2. Southern Folk Pottery of North Carolina by Mark Burleson

North Carolina

Pottery

traditional pottery of the southERN USA Friday, February 3, 12

Major pottery Regions of N.C. Old Salem

Asheville Cherokee

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★ Catawba Valley Seagrove ★ ★ ★ Text Text

Lincoln County

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North Carolina Pottery ACADEMIC

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FOLK IMMIGRANT

NATIVE AMERICAAN

The ceramic history of North Carolina begins with the abundant and diverse natural clay deposits found there. Abundant earthenware and stoneware clay deposits are found in areas across the state. Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

Native Americans in this region were first to use clay as a resource. Friday, February 3, 12

Major pottery Regions of N.C. Catawba catawba tribe

North Carolina Pottery

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cherokee eastern band of the cherokee

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Text

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bowl fragment

MORTAR & PESTLE soapstone object with engraved designs

game stone

ARROWHEADS (PROJECTILE POINTS) Text

ceremonial hand ax with fossil

These ancient pieces are among the most important remaining artifacts of early civiliz Friday, February 3, 12

Cherokee

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Cherokee

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Cherokee

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Cherokee

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Cherokee

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Cherokee

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Cherokee

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The Catawba, known as the river people, use a type of pit-firing and burnishing that makes their pots shine, and they also imprinted animal designs on their work.

Catawba

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The Catawba, known as the river people, use a type of pit-firing and burnishing that makes their pots shine, and they also imprinted animal designs on their work.

Catawba

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THE FIRST IMMIGRANT POTTERS TO N.C. SMostly English, Germans and Moravian Q Arrived in the latter half of the 18th century. BMost from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Friday, February 3, 12

North Carolina Pottery

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old Salem (winston Salem)

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DGOTTFRIED AUST S Moravian settler. O Brought pottery to the Winston-Salem region in the latter half of the 18th century. L He was the first potter to arrive in Wachovia, a tract of land owned by the Moravians. M He is responsible for one of the most vibrant pottery traditions in America. Friday, February 3, 12

Master of the first Moravian pottery in North CarolinA P

originally set up in Bethabara in 1755 and later moved to Salem in 1771. U

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Aust worked in a central and eastern European tradition his whole life. The highly stylized flowers, foliage, and birds he used as decorative motifs on this slip-decorated dish are evidence of his European training. Friday, February 3, 12

The early Moravians produced predominantly earthenware and later stoneware. They introduced stoneware to the Salem region in 1774. Rudolph Christ succeded Aust as master of Old Salem pottery and â&#x20AC;&#x153;the tradition continues today in what is now known as the City of Winston Salemâ&#x20AC;?. Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

living tradition or disnification?

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Rudolph Christ Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

About 60 miles southeast of Old Salem is the town of Seagrove. Seagrove is also in a region that is rich in natural clay deposits. Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

North Carolina Pottery

The Seagrove area is one of the largest communities of potters with the longest continual history of pottery making in the United States. Friday, February 3, 12

North Carolina Pottery

SEAGROVE RANDOLPH COUNTY

â&#x2DC;&#x2026; The Seagrove area is one of the largest communities of potters with the longest continual history of pottery making in the United States. Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

Potters arriving in the Seagrove area in the 1700s were quick to realize the value of the local clay. They first made redware, some plain and some decorated, using clay that fired to a reddish orange color. 30

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The Earthenware was fired at a low temperature (1800 degrees F). The ceramic wares could withstand major changes in temperature. Friday, February 3, 12

By sometime in the first half of the 19th century, North Carolina potters had mostly switched to making their wares out of higher fired stoneware, which was also readily available. Stoneware is fired at higher temperatures, causing the clay to become vitrified or waterproof. Friday, February 3, 12

The Pots were used mainly in the kitchen for the preparation an storage of food and drink. Friday, February 3, 12

The Seagrove Potterss developed a local and regional market for everyday functional wares. Butter churns, pouring and serving dishes, storage jars, whiskey and wine jugs and containers used in clinics for medication. Friday, February 3, 12

Butter Churn

Ballarat Friday, February 3, 12

The use of stoneware clay was possible because of the introduction of higher firing kilns, the most common type of kiln used by the early settlers is caled a groundhog kiln. Friday, February 3, 12

