The Torpedo Factory Art Center is proud to join more than 250 arts organizations across the country alongside Craft In America who will be hosting exhibitions and events throughout 2026 to showcase the importance of the handmade throughout our country’s history and in contemporary life.
Presented by Craft In America, Handwork2026 celebrates the diversity of the crafts that define America, bringing compelling stories and underrepresented art and artists into the spotlight.
Meet our Handwork Artists & Galleries
Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery
Studio 29| @potomacfiberartsgallery | Fiber/textiles
The Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery (formerly Potomac Craftsmen Gallery) was the first fiber arts gallery in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area. It was established in September of 1974 and was an original occupant of the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. It is a cooperative association of up to 70 fiber artists, many of whom teach and have been published.
To continue our tradition of excellence, all work exhibited in the gallery is juried to keep our standards high. There are 11 themed shows every year with a wide variety of fiber art. Traditional offerings of quilts, weavings, knits, and crochet are available, as well as innovative art that uses fiber techniques with nontraditional materials, such as metals, glass, wood, and clay.
Membership in the Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery is open to all qualifying fiber artists in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area.
Scope Gallery
Studio 19 | @scopegallery | Ceramic
Scope Gallery is a founding member of the Torpedo Factory, with a continuous presence in the building since its opening in 1974. Its members reside in the broader DC metropolitan area, and work in public and private studios throughout the region.
Studio 22 Fire On
Studio 22 | @studio.fireon | Glass & Ceramics
Our six-person, artist-run gallery focuses on three-dimensional mediums including pottery and glass.
Seasoned makers embrace education through demonstration and instruction in clay, kilnformed glass along with traditional brushpainting, oil painting, ecoprinting and drawing. Shop our handmade local mugs, bowls, plates, sculptures, jewelry and more. We offer pottery. applying techniques from raku to woodfire, sager to pitfired and functional, food-, microwave- and dishwasher-safe stoneware and porcelain. Catch our creatives at work, throwing pottery on our in-studio wheel, handpainting, sculptuing, handbuilding and contributing to our artist-run small business.
Featured Artists:
Tracie Griffith Tso specializes in traditional Chinese spontaneous flower-bird painting. With pottery combined with painting, she produces functional clay art. She specializes in the freestyle drawing of plants and animals as she enjoys reflecting emotion and movement in body language. Her subjects include koi, rabbits, squirrels, siamese cats, birds, horses, frogs bamboo, peonies, blossoms and more.
Sandi Martina graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1980 with a degree in Visual Communications. She’s a self employed graphic designer since 1990 and glass artist since 2008. Her journey into glass began with classes in mosaics followed by fusing, casting, flameworking and glassblowing. She’s a longtime glass fusing instructor and mentor.
Glass has been an ideal medium to express and bring Sandi’s creative background and ideas to life. With this passion she found it only natural to share with others.
Glass half full!
Zachary Androus
Studio 205 | @androusjewelry | Metal
Born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia, I apprenticed as a goldsmith in Missoula, Montana from 2000-2002, while in graduate school for anthropology. I lived in Florence, Italy from 2006 to 2023, where I taught private jewelry making courses alongside my day job as an interdisciplinary social science professor, researcher, and translator. I returned to the US in 2023, and now make jewelry full-time from my studio 205 in the Torpedo Factory.
Veronica Barker-Barzel
Studio 309 | @jewfroart | Wood, Textiles/Fibers, & Metal
Veronica Barker-Barzel is a painter and printmaker whose work dances between vivid handmade prints and expressive paintings, blending Eastern European folklore, Greek mythology, and her own surreal twist.
Her art reflects a life shaped by diverse cultures—born in Washington DC, raised across Europe, and immersed in Japan during her early 20s.
These experiences infuse her pieces with intricate patterns and biomorphic forms, inviting curiosity and sometimes laughter.
Saya Behnam
Studio 229 | @sayabehnam | Textiles/Fibers
Saya Behnam is a visual artist interested in nature. Her mixed media works and scarves all include nature in one way or another, from making handmade colors to dye and ecoprinting on silk
Sarah Bentley
Studio 209 | @sarahbentleyart | Painter
Susan Cohen
Studio 226 | @susancohenpottery | Ceramics
Fire captures Susan Cohen’s imagination. The many variations of the firing process give each piece of pottery its unique character. Most of the pottery is wheel-thrown, using either stoneware or porcelain clays. The fire is the unifying element in my work. The transient effects of the flames are “frozen” on the pieces, which embody the physical changes that they have undergone. Her kiln at home is reduction-fired with natural gas, reaching cone 10-11. I also have been fortunate to be part of two wood-firing teams in Nelson, County, VA. Each of these firings lasts for seven days, adding layers of ash to the pots, thereby creating and enriching the natural-ash glaze. She reaches cone 12-13.
