Visiting Artists

Since 2006, 16 Hands has had the honor of presenting the work of fine craftsmen

from around the country in our biannual studio tour.

Visiting Artists Fall 2025

Alex Barao

Guest artist of Hanna Traynham

Alexandra Barao is a potter and educator based in Western North Carolina. She was born and raised in Virginia and received her BFA in Sculpture + Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2010. She then spent a decade in the San Francisco Bay Area learning, teaching, and building community through clay. Since returning to the Southeast in 2022, she has been exploring new connections to this craft in a region where its history is deep and rich. Her work is fired in wood kilns and often incorporates wild clay and other local materials. She was an artist in residence at Cub Creek Foundation in Virginia in 2022 and at Township 10 in Marshall, North Carolina in 2024. She has taught firing workshops at The Clay Studio of Missoula, MT and The Oki Doki Studio in Germantown, NY.

Melanie Risch

Guest artist of Hanna Traynham

Veronica and David Bennett

Guest artist of Wendy Wrenn

 Inspiration for our work comes from  our surroundings and life experiences. The impact of living in the mountains, walking in the woods, taking care of our goats, dogs, growing food and medicinal herbs comes through our work in texture, colors and movement. 

The Bennetts lived  in rural Alaska for 20 years developing their style of glass work, living so far from supply stores and freight being so costly  they  incorporated 4 wheeler and snow machine parts with their glasswork. These were their jewels instead of faceted glass or glass bevels. We both studied at Sierra Nevada College focusing on Alternative Energy Sources, Art (specifically stained glass with Sequoia Studios)  and Environmental Sciences. 

Beatriz Gutiérrez González

Guest artist of Sarah McCarthy

Beatriz Gutiérrez González grew up in the island of Tenerife, Spain. Her journey with clay began in Scotland at age 28 and continued when she moved to America to study at Penland School of Crafts in 2010.

In 2018 she built a wood kiln at her home in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Bedford County, Virginia.  Her work is available at her studio.

"Being in relation with clay is one of the most primal experiences, a connection to the literal foundation of all things. In my long walks around the woods where I live in Virginia, I see the surfaces of my pots reflected. Each piece is touched with feelings of nostalgia for my homeland. My work is functional and is fired in a wood kiln."

Joey Sheehan

Guest artist of Josh Manning and Hona Knudsen

“I began my explorations in clay almost 14 years ago.  I was seduced by the material and the wheel, and the idea that I could create something beautiful and useful at the same time.  My interest then fell into surface and color, using textural porcelain slips and layered glazes to create bright, flowing, and volatile surfaces.  As I have grown and matured in life, my work has followed.  I am still fascinated by glaze and surface, but with a higher understanding of form and flow.  I am deeply influenced by classical shapes and why and how they were made.  I attempt to embrace these studied forms but with a contemporary twist.  In my current method of firing in a large two chamber wood kiln, I am exploring the interaction between form and fire; building a relationship in each piece between the function, the surface, and the story of the firing process.  Each pot is made and placed in the kiln conscientiously with an expectation and openness.  A desire for success, and a pupil’s acceptance of result.”

Joe Frank McKee

Guest artist of Ron Sutterer

‘I enjoy being a studio potter, participating in art festivals, and wholesaling pottery to other galleries around the country. I create a wide range of work from functional and fumed pots to traditional Raku and Horsehair pottery. My drive is to create pots that reflect natural scenes in an abstract and contemporary way that appeal to the senses of the viewer. My work is primarily low-fire with horsehair, fumed, black on black and raku finishing techniques.

Horsehair is a low-fire technique where pots are fired to 1610 degrees after a terra-sigillata slip has been brushed onto them. The kiln is then shut off and when it cools to 900 degrees the pots are pulled one by one quickly from the kiln. The horsehair is placed on the pot leaving its carbon mark as it burns. Sometimes feathers and sugar are used to create different images on the pieces. Anything organic will leave its carbon mark on the the pots. The potter can create smoke lines, different shades of black and gray, and different patterns, all by where and how the horsehair is placed on the pots making each piece truly one of a kind!”

Andrew Mcintyre

Guest artist of Andrea Denniston and Seth Guzovsky

“My work is purposely made by specific choices of materials, firing methods, and surfaces. I want to engage the viewer and focus their attention through these different physical elements as well as design, arrangement, and presentation of objects. My work is a balance of elemental control and natural effects of the firing.

I primarily use grolleg porcelain and iron enriched stoneware. I make pots that reveal the beauty of process through the marks of my hands, tools, and flame. By using firing methods of wood and soda, time and process is permanently recorded through the flame path on the clay surface. Firing these kilns to 2300°F allows me to achieve beautiful glaze pooling and dramatic flash marks that enhance the uniqueness of each object. The work I fire in the gas reduction kiln are made to reveal the softness of raw porcelain and the beautiful depth of celadon glaze.”