[gentle guitar music] I'm here with Jennifer Dolan, the curator for the National Teapot Show, and already I've seen some really unique pieces.

Jennifer, tell me about the teapots.

- This year's teapot show is our 13th.

We're gonna have over 200 teapots by over 150 artists.

Functional, not functional.

They can be in metal, wood, ceramic, a little bit of everything.

- This has been going on for some time.

Tell me about the teapot show and some of the history.

- So founding potters of Cedar Creek, Pat and Sid Oakley, developed the teapot show back in 1988.

Today it's every three years.

It's an invitation-only show where we get excited by inviting different artists and different media to submit whatever they want.

We have no idea until it walks in the door what it's gonna look like.

I've been here since teapot show six and it's now 13.

So I've seen a lot of teapots and I get excited every time.

- Are there any particular criteria for the teapot?

- Really there's not.

It's what is that artist's idea of what a teapot is.

- So you've brought some teapots to show me.

- I did.

This is an example of Brad Tupper, who's on site.

- I'm a functional potter, so I make sure that these things really work as they're supposed to.

My wife brews a pot of tea every day, so these are used every day.

And that really helps me get into design and just in the producing of it.

- And then we have an artist out of Durham, Liz Paley, who actually, it's not tea that spills out, it's light.

So she's made it for a tea candle to go inside.

Whenever we invite an artist to be part of the show, it's their interpretation of what a teapot is.

So you can look and try and figure out where the handle is, where the spout, where the lid is, where the body is, and each artist will attack that with a very different vision.

- This is sort of looks like croissants on the end.

- The Teapot Show is gonna showcase so many different styles, and they'll all have a different point of view.

It's an opportunity to see all the facets of pottery making.

- When we come down here, it's a big collaboration.

It's a wonderful thing.

Everybody gets together and we share glazes and share ideas as a pottery community here.

And it's a big reason why we come down.

- The National Teapot Show is definitely gonna be a draw, but there's so much more to enjoy here at Cedar Creek Gallery.

Tell us about it.

- Cedar Creek Gallery is 4,000 square feet of pottery, glass, wood, jewelry, and more.

- Those cards?

- Yeah.

Look at these cards.

- Each is a different fabric, you know?

So each of these layers and the trees.

- Yeah -Mm hmm - We have gardens outside with garden art for sale.

We also have a plant nursery on the property.

We ask everybody to come out and bring a picnic.

There's lots of picnic tables.

People hang out after they've kind of toured around.

- Well, I can see why you'd wanna spend the day, spend the afternoon here.

- It's a little bit of magic.

- Cedar Creek Gallery hosts its annual Teapot Show May 16th through September 14th, 2026.

For more information, visit cedarcreekgallery.com.