Our Artists
Rachel Gunsch
Rachel, the new owner of Pottery 101, was raised in Salisbury, NC, where she first discovered pottery at the very studio she now owns. At the age of 16, Rachel began working for Cheryl Goins, the former owner, immersing herself in the craft and learning everything she could. This mentorship laid the foundation for Rachel’s future in pottery, and she later graduated from Warren Wilson College with a degree in art.
Rachel returned to Salisbury and opened SunRay Pottery, where she participated in fourteen craft shows each year. Rachel’s work is primarily functional dinnerware, painted in bright colors and busy designs that reflect her vibrant style. Her passion for pottery also expanded into teaching, and she began offering classes in Charlotte, Concord, Salisbury, and Winston-Salem.
In December 2024, Cheryl Goins retired and sold Pottery 101 to Rachel, marking a significant new chapter for both the studio and Rachel herself. Today, Rachel combines her experiences as a business owner, artist, and educator to continue Pottery 101’s legacy. Not only does she share her love of pottery with her students, but she also welcomes new artists into the gallery, helping to expand the ceramic community.
Lin Barnhardt
AWARDS / HONORS
- First Place, National Juried Art Show, Imperial Arts Centre, Rocky Mount, NC (2015)
- Recipient, Regional Artist Project Grant (1998, 2003)
- Teacher of the Year, Mt. Pleasant Middle School, Mt. Pleasant, NC (2001)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Tiny Carolina, Our State Magazine (2024)
- Style Spotlight, American Style Magazine, December issue (2007)
- Feature Segment, Southern Living Presents, Turner South Network (2005)
- Miniature Clay Houses, North Carolina Now, UNC-TV (2003)
- Bird's Eye View, November Issue, Our State Magazine (2002)
- White House Christmas, (Featured Artist), HGTV (2001)
Meghan Bernard
I love making the objects that people use during their daily rituals. The favorite coffee cup that starts the day, the serving bowl that completes a family gathering, the teapot that brings drama and humor to a collection. Pottery is meant to be used and touched for both the most humble activity as well as the most important. Each piece is from my hand to yours, as a tactile reminder to appreciate the moment and those you share it with.
Sylvia Coppola
Sylvia Coppola has been working in clay since 1976 after taking her first clay class at Western Carolina University and later earning her BFA in pottery and jewelry. Over the years she continued her education by taking scores of workshops from master potters and clay artists from across the US and the UK. For most of her career in clay she has been a studio potter and for the last 20 years she has wholesaled her work to over 50 galleries and gift shops in the US. Sylvia also teaches workshops at John C Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC and has taught at Red Sky Gallery, Rising Sun Pottery, Mint Hill Arts, Spring Island Art Barn and at Duck Creek Pottery. Duck Creek Pottery is her business located on her farm in Union County where she lives with her husband. She currently offers pit firing, raku, throwing and glazing one day workshops. Her pottery is thrown or hand-built and is often altered and textured. Most of her pottery is thrown on the wheel but she also makes many hand-built pots from slabs of clay. Her work may be seen on Facebook and Instagram @duckcreekpottery.
Linda Dalton
Linda Dalton Pottery is the creation of Linda and Jim Dalton, a husband and wife team of studio potters who craft one of a kind high end functional and decorative pottery, both wheel thrown and hand built, at their studio just minutes north of Pinehurst, NC. A working studio, open by appointment, their studio has become a popular destination venue for out of town visitors as well as regulars, patrons and pottery collectors. Here visitors can follow the progress of work from raw clay to finished work, and chat with the creators about the processes, as well as trying their hand at making a piece of art.
Sue Davis
Sue creates fused glass dinnerware and specialty kaleidoscopes that bring beauty to the ordinary.
Katy Freeman
Creating handmade jewelry has been a passion of mine for the past decade. My jewelry incorporates locally sourced chromatic glass beads and copper-plated wire. The goal of Chroma Nook is to create fashionable art that encourages self-expression and connects people from all walks of life.
Darla Hudson
Darla creates beautiful. functional, dinnerware. She also makes birdhouses and ikebana vases.
Shirl Hull
Shirl Hull is an Artist and Designer. A former resident of Westchester, NY - She's been making and designing jewelry since the early 70's. Shirl is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA., with a B.A. degree in Studio Art. Shirl advanced her studies by completing Jewelry Design, Lost Wax Casting, and Jewelry Fabrication from El Camino College and California State University. Shirl loves to travel and during her artistic journey, she has taken two cultural trips to the continent of Africa, where she has collected special beads, she also sources beads through trade shows and local bead shops. Her love for jewelry has been a major influence in her artistic designs. Some of her previous work has appeared in the nationally published Essence Magazine. Shirl has been the recipient of several entrepreneurial awards. She resides in Spencer, NC.
Sunsuk Lee
Sunsuk will be teaching our upcoming mug workshop on February 22nd! Each student will get to explore textures and create two mugs!
Ellie Lyle
Ellie is our Couple's Class Instructor.
One of her students left a review saying, "We absolutely loved our experience! My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed having Ellie guide us through the process of throwing clay. We recommend this to everyone!"
Jennifer Mecca
I am a utilitarian potter. My goal is to create pots that are visually pleasing and unique in character, but also useful in everyday life. I enjoy making serving pieces and tableware that bring delight to the daily activity of eating, setting a table and enjoying a meal.
I was born in upstate New York, and moved to South Carolina in my late teens. I spent many childhood weekends observing and participating in the traditions of my paternal Italian-American family. Among the most prevalent was the preparation of elaborate meals. I observed how tableware and the type of serving pieces were as important as the planning, preparation and enjoyment of a meal. This served as the foundation for my interest in utilitarian pottery and my love of creating elaborate surfaces and forms.
