Tucked deep within the hills of Ashfield, Maya Machin works in her pottery studio adjacent to her home. Machin’s focus is on pottery that is truly useful, not decorative. She thinks about shapes, handles and how someone who purchases her work can use it in everyday life.
Machin’s pottery — and more than 15 other artists’ work — will be on display within the studios of local artists participating in the Hilltown 6 pottery tour this weekend. Machin is one of nine host artists. Each stop on the tour features work from the artist who owns the studio, a guest artist and, new this year, a local chef serving food.
The tour, which has been held for 11 years, is this Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The tour got its name Hilltown 6 when it was a showcase of the original six founders’ works. It is still the name of the tour, but has since expanded to nine stops with 18 artists.
Steve Theberge, one of the organizers and an artist on the tour, said artists create and host the event, which makes it different from a lot of other ways to purchase and see pottery. He added that by having the tour stop at the artists’ studios, it helps buyers get a better sense of the work the artists do and their environments.
“This builds relationships and connections between the individual artists, but also connects us to the community we live and work in,” he said.
As for Machin, she’s been in her studio and gallery space in Ashfield for about five years, and she has been a part of the tour since 2013.
Machin developed her love for pottery during a senior project in high school, where she needed to do outreach to the community, and connected with a local potter. She then attended Hampshire College and took pottery classes through the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. That’s when she settled in the area.
Machin said she likes that the tour is fresh and different every year, making it a unique experience each time someone attends.
“Every year, we see people from a little farther away,” she added.
She said part of her creative process is planning how something can and will be used by its owner — and she works to craft pieces with practical use. Some of her favorites to make are teapots, because they have many parts and it’s a puzzle to fit them together perfectly, she says.
Machin uses a variety of glazes and slips on her pottery, and each piece always turns out a little different coming from the kiln, she says. She incorporates local materials when possible, like using wood ash from local trees to color certain pieces.
Like other artists on the tour, Machin uses a wood kiln that can heat up to 2,300 degrees. The actual heating process takes about 17 hours, but the pots stay in the kiln for an additional two to three days to cool before they can be removed. On the tour, she will be doing a demo of her stacking canisters during the tour — one of her newer projects.
Machin said the Hilltown 6 is different from a lot of pottery experiences, because it is more immersive in the towns and the lives of the artists.
“You really get to see where people are working, and their motivations,” she said.
Theberge says the layout of the tour gives buyers a chance to see more work than they usually see in a gallery. The pottery tour features a wide range of artists, young and old, with different techniques and styles of pottery.
“It’s a snapshot of what’s happening in contemporary ceramics,” he says. “This is one of the premier regions in the country for handmade ceramics.”
Theberge expects people to come from all over the region, and says interest grows every year — the tour draws pottery enthusiasts from all over the Northeast.
Hilltown 6 is an artist-organized event that Theberge says can have a lot of additional benefits because the artists can exercise creative control. This year’s addition of food at the stops, collaborating with local chefs, is just one example. Each stop will include a local chef preparing some style of snack or food throughout the weekend.
Theberge says the collaboration felt natural, because so much of pottery is used to eat — both the food and the pottery of western Massachusetts is well-known and artful.
“It’s such a vibrant food scene, it seemed like a perfect match,” he says.
Theberge says it adds to the sense of community-building and the idea that it isn’t simply about purchasing pottery, but also understanding where the artists live and work and how they see the world, while showing the pottery scene in the area to a wider audience.
“There’s this sort of hidden treasure that a lot of people aren’t aware of,” he says.
As for recommendations for the tour? Theberge says the nine stops are very doable in one day, but recommends people take both days and a make a weekend out of the tour so they can take their time.
To see maps, demonstrations, information about food on the tour and more, visit: hilltown6.com. The tour is free and open to the public.