A groundhog kiln is a primitive kiln made by burrowing into the side of a hill. A cave-like hole is lined with stone or brick. A chimney allows smoke to escape, wood is used as fuel. Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

. In other parts of the state, Friday, February 3, 12

an alkaline glaze was made from a combination of sand,

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RPotters began shifting to stoneware production IThe differences between British and German pottery became more pronounced as did the regions they inhabited. 1850‘s catawba VALEY INFLUENCE: BRITISH

1850‘s

Seagrove

INFLUENCE: GERMAN

Salt

ALKALINE

Text Text

distinct regional aesthetics emerge

By 1850, Seagrove and Randolph County was the center of salt-glazed stoneware, and the Catawba Valley in Lincoln County primarily sold alkaline-glazed stoneware. Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

The Old Plank Road

These pioneer farmer-potters forged new styles based on their skills and artistic visions, their surrounding natural resources, and the needs of their growing community. Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

The Industrial Reolution had made cheap glass, tin and factory made pottery readily available and this was devastating to the potters across the country and especially so in Seagrove. Almost all the potteries closed their doors forever. Friday, February 3, 12

http://books.google.com/books?id=Z95rwd1CwvsC&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=treadle+wheel+in+seagrove&source=bl&ots=dRVaEqNYXf&sig=j1spGBu1cx-_W1ohfOc6dC3CFAM&hl=en#v=onepage&q=treadle%20wheel%20in%20seagrove&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=Z95rwd1CwvsC&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=treadle+wheel+in+seagrove&source=bl&ots=dRVaEqNYXf&sig=j1spGBu1cx-_W1ohfOc6dC3CFAM&hl=en#v=onepage&q=treadle%20wheel%20in%20seagrove&f=false

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S Because of their remote rural location and the local whisky distilling industry, some Seagrove potters were able to survive a few decades longer

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K Eventuallythe effects of Prohibition were crippling. Driven by economic necessity, lack of other job opportunities, family pride, and their own love of clay, many potters worked on against the odds.

The ones who persisted were joined in 1922 by an educated and worldly couple, Jacques and Juliana Busbee, who appreciated the local craftsmanship and used their marketing skills to push the Seagrove area work more into the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s view. The increase in travel by wealthier Americans, a growing awareness of world pottery history, and the new availability of non-local ceramic materials all contributed to change in regional pottery styles. Friday, February 3, 12

They ordered pottery from local potters, shipped the wares to New York, and marketed the pottery at a tearoom in Greenwich Village operated by Juliana. Friday, February 3, 12

This period in the areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history is marked by an explosion in variety of forms and colors. Collectors embraced this work; their patronage and their view of pottery as more decorative than functional pushed potters to utilize new materials and new firing methods to develop their work further. By the late 1920s, Seagrove area pottery was well known from the galleries of New York to the garden shops of Florida. Friday, February 3, 12

L Jacques and Juliana Busbee started Jugtown Pottery. J They hired and trained young potters to preserve the traditional shapes and glazes. B Several Jugtown trainees later started their own potteries in the Jugtown community. Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

Jug Town is still a vary active pottery today . Owner, Vernon Owens, recipient of the Folk Heritage Award and the NEA National Heritage Fellowship, wife Pam, and son Travis are the main potters Bobby Owens mixes clay and glazes the pieces. Friday, February 3, 12

c i t n

e h t

u a

Jug Town is still a vary active pottery today .

Owner, Vernon Owens, recipient of the Folk Heritage Award and the NEA National Heritage Fellowship, wife Pam, and son Travis are the main potters Bobby Owens mixes clay and glazes the pieces. Friday, February 3, 12

Vernon Owen, Pam Owen and Travis Owen

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Travis Owen

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Travis Owen

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Jugtown Pottery

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evolving public taste

sending a generation of potters off to war

many of the materials for the new glazes became unavailable

In order to survive, they had to adapt. The immediate solution: high volume production of small pieces for the wholesale gift market. An individual potter might produce more than 500 pieces each day, all the same shape. Friday, February 3, 12

Some of the oldest, historic pottery locations still in operation the "Original" Owens Pottery founded in 1895[5] Jugtown Pottery founded in 1921[6]. Jugtown is on the National Registry of Historic Places. A few Seagrove area potters continued making functional pottery during this time, including brothers James Owen and Rufus Owen, father of Ben Owen Sr. Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

