of Romulus Craft (Vermont), Ellen Shankin (Virginia), Mark Shapiro/Stonepool Pottery and Sam Taylor/Dogbar Pottery (both from Massachusetts), and Tara Wilson (Montana). New this year: Mathew Meunier (Georgia).
You can also plan on lunch here on Friday and Saturday, as Potter’s Pasties will again be on site serving their gourmet Cornish pasties. (“The Pig” is always my choice. Not particularly traditional, but oh so good!)
Jeff Oestreich Pottery
Jeff Oestreich is another of the tour’s original hosts. Oestreich apprenticed with the great English potter Bernard Leach and his own work is highly regarded. That means anyone looking for a piece by Oestreich should arrive at this studio on the first day of the tour – the earlier the better. And expect a crowd.
But Oestreich always has a fine group of other potters as guests, so you’ll still have plenty of great pottery to choose from whenever you arrive during the tour.
A wall of pottery by Carolina Niebres and Ernest Miller.
Oestreich is sharing hosting duties with Jay Johnson (Apple Valley). Other returning potters are Casey Beck (California), Carolina Niebres (Prescott, WI), and Minnesota potters Olivia Jenson (Saint Paul), Nate Saunders (Montrose), and Ernest Miller (Minneapolis). New this year: Kate Bauman (Lake City) and Mark Lambert (Ramsey).
Linda Christianson Pottery
Linda Christianson is also one of the original St. Croix Valley tour hosts. And, as far as I’m concerned, her site is the most beautiful on the tour, with a picturesque old log house and woodlands teeming with wildflowers.
This is a 2015 photo, but the setting hasn’t really changed. It’s still gorgeous in spring.
And the pottery available here is pretty nice too!
For 2026 Christianson is again hosting Michael Hunt & Naomi Dalglish of Bandana Pottery (North Carolina), Nancy Green (Georgia), Wisconsin potters Randy Johnston and Jan McKeachie Johnston (River Falls), and Minnesota potters Lisa Buck (Afton), Mike Helke (Stillwater), and Maggie and Tom Jaszczak (Shafer).
Peter Jadoonath Pottery
Although a St. Croix Pottery Tour guest artist for some years, Peter Jadoonath only became a host in 2023. He’s done a fall show at his studio for years, but 2024 was my first visit here.
Pieces by Peter Jadoonath (in front) and Lisa Orr (back).
It was threatening to rain while we were there, but we got to see a wide variety of work without actually getting wet!
Jadoonath’s return guests for the 2026 tour are Kurt Anderson (North Carolina), Christina Erives (California), Bianka Groves (Santa Fe), Hiroe Hanazono (Philadelphia), Lindsay Oesterritter (Virginia), Lisa Orr (Massachusetts), Ryan Myers (Stoughton WI), and Minnesota potter Joe Singewald from Cold Spring. New this year: Nate Pidduck (California).
Ani Kasten Ceramics
If it has been a while since you’ve gone out to see what’s new on the pottery tour, Ani Kasten’s studio will look familiar even if her name might not be. After participating as a guest artist with Connee Mayeron, she took over as tour host in 2018. But you’ll also still find plenty Mayeron’s work in their shared gallery.
Besides Kasten and Mayeron, in 2026 you’ll also find work by returning artists Natasha Alphonse (Seattle), Sam Chung (Phoenix), Steven Young Lee (Montana), Jenny Mendes (Ohio), Lilith Rockett (Portland OR), and local artist Liz Pechacek from Inver Grove Heights. New this year: Liz Quackenbush (Seattle).
And the Mayeron-Kasten studio is part of a small farm, so you’ll likely also meet a few of the resident chickens.
Say “hi” to the chickens when you finish your shopping.
Guillermo Cuellar Pottery
Guillermo Cuellar began participating in the tour as a host in 2009. His daughter Alana joined him as a co-host a couple of years ago.
More than any other studio on the tour, the Cuellars like to mix things up.
Work by Shikha Joshi, Alana Cuellar, Minsoo Yuh, and possibly others!
Although you’ll find work grouped by potter, those groupings tend to be smaller and more intermixed. While this makes looking for all the work by your favorite potter more challenging (I carried a couple of cups by Minsoo Yuh all over the site trying to compare them with others with a similar pattern), it also gets you to look at work by other potters that you might have skipped over otherwise. (That’s how a piece by Shikha Joshi found it’s way into my shopping bag!)
Cuellar’s returning guests from the past few years are Beth Bolgla (Brooklyn NY), Shikha Joshi (Texas), Minsoo Yuh (Georgia), Steve Rolf (River Falls WI), and Minnesota potters Dick Cooter (Two Harbors) and Nick Earl (Marine on St. Croix). New this year: Ursula Hargens (Minneapolis) and Bill Jones (North Carolina).
Plan your Saint Croix Valley Pottery Tour spring road trip
The St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour is always held over Mother’s Day weekend. Studios are open basically throughout the day on Friday–Sunday. (May 8-10 in 2026.)
All the studios on the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour are in rural areas on the Minnesota side of the Saint Croix River. Although only a short drive north of the Minneapolis/Saint Paul metro area, this is a scenic rural area where meadows and woodlands will be bursting with greenery and the first spring flowers. It would be a fun little road trip even without the pottery!
Spring is a beautiful time for a road trip in the Saint Croix River Valley.
Getting there
Detailed information on the pottery tour, including interactive mapping, is available on the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour website.
