Pottery heaven: Take a trip to Seagrove
Looking for a day trip? You might want to consider a visit to a spot known for its pottery.
Out and About had a chance to check out Seagrove recently. The city is home to at least 100 unique and inspiring potters - all within a 15-mile radius of downtown. There is truly something for every taste, type and budget.
Bobbie and Scott Thomas of the picturesque Thomas Pottery left software and financial firm careers to pursue pottery full-time. They converted a modernized farm building, incorporating many recycled/re-purposed materials, into a pottery space.
Scott makes large platters, bowls and pitchers.
The two also make their own handmade pitchers, which keep sweet tea colder than modern plastics. Bobbie is also a full-time potter with an eye for detail and a wonderful sense of whimsy. Her best selling items are cheese trays – especially for holiday shoppers. She also makes pepper jelly with peppers from her garden.
It was delightful to look over the many reenactments Bobbie created from popular children's books, including a "Tortoise and the Hare" sculpture.
“They are so much fun to make,” Bobbie Thomas said of the pieces. “They’re hard to part with, they have such personality.”
A special event featuring the storybook character sculptures is planned on Sept. 15. Thomas Pottery will also be doing hands-on clay parties in October.
Owen’s Pottery is the oldest continuing pottery in the state. They started in 1895 and are currently in their 123rd year of production. Owner Boyd Owens and his sister, Nancy Owens Brewer, produce signature items with unbelievable consistency.
One unique thing about them is they source ultra-local for their clay – within a 25 square mile radius of the pottery. Each pottery has its own clay blend, sourcing, and makeup due to the unique challenges of their specialty. The Boyds do everything there, including the grinding, mixing and glazes.
They also formed a children's line of dinnerware pottery, which is safe for microwave, dishwasher and oven use. Owen's Pottery uses a distinctive red glaze on decorative items only. Coined “Signature Owen's Red High-Fired Decorative Pottery," it was developed by their father, M.L. Owens, in 1945.
Pottery in days of yore was much like what we know of fashion, the Owens' said. Items were often custom pieces requested or tailored for a specific use. Now we just go and buy pottery, as there is more pottery than demand.
They can fire 700 pieces at a time, and dinnerware is fired at 2,250 degrees. They’ve had their current grinder since 1930 and they have a machine that is much like a pasta maker which turns out the clay in a pliable, ready-to-use log.
Eck McCanless was originally more fired up about music than pottery, but he found himself going into the family business. His siblings either have their own business or work with pottery -- a brother at McCanless Pottery, a sister is at Starworks and working a café, and another brother is at Dover Pottery, which was the family business started by his mother in 1983.
Eck now rocks out beautiful agateware pieces with layers of color which permeate the entire piece. He learned this technique from his Dad, Al McCanless, who was also a bluegrass artist and pharmacist. His father understood his musical inclination but insisted that he learn a skill as well. He also had great teachers. Aside from his parents, he also had the chance to work with Bruce Gholson, who is the noted contemporary potter of Bulldog Pottery.
We got a firsthand demo in swirling the beautiful red clay, white clay and stone-colored clay pieces. He also gave a mini-lesson in chemistry and physics.
“The real concern is in mixing clay,” he said.
McCanless has his own unique style. “Clay wants to be with other clay. Dry particles of clay under a microscope look like Velcro. They want to bond with other clay particles…it's all fluid dynamics when it comes down to it," he said.
All the potters we talked with are multi-talented. There’s the creativity side as well as the business of pottery sales. Eck is already thinking about production for Christmas.
One of Eck’s favorite things about it is the great representation of the natural movement of pottery with the colored clays. He loves the correlation of clay’s movement with the earth’s own movement and tectonic shifts.
He flattens the clay out as he’s throwing a pot on the wheel to keep the spiral visible, then he works it up into the forms. When you turn a pot up from the bottom, you can literally see swirls of what colors were used.
Eck does two firings for his layered work – a bisque firing to 1,800 degrees and another to 2,200 degrees, which sets the piece and the glaze.
His wife works in marketing at Starworks Cafe, and they have two boys aged 15 and 18 who have also learned the craft. You can sometimes catch Eck and his son, Jonas, performing music there.
Our next stop had a truly appropriate moniker – Jeff and Linda Potts specialize in tableware, quirky kitchenware and traditional vases in salt and ash glazes.