Cohen envisions making pottery as a way of sharing. Pots should invite you to use and feel them. Each pot develops a story, like a favorite cereal bowl or tea bowl that gets used for many years, and is surrounded by memories. Using something beautiful can be a source of enrichment and joy.
Brandi Couvillion
Studio 209 | @brandicouvillionstudio | Metal
Hailing from New Orleans,Brandi Couvillion is inspired by the urban environment around her, the various states of its metamorphosis and decay, and its relationship with the ever-evolving natural landscape.
Her artistry is inspired by architectural details such as decorative wrought iron and plasterwork, as well as historic maps and imagery and makes permanent an ephemeral aspect of our cities’ histories.
Her adornment captures the transitory landscapes of history: from trade routes and forgotten swamps to abandoned asylums whose architectural residue still decorates the landscape today.
Marcel Artes Deolazo
Studio 332 | @the_horny_potter | Textiles/Fibers, Ceramics, & Mixed media
Urban globetrotter using the iconography of different countries in Marcel Artes Deol travels as inspiration for my ceramics based on historic ceramics to create modern day time capsules that reflect present day
Ruth Gowell
Studio 6 | @ruthgowell | Glass, Textiles, & Fibers
Ruth Gowell works in both woven fiber and kiln-formed glass. She learned to weave as an apprentice to a weaver in Denmark in 1970. I took many classes in the Washington D. C. area and attended Haystack School of Craft in Maine. My weavings developed into an exploration of the technique of warp face weave, with many layers of fine rayon dyed in color progressions.
The three major influences on her work are Op Art, the Washington Color School Painters, and Scandinavian Design. While she was growing up, her father ran stores that imported Scandinavian furniture, textiles, and glass, and Scandinavian design magazines were around the house. Also growing up outside of Washington DC, she was aware of the Washington Color School painters, and remembers seeing shows of their work that made a great impression on her. Color, especially color that moves and changes, has always been her primary interest. The first art show she remembers was a Pop/Op Art Show at the Walters in Baltimore way back. It made quite an impression – “I loved art that moved – where you could see a piece in such different ways.”
Lori Katz
Studio 334 | @lorikatz.com | Ceramics
Lori Katz is a studio artist working in clay and mixed-media. She is known for the striking strength and simplicity of her work.
Lori’s work has been included in definitive shows and art fairs in the US, Europe and Asia. A proud participant in the State Department’s Arts in Embassies program, her work is included in the permanent collection of the US Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan, the Racine Art Museum, the IBM Corporation, Amazon Web Services, New York Presbyterian Hospital and in numerous other private homes and collections.
Anna Radjou
Studio 6 | @annaradjouart | Textiles/Fibers
Anna Nazaretz Radjou is a mixed media fiber artist and graphic designer based in Arlington, VA. She holds a BFA in Illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art and has exhibited widely across the East Coast.
Her bold, textured works combine hand-dyed fabric, printmaking, painting, and hand embroidery to explore themes of identity, connection, and self-empowerment.
In addition to being a resident artist at the Workhouse Arts Center, she serves as Branding Director for the Arlington Artists Alliance and is active at the Torpedo Factory Art Center.
Tea Okropiridze
Studio 3 | @teaokro| Textiles/Fibers
Tea Okropiridze was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. In 1994 she received Associate Degree in Art and Sculpture from Tbilisi Jacob Nikoladze Arts College. In 2002, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (BFA) in Artistic weaving/tapestry from the State Institute of Culture, Department of Fine & Applied Art – Tbilisi, Georgia.
In 2002, she moved to the USA and continued her artistic career in Northern Virginia. She is a resident artist at the Torpedo Factory Art Center Studio 3, in Alexandria, Virginia.
Simultaneously, she works as a Tapestry and Art instructor at Smithsonian Studio Art Program, Washington DC; The Art league School, Alexandria, VA and US Art Education Center, Chantilly, VA. Tea has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions.
