Annette ten Cate: February 12, 2026

Annette ten Cate’s studio is located in Grey County, Ontario, but she got her start in clay at the Guelph Sculpture Group about 20 years ago. Annette has participated in many group and solo exhibitions and is represented by galleries nationally. Her love for hand-formed clay was immediate and compelled her to study ceramics full-time at Sheridan College in Oakville. After graduation Annette was accepted into a year-long residency at Medalta’s International Artist in Residence program in Alberta’s Historic Clay District. There, she refined her practice and changed her focus from the human figure to local wildlife. Each piece is hand-built using earthenware and just a few simple wooden tools.

In speaking about her work, Annette says:

The human figure was originally at the heart of my focus in clay, but the source of my inspiration shifted as I became acutely aware of the wildlife around me. It became important to me, as an artist, to tell the story of creatures finding a way to survive in a world shared and usually dominated by humans. I wanted to draw attention to wild animals who had managed to adapt to life among humans, and who had often earned the unfair reputation as “pests”. As much as my goal is to create pleasing images that make people smile, I also feel strongly that I must somehow convey the importance of respecting and preserving nature and its inhabitants. My approach has been to depict wildlife subjects in almost human narratives, injecting the scenarios with humour and lightheartedness. By making my work accessible and fun, I hope to generate a connection that encourages viewers to appreciate and protect the natural world around them.

Annette ten Cate

Annette ten Cate Left: Sheep Right: Visible Mending, all hand-built earthenware

KC Adams January 8, 2026

KC Adams (Ininnew/Anishinaabe/British) is a registered Fisher River Cree Nation member living in Winnipeg. Adams is nationally and internationally known maker with a B.F.A. from Concordia University and an M.A. in Cultural Studies, Curatorial Stream from the University of Winnipeg. KC has had numerous solo and group exhibitions, residencies and biennales. She was awarded the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Making A Mark Award, Canada's Senate 150 medal, the Ohpinamake Award, and the Quill & Quire’s 2019 Books of the Year.

KC Adams is engaged in creating an Indigenous clay community where people come together and work with clay, harvested from the land, and build vessels just like the ancestors from this territory did. She teaches students about how woodland pottery came to her region 4,000 years ago, how her ancestors built their vessels, and what they used them for.

Her own work is an accumulation of research she has been conducting on pottery made by her ancestors. Using pottery sherds as a starting point, she recreates vessels that are inspired by works made by the Indigenous People in the ancient Lake Agassiz region.  She collects clay from many regions in Manitoba and mixes it with temper from rough sand and crushed granite obtained from ceremony.  I use only tools that come from the land and hand-build each vessel using a method that was passed down from a knowledge keeper. Each piece is fired in a pit fire out on the land. She states, “I create each artwork with good intentions; I smudge before I start creating and I sing during the process to show gratitude. “

For more information on KC Adams, please see her website here.

KC Adams

KC Adams conducting workshop

Jody Greenman-Barber November 13, 2025

Jody Greenman-Barber has a BFA (1998) and MFA (2016) in ceramics from the University of Regina.  Inspired by contemporary dance and improvisation, her expressive and animated ceramic sculptures record and convey the essential feeling of embodied sensations in forms that derive from pottery concepts and methodologies.  Her interest in performance and dance inherent in the making of ceramics has led to explorations and collaborations with photography and film making.  In 2010, her short film Clay Play was screened with Ateliers d’Art de France 7th International Film Festival on Clay and Glass, with additional screenings at the Centre de Ceramique Contemporaire de la Borne, and at Malicorne Espace Faïence in Malicorne-sur-Sarthe, France.  Throughout her career, Greenman-Barber has participated in residency programs including the Medalta International Residency program in Medicine Hat, Alberta and the International Research Centre for Ceramic Arts at the Guldergaard in Skaelskor, Denmark .  Jody has received numerous grants, scholarships and awards including the Saskatchewan Innovation and Opportunity Graduate Scholarship, and she was a runner-up for the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics in 2014.  In 2015, one of her sculptures was selected for the 2015 Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale competition in Icheon, Korea.  Jody Greenman-Barber resides and works in Buena Vista, Saskatchewan.

For more information, please see her website here.

Azadeh Mehryar October 9, 2025

An interdisciplinary artist and educator specializing in ceramics, Azadeh Mehryar combines wheel-throwing and hand-building techniques. She juxtaposes influences from historical Persian art and architecture with contemporary themes to explore cultural hybridity and reflect her diasporic experience. Through texture, form, and surface, she creates pieces that bridge cultures, inviting dialogue around identity, memory, and belonging.

Originally a web developer, Azadeh transitioned to the arts in 2018 after enrolling at Langara College, where she discovered a deep passion for working with clay. This enthusiasm led her to pursue further studies at Emily Carr University, where she earned her BFA with honors in 2023. Upon graduation, she received the Governor General’s Silver Medal for academic excellence and an honorable mention for the Landon Mackenzie Graduation Award in Visual Arts. She was also awarded scholarships from the Northwest Ceramics Foundation and Brissenden in 2021, and received the Carole Badgley Emerging Artist Award in 2025.

Azadeh has participated in ceramic residencies at the Shadbolt Centre, Medalta, and PoMoArts, and has exhibited her work in galleries across Metro Vancouver. Her practice continues to evolve through experimentation and research, often drawing inspiration from architecture, cultural and social symbolism, and personal narrative.

For more information, please see her Instagram account.

Azadeh Mehryar

Azadeh Mehryar, Where The Shell Is Still Learning Its Shape

Heather Dahl September 11, 2025

Heather Dahl is a ceramic artist and painter working in Vancouver and Yarrow, BC. After graduating from Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design in 2001, Dahl took a self-employment program and launched Dahlhaus Art Studios in 2007. Her ceramic collections have been sold through retailers like Anthropologie, West Elm and Nordstroms, small retailers and galleries both locally and abroad. Her work has been included in several publications, including in the Encyclopedia of Curiosity; Ceramics, by Uppercase Magazine. Known for her love of colour, design, pattern, interest in Architecture and Mid-Century Design, Dahl is often developing new surface techniques for her ceramic collections. In 2022 she received a Canada Council for the Arts Grant to take part in a Residency Program at PADA, in Lisbon, Portugal. She is currently a Sessional Instructor at the Emily Carr University of Art & Design and maintains a studio practice at the Mergatroid Building in Vancouver.

For the meeting, Heather will demonstrate a mono-printing and screen-printing process using a ceramic ink she developed especially for screen-printing or designs using stencils. Transferring the designs is a lot like collage, so she will demonstrate both using a slip transfer onto leather hard pots and also transferring the designs onto vertical forms still on the wheel. Everyone will go home with a screen-printed patterns on paper to mono-print and test out on their own pots should they choose.

For more on Heather, please see her website here.

Heather Dahl

Cups by Heather Dahl using her printing techniques