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.