Heasoon Rhee
Studio 6 | @weaverheasoon | Textiles/Fibers
Salih Zeki Sayar
Studio 321 | @musz.studio| Ceramics
Salih Zeki Sayar is a sculptor and ceramic artist whose work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, exploring clay as both a rebellious material and a storyteller.
As a co-founder and artist at MUSZ Studio, he experiments freely with form, surface, and glaze, letting chance and imagination shape each piece.
Now a resident artist at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Sayar continues to push boundaries, creating works that surprise both himself and his audience.
He brings the same curiosity and energy to his role as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, guiding students to see clay as a limitless medium for creative exploration.
As a panelist for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH), he supports innovative projects across the DMV arts community.
Murat Sener
Studio 321 | musz.studio| Ceramics
Murat Sener is a ceramic artist and sculptor whose practice centers on transforming clay into expressive and concept-driven works. For Sener, clay is more than a material; it is a powerful medium through which he shapes ideas and imagination, enriched by influences from other art forms that expand the language of contemporary ceramics. As a co-founder and artist of MUSZ Studio, he works with a wide range of ceramic techniques, creating original works grounded in craftsmanship, experimentation, and storytelling. He is an adjunct professor of ceramics at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, where he teaches students and supports young talents, encouraging them to see clay as a limitless tool for creation. Sener currently holds a studio residency at the Torpedo Factory Art Center and serves as a panelist for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH), contributing to the evaluation of art projects across the DMV region.
Lisa Schumaier
Studio 16 | @lisaschumaier | Ceramics & Recycled Materials
Lisa Schumaier was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. She attended Public Schools in the 60s and 70s when art and imagination were still important for developing brains. Lyles Crouch elementary school had a kiln and a fabulous art teacher, Mr. Davenport. He inspired his mostly public-housing charges to create lots of wonderful and messy things!
She received Her BFA from Radford University in ceramics and printmaking. A career in retail took Her away from art for a time. In 1996 her first husband committed suicide. This Sudden and devastating loss brought her back to art as a way of healing. She started taking classes at the NOVA Alexandria campus. At first making just small brown bowls, but gradually, under the guidance of an amazing teacher, Bill Schran, she began to more deeply explore the medium and sculpt again. It was at NOVA that she learned the traditional and slightly magical Japanese firing technique of raku. In 2003 Lisa left retail to try art full-time. In 2004 she was juried into the Torpedo Factory.
Lisa still lives in Alexandria, in the Del Ray neighborhood with her lovely husband, two dogs and a cat. she does her sculpting in Studio #16 at the Torpedo Factory.
Taatyana Shramko
Studio 32 | @shramkodesign | Wood & Paper
Tatyana Shramko, born in Harbin, China, has lived in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Germany; she now resides in the US. Tatyana finished her higher education in the US, where her initial studies were in chemistry, and her early work was in research laboratories at the University of Pittsburgh. At the same time she began studies in sculpture by taking night courses. After her move to the Washington, DC area, she continued her studies at the George Washington University, focusing on fine art and three-dimensional art, graduating with a cum laude degree in sculpture. While at GW she studied with Heinz Warneke, the primary sculpture for the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, and later with Professor H.I. Gates, head of the sculpture department.
The organizers of the Harbin China International Ice and Snow Competition invited her to do a sculpture for their permanent collection, which she did in bronze and glass (about ten inches tall), representing fire and ice.
As a frequent contestant (2007-2019) in the International Ice and Snow Competition in Harbin china she received four awards and in 2013 was invited to represent the US as one of the international judges for the Ice Competition.
In 2019 she participated as an invited guest artist in “Gigantomania,” the International Symposium of Monumental Sculpture in Opishnye, Ukraine, creating a three foot coil built clay sculpture for their permanent collection.
Alison Sigethy
Studio 335| @alisonsigethy | Glass
Alison Sigethy is a sculptor specializing in commission and site-specific work for individuals, corporations, and municipalities. She is best known for oil-filled glass cylinders called Sea Cores. These sculptures are in private collections worldwide.
Alison studied theater and lighting design at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, and received degrees in Interior Design and Art History from Marymount University. She worked in interior design and theater lighting before taking up art full time.
She is on the faculty at the Washington Glass School and is a Torpedo Factory Resident Artist. She is represented by Haen Gallery in Asheville, NC.