"When people put food in one of your pots, you're a member of the family," says studio potter Robert Briscoe. "You are part of the ritual of breaking bread together. I want my pots to engage people where they live and to play a part in their savoring of life."

Briscoe's quote is from collector Pamela Espeland's essay in the brochure for the "Bridge 10 Exhibition Series" at the Society for Contemporary Craft, which opens this week.

Actually three solo exhibitions, "Bridge" also features furniture-maker Tom Loeser, who heads the furniture design program at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and metalsmith Christina Smith, an Associate Professor of Jewelry and Metalsmithing at California State University, Fullerton.

Briscoe, who has made pots since 1967, will talk about his work and life on 31 wooded acres in Harris, Minnesota, at 6:30 tonight at the Society. The exhibition's opening reception will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday. (The talk is $5 at the door, the reception is free.)

His stoneware vases, covered jars and noodle bowls are representative of the subtle, timeless pots made by a contingent of potters who live in Minnesota, including famed Warren MacKenzie and Linda Christensen. Briscoe's thrown forms are altered only enough to add personality; their texture is that of clay, of the earth, as are their subtle colors, as is their verisimilitude.

Like MacKenzie, who could by reputation alone easily command many times his asking prices, Briscoe wants his pots to be used and therefore keeps them affordable. The most expensive piece in the show is a "Fruit Bowl," actually a large platter (22 by 22 by 3 inches), that is $350. Handsome "Noodle Bowls," akin to Eastern rice or tea bowls, are $50.

Loeser and Smith share Briscoe's commitment to exceptional craftsmanship and also to function, although the latter may not at first glance be apparent.

Loeser questions the traditions and conventions of furniture even as he celebrates them in fastidiously constructed pieces. These he often enlivens with patterns created by gouging parallel depressions into the wood and painting them, softening the color by rubbing the rims of his markings to allow the wood to emerge in uneven, warm lines.

Among seven works exhibited is a "Folding Chair," from an earlier series, that references, for example, the stacking metal chairs that are ubiquitous in community halls as well as the Shaker practice of hanging chairs on the walls when not in use. But Loeser's angular, brightly painted chair folds into a geometric packet that more resembles a shaped canvas painting when hung.

Similarly both tongue-in-cheek and serious is 87-inch tall "LadderbackkcabreddaL #1," its inverted title hinting at Loeser's conceptual inversions. A rocking chair's ladder back is joined at the top with that of a straight chair which perches in perfect balance facing in the opposite direction.

Loeser is also interested in social interaction and has designed some pieces to that end. "Double Rocker Upright" is unbalanced unless two people occupy it, and because the rockers run perpendicular to the chair backs, it takes two, working in harmony, to make it rock.

Most ambitious is "Chair Cubed," a grid of nine chairs with each of the others being an "extreme of the normal chair in the middle," explains Society Exhibitions Coordinator Kati Fishbein. Chair backs, seats, and legs vary, inspiring questions about normalcy, hierarchy, even the way we group objects as small, medium and large.

Smith draws upon personal experience in her sculptural works, including being a fourth-generation Los Angelene and Hollywood observer.

Her pieces suggest narratives through a combination of figures, always in silhouette, and objects such as scissors, chairs and houses that reflect a personal symbology left open to individual viewer interpretation.

Meticulously worked of 16- and 14-gauge silver -- she even mills her own screws, Fishbein says -- they are visually and physically precious and substantial.

And, they function.

"Staying?/Leaving? Home" is an angular teapot with beautifully pouring spout atop the circular lid of which a woman in silhouette raises her arms and seems to stand on toes, calling to mind the ballerinas on old music boxes. An impeccably crafted tiny chair lies next to the pot, "knocked over a la Wizard of Oz like the witch, like the teapot landed on it," Fishbein says, citing the artist's installation instructions.

Other pieces are brooches, bracelets, a spice box, open or sided vessels that may be put to imaginative use.

Smith's imagery falls somewhere between the comfort of snapshots and the eeriness of surreal. How personal, or theatrical, their inspiration is anybody's guess, but the intriguing titles commendably open doors to engagement: "Staying in Balance in A State of Flux," "Fiduciary Duty," "Friends Not War" and "He Always Planned to Leave," for example.

The Bridge Series, of which this is the 10th edition, was inaugurated in 1988 to showcase work being produced by contemporary craft artists -- individuals who combine traditional craft media and impeccable technique with conceptual development.

That boundless possibilities may arise from tweaking the proportion of craft and of concept is evident in the works exhibited here, from Briscoe's gently altered receptacles to Loeser's eyebrow-raising yet practical furnishings to Smith's enigmatic expressions.