Walking around the shop was both educational and fun as we found egg separators (they have a slot just for pouring out the whites, dish sponge holders shaped like piggies, butter keepers, bread baskets, and small bowls like nut and custard bowls. They’ve had specialty requests for urns to memorialize a loved one’s ashes, but their focus is dinnerware and everyday items like coffee mugs and bowls.
The couple mixes their own glazes and has electric and gas kilns. They sold their groundhog kiln (a kiln ideal for large pieces dug into the ground) before moving some time ago. As avid cat lovers, they also have pottery with cat paw prints on the inside.
They’ve been in business for so long that they are scaling back a bit, thankful to have some quiet time these days. This is how pieces become collectors’ items. Each potter has a signature style, or creative “voice,” which is one-of-a-kind. Once they discontinue a certain type or style, those items become rare.
We also took a brief but meaningful detour to the N.C. Pottery Center, appropriately located in Seagrove, where we found 800 pieces of pottery. There is a photo and artifact history of N.C. pottery on display from indigenous peoples to present-day with pottery by Seagrove artisans and potters from across the state. We even spied some local Piedmont area potters’ work, like pieces Mark Hewitt Pottery.
We happened to walk down to the classroom outbuilding where East Carolina University students have classes. They have a workshop and two studios with electric and wood kilns, and they occasionally have beginners turning classes for adults and wood-firing workshops.
We spoke with fifth-generation potters Chad and Erin Brown and their 8-week-old daughter, Cami, who may bring up the rear as the sixth!
Chad gave us an impromptu demo and even let us have a turn at the wheel.
The Browns are known for their wood-fired pots based on styles from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. They let the kiln do the work, as that is where we found so much of the magic happens. They cannot keep enough mugs. In five weeks, they had 1,000 mugs and sold them all.
Chad understood the connectedness of trade professions. “I think being a chef or cooking, or doing pottery or gardening are all similar," he said. "There are recipes or formulas -- timing, and temp are all a part of it."
We couldn’t agree more!
Our next-to-last pottery stop was pottery by Frank Neef. Frank and Cindy moved to their current location in the historic Auman house on Main Street in Seagrove in 2010. Frank is content with what they’ve built after so many years of dedication and truly enjoys his craft. “This will be the last place I will work," he said.
The couple has done art fairs and the like for 35 years. Frank is a veteran, and Cindy is a retired teacher. They have a lovely gallery featuring extraordinary cut-work pieces and crystaline glaze traditional vases. Frank does all the cutwork and throwing but doesn’t try to overdo the process.
Frank spoke a bit on crystaline glazing -- the couples grow their own crystals inside of glass, as zinc in glaze crystallizes when you melt it. All the potters we talked to understood that the kiln is more in control of the process!
According to Frank, “You never have any control over it. You got to be happy with whatever ends up on the piece.”
As for the cuts, he decides what is enough to accent the item or compliment it without over doing it. Much like a restaurant, they’ll test a few cut-work pieces, and, if they sell, then they’ll create more.
Frank told us he feels blessed to have a supportive spouse and be at a point in his career where they have latitude to cut back on production work and do the more elaborate pieces which flex creative muscle.
The gallery is beautiful, and we loved the cut-work ceramic lanterns! Snowflake plates are another type – meant to have light shine through and cast shadows. There’s no end to the creativity. The Neefs also contributed to the heritage pottery room at the Wendover Resort in Greensboro.
As a final stop in our trip, we got to visit Mayor David Fernandez’ pottery shop. They have handmade golf clubs, and David and his wife, Alexa Modderno, each have their own pottery and style. Alexa was so hospitable and gave us a tour of their lovely Seagrove Inn bed and breakfast! They have the most unique décor in each area.
We also got a brief tour of the Duck Smith House Bed and Breakfast, which is run by sisters Barbara and Suzanne. Barbara was humorous and welcoming, showing us through the colonial but individually-styled bedrooms, each with their own bath.
Due to such a high concentration, Seagrove is considered the handmade pottery capital of the entire United States. They get very busy around the holidays. And if you plan a visit, book hotels now, as some are already full.
There is nothing like being onsite to see current availability and talking with the artisan. It is a wonderful day trip which can easily extend several days! But don’t forget you can also order items online.
For more info about the area, check out Heart of North Carolina's website.
