NC Faces and Places

The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh issued a call for North Carolinians to send in their images of "What says North Carolina to you"? Well, for Bruce and I-- hands down its NC.Pottery for us. We found out about the submission on Thursday with a deadline of less than 24 hours away. We zipped on down to the NCPC Friday morning to take a few photos. The picture of us beside the turquoise floor vase was accepted into the NC Faces group on Flicker. There are around 600 images in the group, and I am not sure how many from that they will be taking for the project. But even if the picture is not accepted for the actual photo installation, we feel proud about sharing the North Carolina Pottery Center and its' Museum with others. The NCPC is a wonderful museum that houses North Carolina Pottery of both past and present. This place is located in Seagrove, NC and provides a place to educate the public about this special art form.

I did a blog post on the NCPC back in 2008. (I read my post of a 1 1/2 years ago (have I been blogging for that long??)) and it said that I planned to do a series of what you can find inside the NCPC. So much for staying on that focus, maybe this can be like another start to that idea. I still think it is a grand idea because there is a lot of different NC pottery in there, and maybe this will be an impetus to continue about what a fantastic role the NCPC plays for educating the public about pottery making. I did do a post about the Squirrel Bottle that is in their collection.

We are standing beside a large earthenware Floor Vase. This piece is attributed to CB Craven of Royal Crown Pottery, circa 1940 in Chatham County.
Here is a full view of the two large pots. The honey yellow Two Handled Vase is by Waymon Cole of JB Cole Pottey, c.1930, Randolph County.

We love this corner of the museum at the NCPC.
Here I am in between the "grand dames" of Seagrove traditional pottery. I am sure there are more Seagrove pottery women that belong here as well. Meredith from Whynot Pottery did some posts about her experiences growing up visiting her grandparents in Seagrove and then moving here in the 70's over in Whynot. I love this image of Virginia Shelton that she posted. Also there is a post about Dorothy Auman. In and around Seagrove, pottery was and is part of everyday life. Whether you made pottery or your neighbor made pottery, pottery has just about touched everyone that lives here in the neighborhoods of Seagrove.

The Reception at the North Carolina Pottery Center

Last week was the "New Generation of Seagrove Potters" reception at the North Carolina Pottery Center. This exhibition features 15 Seagrove Potters that are under the age of 40, which was the "cut off" for inclusion in this show. We thought this was a clever idea for a show and we found it interesting to see the variety of work that is now on display.

We were wondering... "maybe they should plan "the middle age" or "over the ?", I better stop before I get in trouble. Maybe the "Boomers Seagrove Show"?

Below Mark Hewitt is introducing the Seagrove Potters that are showing work in the exhibition.

Below I am talking with Jeffrey Dean, trying to convince him to put his picture on facebook. He has a facebook profile but has yet to replace the silhouette image with a handsome picture of himself. I took a couple and sent them to him via e-mail, no more excuses now. I looked him up to ask him to be a friend but I don't know who to ask. Jeffrey owns Dean Martin Pottery along with his wife Stephanie. They just recently posted an image on their blog of the new covered jar he was decorating called the Big Lollipop.

Here are some of the attendees looking over the pottery.

Mark Hewitt was telling us about his new show that is on exhibit at the Nasher Art Museum at Duke University in Durham. He is excited about the opportunity and the documentation that the museum did and put on their blog and flicker page. It is wonderful that his work has been recognized in this way.

Below is Hitomi Shibata with her wood fired pottery. They have been building a wood kiln over on Busbee Road. Check out their pottery blog, Touya News to see the building of their kiln. They have done an incredible job of documenting the process and I think is very valuable, especially if you a potter and are wanting some ideas for your wood kiln, or you are a pottery collector and curious about the process of building a wood fired kiln.
Here is Matthew Luck, the son of Syd Luck. They live around the corner from us and have a wonderful annual party in August called Luck's Legacy. Last year I did a post on our blog about the Luck's Legacy event. We went over and hung out for a few hours unfortunately missing the barbecue because we needed to get back to our shop before they served it at noon. You can check out that post here. I love the intense cobalt blue that Matthew gets out of their ground hog kiln. You can see the cobalt blue glaze on the pots at the far left of the image below.

Chad Brown is the grandson of Grahm Chriscoe, a potter that lives just south of us, towards Ether. Chad Brown makes robust stoneware pots, and demonstrates at the Pottery Center every Saturday.

There was a great turn out for the reception even though snow was falling outside and covering the roads.

Susan Green is on my left. She worked on the committee for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters. She has helped the Seagrove pottery community out during the last couple of years, thanks Susan.

Three of the McCanless Clan: Will, Milly, and Eck. Milly owns Dover Pottery & Will owns McCanless Pottery. Eck is a master turner and works with his mother at Dover Pottery. We had a wonderful time working with Dover Pottery when we first moved here to Seagrove.

Here is the group of the "New Generation" that came out for the reception.

What a wonderful evening.

From Left to Right, Hitomi Shibata, Samantha Henneke, Will McCanless, Cyrstal King, Chad Brown, Matthew Luck, Takuro Shibata, Travis Owens, Eck McCanless is behind Travis, Jared Zehmer, Jeffrey Dean, Stephanie Martin. Too see more information and images of the recpetion go to the North Carolina Pottery Center's website.

Samantha's works at the North Carolina Pottery Center

These are the pottery works that are on exhibit at the North Carolina Pottery Center's "Next Generation of Seagrove Potters" Exhibition. I selected four pieces from our Moka Glaze functional series, and two tall bottles from our flowing molybdenum crystalline glaze series.

Tomorrow evening there will be an opening reception that is free to the public to come and enjoy the North Carolina Pottery Center, view the new exhibit, and talk with pottery loving folks like yourselves.

The Next Generation - Seagrove Potters under 40

This exhibition is on display at the North Carolina Pottery Center. The reception is this coming Friday, Feb. 12th at 5:30pm. I will post tomorrow the images of my pieces that are part of the show. The receptions at the Pottery Center are fun and it is great to check out what is new, and what is old. We always like to take a stroll through the North Carolina Pottery Center's Museum. Hope to see you there.

Also of Note there is a STARworks Glass open house the night before on February 11. For only $25 you as an individual or you and a partner can make your own glass heart or flower! If you just want to come and watch and enjoy the fun I know they would love for you to join in. Sounds like a fun Thursday night to me. So if you live near here I hope to see you there too.

Space

Space is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction.

Outer space, inner space, space suit, space shuttle,space ship, space invaders, my-space, space man, space walk, space time, space station, empty space, green space, parking space, spacial distortion, space balls, blank space, common space, positive and negative space..........

Our new space

Note: These pictures were taken in September 2009.