Seagrove, NC

A Pottery Kind of Town

Harold Cox perches outside his rustic work shack and dabs color on the sculpted figure of a young potter that, just yesterday morning, was a block of clay. As he paints, the details—rippling biceps, wrinkled boots, strands of hair—magically emerge.

Cox, specializing in such three-dimensional, “story-telling” pieces as bearded men panning for gold or hungry woodpeckers grasping insects from their mothers’ mouths, has been doing this since 1990. “The Lord gave me this gift for sculpture,” he says, grinning. “I just happen to own the hands.”

At 65, Cox is one of about 80 potters who live and work in Seagrove, the “Pottery Capital of North Carolina,” 10 miles south of Asheboro in the clay-rich Piedmont area. Some craft their wares in rickety cabins, some in eclectic storefronts, others in buildings so beautifully landscaped they look like garden shops. A drive through this rural town (pop. 246) reveals a land dotted with cornfields, orchards, and an occasional hosiery mill, furniture factory, or bean-canning plant. And then come the potteries, freestanding or clustered in enclaves, stretching 25 miles into unincorporated towns such as Whynot and Erect. Wares range from teapots and face jugs to whimsical animals and elegant, custom-made jewelry.

Seagrove’s claim to fame as an arts community dates back 300 years, when Colonial potters, mostly from Staffordshire, England, began crafting earthenware milk crocks, churns, bean pots, storage jars, and whiskey jugs for everyday use. For decades the pottery was fired from the region’s heavy red clay and sold from covered wagons rolling through North Carolina. In the early 20th century, however, glass became the container of choice, the state’s moonshine stills were shut down, and the industry died out. It was rekindled in 1920 when a Raleigh aristocrat named Juliana Busbee hired several potters to help fashion items for her Greenwich Village tearoom and turned pottery-making from a source of ordinary dishes and cups into an art form.

Over the years, descendants of the early potters splintered off and formed their own businesses. Today, Busbee’s shop, Jugtown, is run by Vernon Owens, whose family has been turning pots for generations.

“This is the best area in North Carolina if you want to be in the pottery business,” says Owens, whose showroom is a sea of Oriental and traditional American earthenware in cobalt blue, cinnamon, and black glazes.

Some Seagrove potters, like Owens, trace their craft back as many as nine generations. Others have settled here after graduating from college or working as an apprentice elsewhere.

“The tradition has changed but we’re still a part of living history,” says Ann Williams, who specializes in clay cat creations, crackled-finish raku pottery, and stepping stones at her shop, Fork Creek Mill Pottery. Her best-selling snowman candle lanterns have been featured in the craft collections of Better Homes & Gardens magazine. “I was No. 23 (in the area) when I opened. To the shops that have come after me, I’m an old potter. But to the old families of potters,” she says, chuckling, “I will always be a new potter.”

This variety is one reason satisfied customers such as Evelyn Norris keep coming back. “I just dearly love things that are made by hand because they’re difficult to find any more,” says the Greensboro resident and 25-year collector of Seagrove pottery.

One of the most charming characteristics of Seagrove is that its artists are so willing to talk about their craft or demonstrate their glazing, turning, and sculpting techniques. “I’m more than happy to show you what I’m working on,” Williams says.

Phil Morgan’s customers range from Bill Clinton to dignitaries in China and Latin America, but the potter remains unpretentious. He encourages visitors to touch the delicate, crystalline vases lining the shop he shares with his wife, Julia, along with Bubba the basset hound and a cat named Lady.

Morgan uses a rare, 1,500-year-old Chinese glazing technique in which crystals grow and fan out like snowflakes. “The first one I saw was in a glass display in 1973. It was two and a half inches tall. The woman said, ‘Okay, you can look at it, but it costs $90.’ Twenty of those pieces would have bought a car back then. I told her, ‘I can’t afford to buy it, so I’m going to learn to make it.’

“And I did.”

Nancy Bearden Henderson is a freelance writer in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Upload Your Own Stories, Photos and Videos

Every week, American Profile magazine brings you stories that celebrate the people and places that make America great. Now we want to hear your stories and see your photos, videos and even audio.

 Start Uploading Now!

 

Discuss this Article