The 1960s and 1970s were characterized by strong social changes across America. Both the “hippie” movement brought about renewed interest in handcrafts. Some of the old Seagrove area pottery families continued to train their own children or other interested apprentices, as they had for generations. Studio artists seeking a “back to the land” lifestyle, and academically trained potters began to settle in the area, These new potters, like the first English and German settlers, brought visible and constant changes to the area throughout the entire remainder of the 20th century. Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

ENOUGH! Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

Some area potters continued the ideals and the traditions of the early Seagrove potters. Others embraced a wider perspective of what pottery could be, not as visibly influenced by the previous work done in the region..... Friday, February 3, 12

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1980’S until today have seen sometimes gradual ,sometimes explosive period of growth, creativity and influence in the area

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People from all over the world come to Seagrove for pottery and there has been an influx of academically trained potters in the area for possibly the first time in it’s history.

Up until the most recent economic downturn, which has affected most potteries but closed the door of few, this time period has seen the appreciation of Seagrove take its rightful and significant place in the history of ceramics and it is known throughout the world as are the profiles of many of the artists who live there.

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Up to now, the apprenticeship system was the educational system and the work mostly stayed in the family. Seagrove potters have been resistant to, if not downright unaccepting of â&#x20AC;&#x153;outsidersâ&#x20AC;? moving in -even from other parts of the state - until fairly recently when it became clear that the growing number of potters in the region was attracting far more business to the region than it was taking away from local potteries. Also, most of the younger generations such as Ben Owen 111 and Travis Owen have gone away to college before coming back to Seagrove, bringing back worldly knowledge and influence and a different perspective on their place in history.

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The decidedly non-academic leanings of the region have also been challenged by the establishment of a museum to preserve not only the history of Seagrove, but of the rich history in clay of the entire State of North Carolina. The North Carolina Pottery Center and Museum openend it’s doors to the public in the late 1990’s and features a wonderful collection of objects from across the state with rotating exhibitions to present a wide range of styles , from traditional pottery to conteemporary sculpture.

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The Center is widely supported by the entire community. and has been a labor of love for many who have seen the importance of preserving this history.

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Dwight Holland, A collector and historian and resident of the arta has been one of the driving forces behind the effort.

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Just a few years after the center was finallly opened, it nearly had to close it’s doors when the state and federal support for the project nearly disappeared after the NC pottery Center was the focus of a conservative campaign during an election year. The center was portrayed as an example of wasteful government spending and ads were played ad nauseum depicting the project as being of little or no importance to the people of the state and ridiculing the whole notion that pottery should be serious enough to have a museum. “A pottery museum, really? “

E The Cole, Auman, Owen, Teague, and Albright families are eighth- and ninth-generation potters in Seagrove who continue this tradition today. Friday, February 3, 12

Friday, February 3, 12

The second story has to do with devil jugs, or scary faces jugs with devil horns. This story says that these devil jugs originated in slave communities When someone died, a devil jug was made and placed on the grave for one year. If the jug broke sometime during the year, it meant that the deceased was wrestling with the devil.

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Ben Owen Sr.

An original potter at Jugtown.

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Ben Owen Sr.

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Ben Owen Sr.

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Ben Owen Sr.

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Ben Owen III Friday, February 3, 12

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chinese blue

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chinese red

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crystal matt yellow Friday, February 3, 12

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frogskin Friday, February 3, 12

mirror black Friday, February 3, 12

patina green

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teadust

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Mark Hewitt Friday, February 3, 12

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Mark Hewitt Friday, February 3, 12

Dover Pottery Friday, February 3, 12

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Dover Pottery

Dover Pottery Friday, February 3, 12

Carol Gentithis Friday, February 3, 12

Carol Gentithis

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Carol Gentithis Friday, February 3, 12

Fred Johnston

Carol Gentithis Friday, February 3, 12

Fred Johnston Friday, February 3, 12

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Samantha Henneke

Bulldog Pottery Friday, February 3, 12

Bruce Gholson

Fine Arts

Bulldog Pottery Friday, February 3, 12

Bulldog Pottery

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Bulldog Pottery Friday, February 3, 12

Jugtown Pottery

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Jugtown Pottery Friday, February 3, 12

Westmore Pottery

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Westmoore Pottery

end.

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Westmoore Pottery

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Westmoore Pottery

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end. Friday, February 3, 12