AI Jingle on Suno.com
We searched for the original music by Tommy Floyd and the Blue Ridge Buddy's but could not find it so we turned to today's AI to generate a jingle that might represent what you would have heard in the 50's on radio and later TV. Check it out here on YouTube and you might even hear it live at the Seagrove Summer Concert on June 8th, 2024 when we have 3 local fiddler's convention winners entertain on the Greene Patio.
Darius Luck has many stories
Darius Luck, former plant manager of Luck's Inc., has some detailed stories to tell if you have a moment to listen. He recently recounted how around 1970 beans were grown and harvested in Iowa for $0.09/Lb., and received/stored/sold by a grain elevator company for about $0.03/Lb. markup. Then they lined up a furniture trucking company from NC to backhaul the beans from trips to Chicago for another $0.01/Lb. keeping the price for beans at that time around $0.15/Lb. Later that year the price shot up to over $0.60/Lb. so luckily they had some stored up at the old price. Today's prices is almost 10 times as much due in large part to the recession and economic crisis of 2008.
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Blue Ridge Buddy's (Blue Grass Buddy's) Tommy Floyd
According to reports, a lot of the early success of Luck's Beans was their sponsorship of country musical group Tommy Floyd and the Blue Ridge Buddy's in the early 1950's.
In the early 1950’s, Luck’s sponsored the country band Tommy Floyd and the Blue Ridge Buddies, who hosted a live radio broadcast on Saturday mornings. After trying Luck’s Pinto Beans, Tommy Floyd and his band were soon promoting them with a series of short musical spots syndicated on television stations in the Southeast. The song went, “Luck’s pinto beans. Luck’s pinto beans. Eat ’em and you’ll never go wrong. Luck’s pinto beans.” These promotions helped Luck’s Beans become a household name. |
Walker McCrary - Summer work at Lucks Beans early 80's
Life is Puzzling. You have to figure it out one piece at a time.
Glad you like the new placeholder show at the Carey and Billie Durham Artwalk! There are 10 jigsaw puzzles that Billie and Carey Durham have completed over the years and had hanging in the various closets of our former Beaufort place to surprise guests when they stayed there. In addition, town clerk Kathryn Baker joined in with 5 of her own collection of Disney themed puzzles to fill out the space. Kathryn likes to do puzzles while relaxing at home. Tune in for the next Artwalk show planned in conjunction with Carolina Bronze sometime in November.
Tim Zimmerman and The King's Brass played our first community concert on the patio on June 18, 2022. Here is a link to video highlights featuring Dwayne Greene as emcee, Ryan Greene as guest soloist, and various brass players from the area playing along on several numbers. Our renovation and reputation as a venue are growing.
Board director Larry Hancock shares memories of being next door neighbor to Luck's Inc. in Seagrove.
NC Pot Con
"It's making the community much better. There's such promise and such talent here. A space like this will facilitate all kinds of cultural, intellectual and aesthetic exchanges." Mark Hewitt - potter, Pittsboro, NCanges. Thank you Seagrove!" Mark Hewitt - potter
Large cannery in small North Carolina town - Renovation progress
How often do you get to work with your family and friends to create something? To move and change something from the precipice of non-existence? It seems creative processes like this happen all the time in Seagrove. It may be the outer facade of a business, but inside it is a place with the hum of ingenuity. A place that fulfills necessity. It is an opportunity to dream and discover. An opportunity to just relax and enjoy a more enriched life and livelihood made possible by the community; made possible for the community and within the community. It beckons others to visit from outside the community to experience and participate in a meaningful way. To learn of the history and the folks that made history. You might ask what is it? How is it possible to take a vacant cannery that was founded in the late 40's and renovate it into an outstanding multi-use community center? It has all the elements of success - location, artistic heritage, economic development, service to the community, leadership and hundreds of dedicated supporters.
Carolina Bronze reports on renovation of Queen Charlotte at Lucks
Grand Opening Event 11/13/21
Comments by Jack C. Lail at the Grand Opening Event
This is a historic place. The story that unfolded here in the second half of the 20th century is one that should not be discarded. It's one that any entrepreneur or even a veteran businessman would be impressed by. It was an inspirational story. As a budding businessman, I came to Seagrove and was very impressed with the story of the Lucks Cannery. To think that three guys in Seagrove could begin a business focused on pinto beans and grow it into a multi-million-dollar business of distribution all over the Eastern United States, that's a pretty big story and I could add a couple other things. If you consider the fact that they did it without steady water and sewer on a hill that was so steep that you had to build the building on different levels. I mean they did some things here that i wouldn't want to be challenged to do.
