Artist Tony Holman makes his pottery in Plano.
Courtesy Holman Pottery
Museum rules do not apply: Ceramicists across North Texas are creating all kinds of art you absolutely must touch. From vases and statement jewelry to dinner plates and your new favorite coffee mug, we spent hours unearthing beautiful handmade goods to bring you a sample of what’s available (and sometimes even dishwasher and microwave safe).
We found artists who work full time in their studios and have physical shops you can browse. We also found some who spend their days in offices or classrooms and head back to clay on weekends and evenings, producing collections available online, at weekend markets or in pop-up shops. Read on to see the variety of styles, price points and shopping methods you can choose from. As a bonus, get a look at one of the many local studios where you can get your hands dirty — if all this loveliness inspires your own creativity.
NB Makes
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Nicole Bernard is founder and chief maker for NB Makes. The line features handcrafted tableware and jewelry.
Courtesy NB Makes
Nicole Bernard’s day job involves a lot of time in the digital world. “What I love about ceramics is that it’s so real and functional,” says Bernard, who launched NB Makes in 2021. “You’re creating something physical that becomes usable.”
Her process involves staining porcelain before shaping it, a method that infuses color through the material. “The meaning is embedded all the way in the clay,” she says. Bernard loves the challenge of porcelain, which has a different particle structure than stoneware. Bernard likes to describe it as making a stack of marbles instead of a stack of blocks. It’s worth the patience it requires, though, because the bright white porcelain base allows her colors to shine brightest.
Bernard uses one colorway for each collection she produces, so pieces ranging from jewelry to mugs to incense holders read as part of a cohesive whole. Her spring 2026 collection, which will be available in early April, was inspired by moths and butterflies. Bernard found herself “nerding out on all their colors and patterns,” she says, “really being amazed by the transformation they go through.”
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Shop NB Makes online or in-person at Mosaic Makers Collective, 401 N. Bishop Ave., Dallas, and 1011 S. Pearl Expressway #160B, Dallas.
Marcello Andres Ceramics
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Marcello Andres says his plates are equally suited to your dining room as they are to the dining rooms of fine Dallas restaurants.
Marcello Andres gave up the corporate world in favor of an art studio.
Courtesy Marcello Andres Ceramics
“They’re for leftovers; they’re not just for ‘tweezer food,’” Andres says. “We’re just creating a really beautiful landscape for that.”
Don’t let the tweezers comment unsettle you; he respects the chefs he works with, calling them fellow artists. But he thinks your self-made dinner deserves respect, too, as the “art of nourishment.”
Andres is a Dallas native who first tried ceramics in high school. After college, he spent five years in the corporate world before deciding he’d rather have a studio than an office.
“The initial idea was making whatever anyone needed,” Andres says. Restaurant commissions soon created a path for rapid growth. His functional and sculptural works now feature two distinct looks. For the functional, his style is neutral and natural, with restrained glazing that leaves a thoroughly tactile finish. “We’re not concealing the clay body whenever possible,” Andres says. The sculptural line is his place to play and explore with bright colors, distressed surfaces and energetic shapes, such as the balloon-like orb collection he debuted in fall 2025.
Since 2018, Andres has created tableware for more than 40 Dallas restaurants. You can read more about that work here. But the key thing to know is that his work is now easier to acquire for your home, too.
In December, Andres opened a shop in the Cedars neighborhood. Five days a week, you can walk out with pieces that will make your dinner a little more lovely. “The goal has always been to connect people with art — ceramics — with food and with each other,” Andres says.
Shop Marcello Andres Ceramics online or in-person at 1501 Gano St. #3C, Dallas.
Holman Pottery
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Studio work is simultaneously artistic expression and ultimate comfort for Tony Holman, who’s been making functional pottery in Plano for more than 35 years. “It’s like breathing to me,” Holman says.
The artistic process is “like breathing to me,” Tony Holman says. His functional pottery contains no hazardous materials such as lead, and it can be used in the microwave, dishwasher and oven.
Courtesy Holman Pottery
He’s not just talking about the moment you’re envisioning, the classic image of beautifully dirty hands shaping wet clay. From design to the wheel to the kiln to glazing, every step is Holman’s life breath. “I go through every process. I do everything,” he says. “There’s so much to do. Throwing the pot is a minor part of that.”
Holman studied ceramics in college with an emphasis on sculpture. But he also learned about functional pottery, and that’s where he found his primary artistic space. Wholesale orders fuel the business. “I go through a ton of clay a month,” Holman says. (And to be clear, that’s a literal figure, not a figure of speech.) His work is sold in galleries and gift shops across the country, but Holman embraces his pre-internet, pre-smartphone beginnings. He lives on the second floor of his Victorian home in Plano’s Haggard Park Historic District. Beneath are his studio and a shop that’s open to the public. “I see myself as a small business in a small town,” he says. “And I hope when people come in, they’ll be able to experience that.”
Shop Holman Pottery locally at 914 18th St., Plano; you can view a catalog here, but online shopping is not available.
German Clay
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The dots behind artist Mary German bring to mind her whimsical Confetti collection.
Courtesy German Clay
As a kid, Mary German was always picking up rocks, seeds and “cool leaves.” Grown-up German does the same thing. “I now have a giant collection of weird, natural things that I like to look at when I’m getting ready to make my pots,” she says. The influence is all over the patterns on her work. German loves to ask people who handle her ceramics if the feel reminds them of anything. She’s delighted by the range of connections her textures help people to make. “It creates a natural memory for you,” she says.
German first took a ceramics class in high school and fell in love. When her teacher suggested ceramics was a legitimate college major, German didn’t look back. After completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in ceramics, German worked in the field as an adjunct professor and, later, as a teacher at Waxahachie High School. In May 2025, she stepped full time into her art.
German makes all her own glazes in her home studio and surprised herself by loving the precision of the work. “There was so much more math than I thought I would ever need in ceramics,” she says, laughing.
She creates larger decorative pieces such as vases, trays and fruit bowls, but she’s always also producing cups, bowls and plates. “Function is where my heart is,” she says.
If you check out her website you’ll notice a second German potter; that’s her husband, Daniel, who’s also a teacher and artist.
Shop online or in person at the Dallas Art Teachers Exhibition, 4-8 p.m. April 4 at East Dock, 900 E. Clarendon Drive, Dallas.
Glaze Ceramic Studio
“More social, less media,” suggests the back wall at Glaze. The studio provides an opportunity to use your hands for something other than scrolling on a screen.
Courtesy Glaze Ceramic Studio
Rows of electric pottery wheels and prep tables fill the airy studio, while pieces in progress dry on racks in the background.
Courtesy Glaze Ceramic Studio
Looking for a screen-free date night? Adam Knoche suggests playing in the mud. “The cool thing about clay is you have to get your hands in the clay — you can’t be on your phone,” says Knoche, who owns McKinney’s Glaze Ceramic Studio with his wife, Angie. Glaze offers pottery classes for all skill levels, from beginner to advanced. If you find yourself hooked, you can purchase a membership for 24/7 access to the studio, including equipment and the kiln. And professionals looking for private space can apply to rent one of Glaze’s nine personal studios. “It’s a way of building up from the ground,” Knoche says. He opened the studio in 2021 after a fruitless search for space for his own ceramics work. His first student signed up when the website went live, months before classes began. And within a year, Glaze was expanding.
Knoche says there’s something about clay that people can’t resist, perhaps its connections to the oldest civilizations, whose ceramic work still shows up in excavations today. “Clay is integral in our human existence,” Knoche says.
For details, visit Glaze online.
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