Jewel-Tone Birth Month Dish, December

Potter Kerry Brooks was heading towards a PhD in American Cultures from the University of Michigan before she decided to move to Ann Arbor and train in ceramics instead, from 1988 to 1992. The next year, she moved to Minneapolis, and co-founded a four-person pottery collective the year after that. The other three potters eventually moved on, so she's run the business herself for the last 15 years. As an employer (currently of 45 people) and gallery host, she has influenced the next generation of Minnesota clay artists, and many of her employees are artists in their own right. Pottery remains Kerry's passion, but she loves to travel and sing when she's not running her business, doing philanthropic work, or raising her daughter.