Pots, Potters, and Dipping into a Vital Local Tradition in Seagrove, NC

Historic Jugtown Pottery

Seagrove is the heart of the North Carolina pottery industry. It has a long tradition of locals pulling thick lumpy goo out of the ground and miraculously turning this earth into functional everyday pottery. Jugs, bowls, plates, mugs, crocks, pitchers, all made from local clay and for the most part these wares were fired in wood kilns and glazed with salt, giving a trademark texture, sheen, and color.  Throwing is a mercurial process, which forms the object and firing provides the element of chance that can transform this object into near art or disaster.

These local pot forms reflect their utility and function - practical, humble, and as iconic to Americans as any amphora to the ancient Greeks.  This cottage industry survived here in one way or another for generations, being passed down through families with names that match the local roads, like Busbee, Owen, Moore, and Chrisco.  Production survived on a small rural scale until the post World War II world of mass production and cheap available commercial ceramic ware.  In the 1960s Nancy Sweezy saved and revitalized Jugtown Pottery, one of the renowned local producers connected to the Busbee and Owens families.  Nancy introducing new and non lead glazes and modernized their production.   This resurrection to the nearly done Jugtown seems to have established a solid foundation on which today’s industry stands. 

Larry Moore's Robin's egg blue birdhouses

By industry I speak of some 150 potters all within a 10-mile radius of Seagrove who hang out a “Pottery” shingle.  The variety of pots is mind numbing and stretches the gambit from well-established Art Potters, like Ben Owen III to a fellow we met named Larry Moore who’s brother Charlie, now deceased, used to work at Jugtown for decades and so when Larry lost his life-long job at the chicken factory in 2000 when it closed, he transformed his ancestral home into a potshop. He throws in what was once the kitchen, and the front two rooms function as his showrooms. He throws a tidy pot, something he has been doing his whole life, but only as an occupation for the last dozen years. He also makes clay roosters and dragons and applies glaze with a sense of abandon that would impress any abstract expressionist.  Larry’s shop sits across the street from the entrance to Jugtown, and we just happened to stop in after visiting his well-established neighbor.  We bought a large pot with a vivid splash of color, a birdhouse that hangs like a blue eyeball in a tree ($20), and a vase ($18) all have become our personal treasures.

Wares in the Jugtown shop

At Jugtown we visited with Pam Owens and marveled at the compound of rough-hewn buildings that have been on site since 1901 according to the bronze plaque from the National Register of Historic Buildings.  Jugtown’s pots carry the tradition of ceramics that put Seagrove on the map in the first place.  Their traditional designs and forms don’t venture far from what were always their wares and the accompanying museum proves this point.  Some marvelous pots, well executed and functional.

We went down the road to the next generation of the Owen (without an “s”) clan to one of its brightest stars, Ben Owen III.  Like his father and grandfather who worked at Jugtown, he carries the tradition, but has literally transformed the process of making pots into an art form and a hugely successful commercial enterprise. His is a modern art pottery factory and showroom; well lit and filled with elegant forms, stylish glaze combinations (retaining a few traditional ones as well – cobalt blue and “Jugtown red”).  Ben’s pots are a big business for decorators and collectors around the world and his facility is well maintained and could easily be at home on Madison Avenue.  Not the place for the locals to pick up a pie plate.  This was a big contrast to “The Original Owens” shop we saw the day before, filled with many multiples of every useful form, some hand painted, all competent, but not marketed as art.

Ben Owen showroom

Ben Owen III 

Chrisco's vintage Ford pickup

We returned to the studio/shop of Mack Chrisco after peering in the windows the day before. He has been turning his large capable hands towards the making of functional pottery for decades. It was in his shop that we found a set of dishes that met the needs of a friend back in Brooklyn, and on the eve of his birthday, took 8 plates off his shelves. Notable as well was the 1968 Ford pick up out front, with a rusted patina over every inch. As Mack described it, he has replaced everything in it that can be replaced. It was a beauty.