So, it's a really, really outstanding story and when ConAgra decided to move it out of town I, like a lot of other people, was very disappointed but I was even more disappointed when I visited 20 years later and saw the condition that it had been allowed to fall into. ConAgra, as most of the employees know, turned off the switch and went West and I mean nobody was assigned responsibility that I know of to keep the place at least free of sweet potatoes and rats and snakes because that's what it was at the end of the 20-year period. Of course, we had a little help from the company called Pet Pro during that time. He came in and claimed they were going to do something that they weren't going to do I’m sure, but anyway that worked out all right. They went into bankruptcy and we were able to buy the property out of bankruptcy. As a result of that we wound up with two buildings, the one we wanted and this one which really presented an interesting choice if you're a businessman.
We couldn't figure out any way to make accepting this building a good proposition. We looked at the possibility of developing it into a mixed-use center but if you put enough money into it to make it a decent center then I wouldn’t be there long enough to see any profit out of it so that was not a good proposition. We went through the appraisal process. We found out that it was going to take $350,000 to tear it down and I personally was repulsed to that idea, plus it being very expensive. So finally, we decided the people that needed to own this building is this community because this community could harvest value out of a center that had such a historic background and offer the opportunity for so many things that you could do in the future.
We put out the word on the street that we might just give this building to somebody if they were interested, and the town of Seagrove raised their hand much to my surprise. I really hadn't thought that much. I thought maybe one of the pottery associations might like it because they needed the space to have their pottery festivals but the Town of Seagrove, the mayor first and then the town board, very quickly endorsed that idea and said we'll do it if…
if you will agree to remove the old equipment from the building, help us clean it up and number three, and this was the real catcher, help us raise enough money. That's always good.
But what choice did we have. I thought it was an opportunity, and I guess I have enough faith in the people to know that they can do it, that we could raise the money and we could do it. Over a long period of time we could make it something to be very proud of and I think all of you would agree with me, this part of it is something we can be very proud of and I’m sure we will see what happens down the road. Once we had reached an agreement with the town we started looking for a really good partner and the mayor went to Dean, Kay and Betty.
Now I’m sure Martha has heard enough of these proposals that she sees them coming from a mile away. She was a little bit skeptical. She wasn't sure we could pull off what we were talking about but her and those two daughters became very enthusiastic and they've really been a great Godsend to this project. They do have some money all of us in the community know that and they've been very generous with that over the years with everybody that needed money but they're more generous with their good feelings.
We certainly didn't go down to house expecting her to pull out her checkbook and write the whole bill so we headed in the other direction and the mayor did most of this work so I'll give him credit. We went to see former senator Jerry Tillman who's with us tonight, a good friend of mine, we've been on a few boards together, and disagreed over some things and agreed on others. I always found him to be a great guy. And representative Alan McNeil who’s here. The mayor went to him and told him we needed some money. We needed some money and we didn't come like some people with our pockets empty because we'd already raised about four hundred thousand dollars including the value of the building. So, I think that had something to do with the fact that they gave us through the legislature $350,000 which was enough to get phase one basically finished. We've had a few more incarnations but that worked out very well.
Tonight, we have the senator that replaced Jerry Tillman, David Craven here and representative McNeil’s here. They have managed to get into the budget for funds to move on with this work now. When you're dealing with the North Carolina budget you're never sure it'll get signed. You've got three different people down there that have to agree and that still happens, but it looks like it's a little more promising this year than it has been. So, these gentlemen have really stepped up to the plate and are going to bat for the historic location and we appreciate it very much. I would like for us to give them a hand.
I was supposed to talk about my vision but I've been rambling on about things that I wasn't supposed to say but my vision is that we will complete the rehabilitation of this facility. One of the things I did not mention is that this is a dual use facility. It's also designed for economic development and of the three or four possible spots we've got three of them already leased including space to Carolina Bronze which, if you do not know, is a very, very important addition to the Seagrove community. They've been here a while but the fact they're now in this facility not only gives them greater visibility but it also puts a world-renowned company of artists right here in our midst which creates traffic and brings people in. So, I can see Seagrove building around this center, doing the things that are done very well here such as pottery. Even plastics have done well here. We will be able to build a community that will become a destination. You know we already mentioned Seagrove is one of the 12 small towns in North Carolina that you need to visit and we're the pottery capital of the USA so we don't have to go a long ways to get to be on main street. I think we can do that and now I'd like to call on Joan Johnston to come and say a few words about Luck’s.
This is a historic place. The story that unfolded here in the second half of the 20th century is one that should not be discarded. It's one that any entrepreneur or even a veteran businessman would be impressed by. It was an inspirational story. As a budding businessman, I came to Seagrove and was very impressed with the story of the Lucks Cannery. To think that three guys in Seagrove could begin a business focused on pinto beans and grow it into a multi-million-dollar business of distribution all over the Eastern United States, that's a pretty big story and I could add a couple other things. If you consider the fact that they did it without steady water and sewer on a hill that was so steep that you had to build the building on different levels. I mean they did some things here that i wouldn't want to be challenged to do.
