5 minute read
Pirate Nation
Anna Partna ’07 and Erin Younge ’15 introduce salt into a wood kiln as part of the salt-glazing process.
‘LISTEN TO THE FLAME’
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A return to Estonia this year gave potter Anne Pärtna ’07 time to explore and try new materials she hopes will soon lead to an art show.
Pärtna had a monthlong international residency — her first — at ARS Ceramics Center in the northeastern European country that juts into the Baltic Sea, where she grew up on a small family farm .
Because of the timeframe and COVID-19 restrictions, she wasn’t able to teach, but she worked with other artists at the center . She also gave an online lecture to students at her alma mater, the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), and to Estonian Ceramists Union members about life in Seagrove, where she and her husband own and operate Blue Hen Pottery .
“It’s good for an artist to occasionally work in a completely different setting,” Pärtna said . “It can take you in new directions, open you up to new possibilities .”
Pärtna first came to ECU for a semester in 1998 through an exchange program as an undergraduate ceramics student at EKA .
At the time, ECU art professors took groups of students to the Baltic States, Finland and St . Petersburg, Russia, for an immersive cultural exchange and art experience . Pärtna met an ECU professor, who encouraged her to come to ECU . “It was not easy to do all the paperwork, get the proper documents in order and raise the money, but somehow I managed,” she said .
In 2004, Pärtna was accepted to ECU’s ceramics graduate program, where she also met her husband, Adam Landman . After graduation, both were offered internships at the newly opened STARworks arts organization and gallery in the town of Star, where Landman is project manager .
Pärtna and Landman settled nearby in Seagrove, known for generations of pot makers . Their studio is named for the road where their family and career began . They’ve also kept chickens for more than 10 years .
“ECU feels like home to me . I can say that I grew up there in a way . And my children spent their early years attending wood firings and iron pours at ECU, so we all have fond memories and feel like our teachers and peers were our extended family,” Pärtna said .
Beyond the wheel, her favorite part of making pottery is the firing of the stoneware, although it requires a lot of work — cutting, splitting and stacking the wood, preparing and loading the kiln, and the continuous stoking of wood that can take several days, she said .
“I have to slow down and pay full attention, be in tune with the kiln and the environment, listen to the flame,” Pärtna said . “Pottery in general keeps you humbled, and the wood-firing process especially so . Sometimes you have mediocre or even bad results, sometimes a shelf breaks and you lose a lot of work . But when it’s good, it can be amazing — the path of flame recorded on the surfaces, each piece unique, never to be repeated again exactly the same way . ”
— Crystal Baity
GROWIN’ GREEN
Houston Hinson ’02, owner of Carybased Carolina Turf Organic Lawn Care, will tell you three key influences shaped his company and career: his son Houston III, a book and his College of Business education.
Together, those led Houston to redesign his lawn care business into an organic model that now has more than 1,000 customers and plans to add Charlotte to his Research Triangle, Triad and Cape Fear markets.
Like his son, Hinson loved being outdoors. He grew to love it more after his family moved from New Jersey to North Carolina. Gone were the days of being snowbound and inside due to the weather. “I loved being outside during Thanksgiving and playing basketball in shorts,” says Hinson. As a kid, he also loved to mow lawns and play baseball, which he eventually played at Methodist University before enrolling at ECU to continue his education.
From 1998 to 2002, he learned about the basics of accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, planning and other key areas that would prove helpful when he was let go from his sales job in 2008.
To help pay off his student loans, he took a job working at a restaurant at night and then leaned on a book he was reading at the time, 48 Days to the Work You Love, by Dan Miller.
“In the book, he talked about doing things that you love for extra money,” says Hinson. “So, I thought to myself, ‘Hey. I always loved to cut grass.’”
With a borrowed lawnmower, string-trimmer and leaf blower, Hinson proceeded to build a lawn care business to 66 customers in just a few months. “I’ve always had the entrepreneurial itch,” he says.
Student loans started disappearing, but as he began to get, as he calls it, “wore down,” things got messy.
“I was having problems with accounts receivable, and I wouldn’t say no to jobs,” says Hinson. “It was just all over the place.”
Fast forward to 2014 when, one day, Hinson was watching his son run and crawl around the family yard.
“There were different yard products I applied to our yard weeks prior, and I knew there were safety questions about some of those products,” says Hinson. “I wanted to look at different alternatives.”
He also decided to reset his business into one specializing in organic lawn care.
“I eliminated all of my customers except for five,” says Hinson. It was at this point he leaned on his COB days.
“I learned in the College of Business that if you’re running a company, it’s better to grow slower than it is quick,” he says.
While his crews stay busy, he continues to test new organic products and have the confidence of knowing his customers can feel safe having their children and pets play in their yards. – Michael Rudd
Houston Hinson ’02 treats a lawn with an organic spray. See more at carolinaturfinc.com.
