Potter Michael McCarthy stands alongside Sara Wein, publicist for the Hilltown 6, at the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour. GAZETTE STAFF/BERA DUNAU

Christy Knox holds up a piece of clay she embossed on the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour. STAFF PHOTO/BERA DUNAU

Christy Knox holds up a piece of clay she embossed on the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour. GAZETTE STAFF/BERA DUNAU

Guest potter Dallas Wooten demonstrates his water etching process at the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour. GAZETTE STAFF/BERA DUNAU

GOSHEN — The Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour was in full swing this weekend, once again bringing pottery lovers to the western Massachusetts Hilltowns to enjoy all kinds of exquisitely crafted pottery — and possibly bring some home.

Hilltown 6 is a group of now nine potters who work in the Hilltowns. The tour is a yearly event, where attendees get to visit the potters and buy from them if they choose.

Each of the stops also features at least one guest potter displaying and selling their wares.

This year was the 16th annual running of the tour, although in 2020 it was a digital-only event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s a pretty thriving weekend that we do,” said potter Michael McCarthy, of Goshen. “It’s a significant part of my business.”

McCarthy is one of the founders of Hilltown 6, and he’s lived in Goshen for 22 years.

McCarthy said there are a number of people he sees only during tour time, which includes a couple from Delaware.

“Yesterday was pretty meaningful,” said McCarthy. “It was this really nice reunion.”

McCarthy’s pottery is wood-fired and functional, and he said he tries to have a lot of bright colors in his pots.

“My interest is in pots that you would use, hopefully, every day,” he said.

McCarthy said that last year was the best year he’s ever had on the tour.

“There was definitely pent-up demand for pottery and for personal connection,” he said.

As for this year, he said Sunday that it was also going well.

McCarthy’s guest this year was a friend, Vermont potter David Eichelberger.

“This has been a chance to come down here and hang out with him,” Eichelberger said. “It’s been great.”

This was Eichelberger’s first time exhibiting at Hilltown 6, and he said that the show is great exposure for him.

“The Hilltown 6 is a very well-known and established show with a lot of fantastic artists in it,” he said. “Being invited to be part of that is affirming.”

Christy Knox, whose studio is in Cummington, is another one of the original six.

“I have had a fabulous weekend,” Knox said. “So many interesting people have stopped by and bought pots and had great conversations.”

Like McCarthy, Knox said that last year was her best year on the tour and she thinks this one will be even better,

“It’s our 16th year,” Knox said. “It just continues to grow.”

Knox created an embossing technique in which local flowers and plants are imprinted into thick clay embossing plates.

“It’s what makes my work very unique,” she said.

After the plants are removed and the plates are fired, Knox rolls out clay onto the plates, which then gain the pattern of the imprinted plants. She then takes the clay with the patterns on it and shapes it by hand into pieces that include butter dishes and mugs.

“It’s all hand building,” she said.

Knox said that the sale is really important for her business, because it feeds a lot of interest in it.

“I love having people come and see where the pots are made,” she said. “I love showing you how my work is created.”

She also noted the demonstrations over the weekend, which she said have a good educational impact.

The two guest potters at Knox’s studio over the weekend were Ben Eberle, of Conway, and Dallas Wooten of Hackettstown, New Jersey.

Wooten said he approaches pottery from a global perspective, drawing inspiration from both Japanese and modernist potters. Wooten utilizes a water etching process in his work that he showed in a demonstration on Sunday.

This was his first time showing at Hilltown 6.

“It’s really great traffic,” Wooten said, of showing at Hilltown 6. “Everyone’s really excited.”

Eberle makes his work in a small wood-fired kiln in Conway, where he also utilizes a soda ash solution.

“There are no two pots alike,” he said, speaking of his work.

This was Eberle’s first time on the in-person tour, although his work was part of 2020’s virtual tour.

Eberle also said that western Massachusetts is one of the main centers of handmade pottery in the United States.

“It’s the valley of handmade objects,” he said. “It’s really valued.”

Penelope Cruz visited Hilltown 6 for the first time over the weekend. A new ceramic student, she drove up from Brooklyn for the tour.

“It’s been really wonderful to look at all those places and explore western Massachusetts,” she said.

Another first-time visitor was Samantha VanSchoick, of Florence.

“I’m a pottery nerd,” said VanSchoick, who is an intern at Northampton Pottery.

Both Cruz and VanSchoick expressed interest in returning to the tour next year.

Eric Smith, of Cummington, is one of the potters who joined Hilltown 6 after the group was initially founded.

“It’s a very popular tour,” he said, noting that this year people have come by his stop from locales that include Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Smith also said that he exclusively makes functional, wood-fired pottery — firing all of his pots for 50 to 60 hours.

“I have to be very careful that the temperature goes up very slowly,” he said.

He also said that he tries to keep his pots affordable so that people use them.

Paul Leney, of Williamsburg, is a returning visitor to Smith’s stop on the tour.

“We come up here every year,” Leney said.

He said that what keeps him returning is that the items are special and can be used every day.

“And the stuff is durable,” he said.

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