Lava Jazz Pottery
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Mimi Werner is the studio potter behind Lava Jazz Pottery, based in Polson and Finley Point, Montana, on the shores of Flathead Lake. She has been an artist her entire life, moving to Western Montana in 1979 from Michigan, where she was born and raised and studied fine arts at Central Michigan University. She earned a BFA in Ceramic Art and Lava Jazz Pottery became her career shortly after.
Werner has spent decades as a working studio potter in the Flathead Valley, a region with a strong regional ceramics tradition. For more than thirty years her history as a studio potter has given her a connection to all those who have come before her, sharing a passion for clay. Working with the earth has shaped who she is and what her work has become, and the mark of the fire onto the surface of the clay keeps her returning to the studio. Her output centers on functional and sculptural wheel-thrown stoneware — lidded casseroles, bowls, chargers, and vessels — typically finished in rich, layered glazes that highlight the interplay of fire and earth in the kiln. She has also been an active presence in Montana's close-knit community of studio potters, participating in regional demonstrations and shows alongside other Flathead Valley ceramicists.
Because Lava Jazz Pottery has always been a small, hands-on studio operation rather than a mass-production line, each piece Werner makes is essentially one of a kind, shaped and glazed individually rather than cast from a mold. This studio-scale, artist-driven approach, combined with her long tenure and reputation within Montana's ceramic arts scene, is part of what makes her functional stoneware pieces appealing to collectors of American studio pottery.
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