I earned my BFA in Interior Design from Virginia Commonwealth University then completed a BFA and MFA in Ceramics at East Carolina University. I now live in Gastonia, North Carolina, where I split my time between teaching and working as a studio potter. I also love to teach workshops, and I'm a member of a pottery group in Charlotte called Thrown Together.
Keith Meyers
Keith is a potter and instructor, having taught at many ceramics institutions in the state of North Carolina.
Nanette Pengelley
My work centers on the use of found objects. When I integrate semi-precious materials, I introduce these unique discoveries into a transitive context. As a result, my process is a derivative of my environment. Through experimentation, I endeavor to locate myself in my surroundings, as an artist—as a person. To put it simply, my work is shaped by materials that I am attracted to, and oftentimes I find myself captivated by an object because of my encounter with it. In this way, my experiences are carried forward with me, through the act of making.
Tim and Lisa Kluttz
Tim and Lisa are self-taught folk artists who share their farm/studio with two cats and other assorted creatures. The couple began painting collaboratively about ten years ago after being inspired by the Outsider Art Collection at the House of Blues, Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Both love bright colors and use found, reclaimed and recycled materials to create happy, colorful and sometimes whimsical art work. Tim is the ultimate collector and recycler so there is never a shortage of materials. The couple's styles are complimentary and favorite subjects are cats, flowers, dogs, chickens, mermaids and the Statue of Liberty. Their work can be found in galleries and at art shows throughout the Southeast and of course at their home studio, St. Peter's Farm.
Joseph Sand
Joseph Sand (b. 1982, Austin, MN) graduated from Austin High School in 2001. He trained as a sculptor at the University of Minnesota, receiving a B.F.A. with honors in 2006. During his undergraduate courses, he studied art for one year in Italy, followed by another year in England, after receiving a very competitive, collegewide scholarship. While in England, he worked alongside many prolific potters, including Svend Bayer and Clive Bowen, which heavily influenced his direction as an artist, taking up functional pottery as a means of personal expression. He completed a threeyear and a half year apprenticeship with Mark Hewitt in 2009 and now resides in Randleman, North Carolina. Joseph built a 40 foot anagama kiln and makes functional and sculptural ceramics fulltime. He fires his large, woodfired kiln three times a year, and the majority of his work is sold on his property during kiln opening sales. Joseph's work is also represented in several galleries across the United States. His functional work combines the styles of traditional, Southern alkaline glazeware and East Asian design, among others.
Max Saunders
I create both functional and sculptural ceramics
Inspired by archeology, geology, and the wood firing process, I create naturally glazed pieces that are both functional and beautiful
The work is unglazed and fired for 60-110 hours in a wood fired train kiln
Paula Smith
Paula Smith's functional and sculptural ceramics are an extension of a creative life that extends well beyond her studio. For Paula, everything is a creative act. Throughout her career she has had a strong focus on sculptural, narrative work – telling stories through the use of female imagery, including the torso, the archetypal house form, and the vessel. She is also interested in the use of Milagros, or miracles in Spanish, and their symbolism. These ideas are incorporated into her functional pottery, along with more organic references such as wood, leaves, flowers and animals. Her interpretation of these elements is full of whimsy, often playful in a Dr. Seuss kind of way.Paula received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute, and a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the University of Illinois, Champaign. She currently lives in Rock Hill, SC and teaches ceramics at CPCC in Charlotte, NC.
Kelsey Sorensen
Kelsey worked at Pottery 101 for the past eight years and has recently moved to Western North Carolina. She specializes in formulating her own glazes and creates beautiful forms to showcase them.
Joy Tanner
While I pay equal attention to form, surface, and detail, my pottery is most noted for its carved patterns inspired by nature. I am just as interested in the way a leaf connects to its stem as I am the folds of a mountain range or bursts of color at sunrise. These reflections I find in nature weave their way into the surfaces of my pots, and accrue a rhythm all their own as they swirl and drape across surfaces, suggesting spider webs, ripples in a stream, or water patterns in sand. Through my regular yoga and meditation practice I have become quite interested with the connection between our body and mind and the forms I create out of clay, or the inspirations I find in nature. Often it feels like the form of the pot swells with breath, like my body in certain yoga poses, or my jar knobs resemble hands reaching up in a sun salutation. The bones of the body, such as the rib cage, resemble the patterned lines and edges that drape over the form of the pot.
My work reflects an awareness of the present moment, resulting in uniquely designed pottery that is just as inviting to ponder and touch as it is to use and share. Firing my stoneware forms in a soda kiln or a wood kiln yields an ever changing palette of natural variations of color. Cradling a cup or bowl in their hands, people feel inspired to bring a sense of awareness and ritual into their lives. Integrating the way I experience the world with the way I design my pottery is essential to my creativity. Whether rinsing garden tomatoes at the kitchen sink, or pausing to study wildflowers along the trail, I believe in taking time to notice the little details of life.
Verna Witt
Verna will be teaching a handbuilding vase workshop on March 15th at 1pm here at Pottery 101!
-Studied art and wood sculpture with Toshio Odate at Brooklyn Museum.
-Figurative sculpture with Chaim Gross at Educational Alliance in New York City.
-Studied basket making at Peter’s Valley Craft Community, New Jersey.
-Graduated Fashion Institute of Technology with a degree in Textile Design.
-Worked with several companies specializing in home fashion fabric.
-Moved to North Carolina with Springs Industries designing fabric by the yard for home sewing.
-Since retirement, I am an active potter and a member of Clay Matters Pottery Guild in Charlotte, Piedmont Craftsmen, Winston-Salem and Waxhaw Arts Council
-Active docent at the Mint Museum Uptown and Mint Museum Randolph.