Bulldog's spectacular glazes on two vases

Our final stop for the day was to the other phenomenon that is taking place among the Seagrove potteries – the newcomers.  These are transplants who have graduate degrees in ceramics from places like Alfred University’s SUNY School of Ceramic Art and Design.  Fred Johnston and Carol Gentithes have already been referenced in this blog, but we also ran into Bruce Gholson and Samantha Henneke who run Bulldog Pottery.  They are Alfred clay people and settled in Seagrove in 1997. The two collaborate on work, the one who throws the pot signs it, and they both share in the glazing process. They have specialized in layering their glazes, and they achieve some startling results with bright greens and ochre hues that remind us of early spring.  We spoke to Bruce for over an hour, purchasing a stunning bud vase and a decorative plate – perfect for serving.  We would have taken Bruce up on his invitation to see his modern corrugated steel home of two cubes, separated by a covered breezeway, but our time was running short and we had an appointment to visit with perhaps the most recognizable potter in the region, Mark Hewitt, along with reconnecting with Rob’s friend from Alfred, Mike Cindric, and meet his wife Susan. 

Mark Hewitt's pots outside his studio

We rushed from Bulldog Pottery to Pittsboro, an hour to the East where we had stayed the previous night at a wonderful B&B.  Running late, we arrived at 6:00pm and Mike and Susan had already arrived.  Mark’s facility sits at the end of a cul de sac just outside of town.  His compound is a series of buildings, house, kiln sheds, pottery showroom barn.  The home is friendly and filled with the most beautiful pots in scales form petite to gigantic.  Mark is a friendly handsome fellow with a British accent and his wife, Carol, has the same warmth, grace without the accent.  We got to know one another over beer and wine, and talked about art and pots and the business related to such things as the sun faded. Before it was totally dark, Mark took us on a tour.  The kiln is massive and nearly fully loaded with pots in anticipation of this week’s firing.  I ask if he knows how many pots are inside and he says 1500. These range from small coffee cups to the four foot architectural creations for which he is known.  These urn-like pots also dot his yard acting as sentinels against the rural landscape.  The potshop is next to the kilns with sparse rows of work sitting on long boards waiting for the last loading the next day.  The earth floor is lumpy and uneven and has hard knobs poking up form the clay like earth. It all seems to be made of clay. We finally see the sale barn, where there are rows of shelves and a few remaining pots after the Catawba Valley Sale and just before the next firing.  These shelves will undoubtedly be filled with new pots in a week’s time as Mark will have two huge sale event weekends in early April.

Mark's pot shop

Large pots with his new circle motif in the kiln
to be fired this weekend. 

We move back inside and share a lively evening of conversation among wonderful people and good food provided by Mike and Susan. The evening concludes with our leaving this remarkable area of North Carolina with the clay soil that has fashioned a pottery industry and a loose band of individuals. It is remarkable that they all use this elastic material to discover self expression, and make a living.  The evening plan is to follow Mike and Susan to their home in Raleigh about three quarters of an hour further East, in what is known as the Research Triangle, to spend our final days with them visiting, seeing art and architecture and rekindling a friendship that began at Alfred nearly four decades ago.

Before leaving the subject of Mark Hewitt, I feel compelled to include something about how he has almost single handedly revitalized the North Carolina pottery trade. This transplanted Brit from Stoke-on-Trent, England moved to this area in 1983, and as he told us over dinner, he ventured into the American landscape with the love of his life, Carol, and a plan to find an area with rich clay deposits that he could use to make pots.  With his degree in geography, they traveled around with large geological maps scanning the countryside before settling in Pittsboro and purchasing a plot a land where he could dig clay and process it into useable material.  He still does that today.  He also established an apprenticeship program, and over the years has had a series of young potters willing to dedicate two years to learn his craft his way. That is traditional of handing down knowledge that has served the region well, as many of his disciples seem to stay around, generating their own forms and building potteries.  This, more than anything else has reinforced the North Carolina ceramics movement. His international reputation and nurturing of young potters has a large part to play in transforming this area into a widely recognized craft mecca for those in search of pots. This continues to include pots of any kind, low brow or high art, making this the place to find them. And that is largely due to Mark’s vision and hard work.  He is an amazing fellow who also makes some damn nice pots.