You can begin the tour from the south or the north. My preference is a quick drive up I-35 to the northernmost studio, then a leisurely drive down country roads to visit the rest of the studios, followed by a drive along the river down to Stillwater for dinner. (That’s why I listed the studios from north to south.) Obviously, doing the tour in reverse with breakfast in Stillwater would be another option. Or take them in whatever order makes the most sense to you.
Once you are in the area where the studios are, look for yellow pottery signs along the road. You’ll usually find one at every intersection and driveway where you might question where to turn. It’s really well signed, so you should easily find even the most remote studios.
Even when a studio is not really visible from the road, it’s location will usually be obvious even if you can’t see the sign: You’ll see plenty of parked cars. At some studios (Sunrise Pottery is one), all parking is along a gravel road, so do be careful. Studios with roadside parking will usually have signs indicating where you can and can’t park. They’ll also often have someone directing parking.
A few sites with more distant parking have a golf-cart type shuttle to get visitors from their cars to the studio.
Tips for visiting the studios
Plan your time: Even if you have an entire day and plan to visit every studio, you should prioritize your stops. You likely will not move as fast as you might expect – there’s a lot to see! If there is a studio (or two) you particularly want to visit, plan your day around that.
👉 Read more about visiting the studios
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Mobility: All studios have pottery set up in their yards. This means you’ll need to walk or maneuver a wheelchair on a sometimes soft, uneven surface.
This is a free event: There is no charge to visit any of the studios.
Purchasing your pots: All studios accept cash or credit cards. Some potters will take orders for additional pieces, sets, or special pieces; some will not.
Eating: Food trucks or other casual dining options are now available at most, but maybe not all, sites. Free coffee, lemonade, and cookies or other treats are also usually available at every site.
A few free beverage options at Matthew Krousey’s studio in 2024.
Entertainment: Some sites offer live music, most often in the afternoon on Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a good way to see who is offering music and when until you get there.
Restrooms: Expect portable toilets at all sites, although some may have other options available for those with mobility limitations or other challenges.
Basic toilets are usually available at all sites on the tour.
Pets: While there’s nothing on the website that specifically mentions pets, I know I’ve seen (and heard) dogs waiting in cars while their owners were looking at pottery. Since you’ll be walking between makeshift tables loaded with breakable ceramics, it’s probably best to just leave your fur baby home.
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See you again next year!
Lodging in the Saint Croix River Valley and nearby
While this is an easy day trip for those in the Twin Cities metro area and lower Saint Croix River Valley, it would be a fun weekend trip for those from further away.
Taylors Falls
Taylors Falls is a small town with a few charming shops and a scenic location right along the Saint Croix River. Across the river, Wisconsin’s Saint Croix Falls is larger and is where you’ll find most lodging.
Check your hotel options in Taylors Falls and Saint Croix Falls on Expedia and Hotels.com.
Look for cabins and private homes on Booking.com and VRBO.
North Branch
The northernmost studios on the pottery tour are just north of North Branch. This isn’t really a travel destination, but the city has a few hotels and prices will usually be very affordable. And this is a decent choice if you plan to spend time at Wild River State Park.
Check your options on Expedia, Hotels.com, and Booking.com. (Note that all of these will also bring up options in other towns farther out.)
Stillwater
If you’re looking to combine your pottery touring with a visit to one of the most charming towns in the USA, it’s worth driving farther south and staying in Stillwater. The drive along the river will be lovely and historic downtown Stillwater is filled with fun shops, galleries, restaurants, cafes, and an old lift bridge you can walk across to get a really good look at the Saint Croix River and the old part of the city
Historic buildings with a wide variety of shops in downtown Stillwater.
Lodging options in and around Stillwater range from quaint historic luxury to run-of-the-mill chains. The best place to be in Stillwater is near the water in the historic downtown, but you’ll pay for that pleasure.
Check your options in Stillwater on Expedia, Booking.com, and Hotels.com. CHECK MAP VIEW to know exactly where a hotel is located before booking. The charming historic downtown lies along the river and up the hill immediately above. Most of the rest of the city is typical suburban sprawl.
Stillwater also has many bed and breakfasts and historic inns you won’t find on most third-party sites. If you’re looking for something special, it’s worth doing a little more research to find a real treasure in the historic part of the city.
Camping
Camping is also an option, although nights can still be chilly this time of year. Both Wild River and Interstate parks have campgrounds.
You can find a list of both public and private campgrounds in near Taylors Falls on theStCroixValley.com.
Other things to do in the area
While you could easily fill two days just ambling through the stops on the pottery tour, this is a gorgeous area with plenty of other activities available.
Interstate Park
Ani Kasten’s studio is just down the road from Interstate State Park, making this an easy spot to take a break surrounded by natural beauty.
This is a truly gorgeous area with hiking trails both short and long, rock climbing options, and several paddling options. You can even take a river cruise on a paddle wheeler!
Franconia Sculpture Park
Peter Jadoonath’s studio is just up the road from the Franconia Sculpture Park. This is both a sculpture park and an art center that always has interesting things going on.
Wild River State Park
At the northern end of the St. Croix Pottery Tour, both Sunrise Pottery and Jeff Oestreich Pottery are just a short distance from Wild River State Park. The park is located along the river and has a mix of prairie and woodland. In spring there are lots of wildflowers. (In fall the leaves are stunning.)
