Catawba Valley Pottery and Antique Festival

Matt Jones doling out Pepto-Bismol early Saturday morning after a rather uninspiring breakfast at the Golden Coral.

Joseph Sands and Alex Haworth who is apprenticing with Matt, the third in a long succession of apprentices named Alex.

Bulldog Pottery

Matt Jones demonstrating...check out that sweet apron!

Booth of Matt Jones.

Chad Brown in his booth Saturday morning.

Naomi Daglish, one half of Bandana Pottery.

Daniel and Tyler on Saturday morning.

Mr. Doc Welty of Leicester Valley Clay

W.M. Hewitt Pottery Booth

Outsider Insider

Plate by Matt Jones

North Carolina is an incredibly exciting place to make pots. The longer I stay here the more this becomes evident and there is no better place to be reminded of this than at the Catawba Valley Pottery and Antique Festival. In the wind and rain both collectors, dealers, and potters all assembled in Hickory North Carolina to buy and sell some really fantastic pots.

It is events like this that slowly cement North Carolina into a more permanent place in my life. Over the past few months I have been going back and forth a lot about whether to return home to New England where I have the draw of family and childhood nostalgia, or remain here in North Carolina which now feels like more of a home and community than anywhere else.

What is so amazing about the Catawba show is the group of vendors. You can walk the isles and see work by Thomas Chandler, Collin Rhodes, Robert Mathis, and Daniel Seagle, and then turn the corner and see contemporary traditional wares that have been directly influenced by these old makers. Around the next corner there will pots that seem to have less in common with the old but instead push North Carolina along its evolutionary path as one of the most diverse and eclectic places to make pottery in America.

As I walked though the booths I started thinking about what the role of outsiders is an environment that is so steeped in these old multi generational potteries and makers. There are times when I envy that traditional past. My family has a tradition as well but I have followed it in a slightly different way. Instead of the galleries on 57th St I would much prefer wandering the booths at the Catawba show where I see work that excites and inspires me in a way that feels whole and good.

There were clay traditions in New England as well, but with the industrial revolution those have mostly died out and for reasons unknown to me, the old traditions where never transformed into a thriving contemporary movement of art pottery like that which Seagrove is so famous for. That is not to say that fine ceramics are not being produced in New England at all, only that the culture of pottery does not rival that of North Carolina.

But being an outsider is not bad. Henry Glassie said it best in an piece about Mark Hewitt, one of the most successful outsiders in North Carolina,

"Outsiders are necessary to the preservation of excellence in artistic tradition. They pull others into their tortured, exhilarating acts of adjustment, rearranging the lineaments of the little world, questioning the status quo, finding new directions, making the tradition healthier, fresher, better"

Excerpt from the essay "Mark Hewitt: Outside" by Henry Glassie

March

As per usual things are moving along at breakneck speed here in Pittsboro. In addition to trying to fill the salt kiln in half the usual time we've also been preparing for the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival where Mark will be selling his work for the first time alongside many of the Southeast's best potters and antique dealers. This will be my fourth year going to the festival, the last two years I was accompaning Matt Jones and the year before that Charlie Tefft, who makes pots in Greensboro NC and teaches as Guilford College.

Here are a couple pictures from the past few weeks. Above is the second run of what I've been calling Turkish tea cups. I was pleased with the first set and thought I would make a few for the salt kiln. There is another full board, about 50, these were just the last few that I made before the end of the day.

A Good Weekend

Its early Tuesday morning. Things are finally settling back into some semblance of normalcy. Yesterday we pugged Mark about 500 lbs of clay which he promptly turned into plates and bowls while Joseph and I started in on some small covered jars. Martin has settled in at the wheel in the main room and is turning out beautiful 15 lb planters with skill and ease.

The past weekend was a complete whirlwind. The three presenters, Alleghany Meadows, Phil Rogers, and Mark Pharis, made quite the Motley Crew with lots of differences in opinions, aesthetics, and ideology. It was very fun to watch the three of them all demonstrating and arguing at the same time.

On Sunday, Joseph and I stopped in the Hewitt's House where folklorist Henry Glassie and his wife Pravina Shukla where visiting with Mark and Carol. Henry and Pravina then followed us down the road to Daniel Johnston's where we saw his new addition to the studio and a load of new pots out of his kiln. Henry will be back in North Carolina for the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival in a few weeks. Its is always a tremendous pleasure to be able so spend a few minutes with Henry. He is a kind man and an amazingly strong and clear voice of support for our craft.

The British Invasion

On Thursday Phil Rogers stopped by on his way over to Asheboro for the NCPC. Martin, who is the Hewitts good friend from way back, as well as a former Cardew Apprentice, also arrived. He will be here for a few months, hanging out and making some big planters. This is a picture of the three posing with an early Hamada peice that Phil is bringing to a client here in the states.


Joseph inspecting the 1930 something Hamada.

This week was short because of the North Carolina Pottery Conference which started yesterday. In a few minutes Joseph, Noah, and I will head over there for another day of demos, good food, and company.

Daniel Johnston at the Collectors Gallery

Photo Courtesy of the Collectors Gallery

My friend and fellow potter Daniel Johnston has a show up right now in Raleigh at the Collectors Gallery. I drove out there Friday night with Joseph, former apprentice Noah Riedel, and James Ward to check out the show. Its a good one. If you are in the Raleigh area drop by and see what Daniel's been up to.

Mixing Hewitt's Clay

Last Friday we ground clay. Thursday Joseph and I moved materials out of the clay shed by wheelbarrow and piled everything up and then Friday morning we started grinding. As you can see there is a mix of raw materials and processed. The primary clay is the pile in the right corner and there are other raw clays mixed in as well all of which are on the right. On the left are the bagged materials. In the center is the belt driven hammermill which is powered by the PTO on Mark's tractor. It can be quite a chore to line the drive on the tractor up so that the belt rides well without either slipping off or moving to inside where it starts to smoke against the mill. Once everything is lined up Joseph and I start to shovel the materials into the mill in a specific sequence that attepts to keep the ratios correct while at the same time mixing the materials as they fall into the trough underneath the hammermill. Mark stands at the mill and with a shovel pushes the clay down the hopper into the hammers.



The pulverised and mixed clay then falls into the trough pictured below which has been filled with water. At some point we stop mixing and rake the clay out from beneath the mill and then continue milling the rest of the clay. When the clay is mixed we clean up move any leftover materials back to the clay shed and then drill the slurry to an even consistency with large handrdills. We then pump the clay into the drying beds using a sump pump and sieve the clay before it goes into the beds. It will take a number of cycles of filling the drying beds with clay before we will reach the bottom of the trough.

Joseph took this picture below of me in the clay shed filling a wheelbarrow. Its been a few weeks away from the wheel but we should get back to throwing on Monday. It will be a short week before heading down to Asheboro to the North Carolina Pottery Conference and then just a three more weeks before we fire the salt kiln again. Things stay pretty busy around here.