So, it's a really, really outstanding story and when ConAgra decided to move it out of town I, like a lot of other people, was very disappointed but I was even more disappointed when I visited 20 years later and saw the condition that it had been allowed to fall into. ConAgra, as most of the employees know, turned off the switch and went West and I mean nobody was assigned responsibility that I know of to keep the place at least free of sweet potatoes and rats and snakes because that's what it was at the end of the 20-year period. Of course, we had a little help from the company called Pet Pro during that time. He came in and claimed they were going to do something that they weren't going to do I’m sure, but anyway that worked out all right. They went into bankruptcy and we were able to buy the property out of bankruptcy. As a result of that we wound up with two buildings, the one we wanted and this one which really presented an interesting choice if you're a businessman.
We couldn't figure out any way to make accepting this building a good proposition. We looked at the possibility of developing it into a mixed-use center but if you put enough money into it to make it a decent center then I wouldn’t be there long enough to see any profit out of it so that was not a good proposition. We went through the appraisal process. We found out that it was going to take $350,000 to tear it down and I personally was repulsed to that idea, plus it being very expensive. So finally, we decided the people that needed to own this building is this community because this community could harvest value out of a center that had such a historic background and offer the opportunity for so many things that you could do in the future.
We put out the word on the street that we might just give this building to somebody if they were interested, and the town of Seagrove raised their hand much to my surprise. I really hadn't thought that much. I thought maybe one of the pottery associations might like it because they needed the space to have their pottery festivals but the Town of Seagrove, the mayor first and then the town board, very quickly endorsed that idea and said we'll do it if…
if you will agree to remove the old equipment from the building, help us clean it up and number three, and this was the real catcher, help us raise enough money. That's always good.
But what choice did we have. I thought it was an opportunity, and I guess I have enough faith in the people to know that they can do it, that we could raise the money and we could do it. Over a long period of time we could make it something to be very proud of and I think all of you would agree with me, this part of it is something we can be very proud of and I’m sure we will see what happens down the road. Once we had reached an agreement with the town we started looking for a really good partner and the mayor went to Dean, Kay and Betty.
Now I’m sure Martha has heard enough of these proposals that she sees them coming from a mile away. She was a little bit skeptical. She wasn't sure we could pull off what we were talking about but her and those two daughters became very enthusiastic and they've really been a great Godsend to this project. They do have some money all of us in the community know that and they've been very generous with that over the years with everybody that needed money but they're more generous with their good feelings.
We certainly didn't go down to house expecting her to pull out her checkbook and write the whole bill so we headed in the other direction and the mayor did most of this work so I'll give him credit. We went to see former senator Jerry Tillman who's with us tonight, a good friend of mine, we've been on a few boards together, and disagreed over some things and agreed on others. I always found him to be a great guy. And representative Alan McNeil who’s here. The mayor went to him and told him we needed some money. We needed some money and we didn't come like some people with our pockets empty because we'd already raised about four hundred thousand dollars including the value of the building. So, I think that had something to do with the fact that they gave us through the legislature $350,000 which was enough to get phase one basically finished. We've had a few more incarnations but that worked out very well.
Tonight, we have the senator that replaced Jerry Tillman, David Craven here and representative McNeil’s here. They have managed to get into the budget for funds to move on with this work now. When you're dealing with the North Carolina budget you're never sure it'll get signed. You've got three different people down there that have to agree and that still happens, but it looks like it's a little more promising this year than it has been. So, these gentlemen have really stepped up to the plate and are going to bat for the historic location and we appreciate it very much. I would like for us to give them a hand.
I was supposed to talk about my vision but I've been rambling on about things that I wasn't supposed to say but my vision is that we will complete the rehabilitation of this facility. One of the things I did not mention is that this is a dual use facility. It's also designed for economic development and of the three or four possible spots we've got three of them already leased including space to Carolina Bronze which, if you do not know, is a very, very important addition to the Seagrove community. They've been here a while but the fact they're now in this facility not only gives them greater visibility but it also puts a world-renowned company of artists right here in our midst which creates traffic and brings people in. So, I can see Seagrove building around this center, doing the things that are done very well here such as pottery. Even plastics have done well here. We will be able to build a community that will become a destination. You know we already mentioned Seagrove is one of the 12 small towns in North Carolina that you need to visit and we're the pottery capital of the USA so we don't have to go a long ways to get to be on main street. I think we can do that and now I'd like to call on Joan Johnston to come and say a few words about Luck’s.
Tour Main Street in Seagrove
Historic Comments about Luck's Inc. - Darius Luck
Luck’s IncorporatedWritten by North Carolina History Project
Since the 1800s, the Piedmont had long been the most industrialized Tar Heel region and continued to do so in the following century. During the mid-twentieth century manufacturing jobs started providing the majority of employment for North Carolinians.
In Seagrove (southern Randolph County), Alfred Spencer and Ivey B. Luck started Mountain View Canning Company in 1947. A year later H. Clay Presnell joined Spencer and Luck on their entrepreneurial adventure. In 1953, the owners changed the company name to Luck’s Incorporated and increased the number of local food products to be canned (Pinto beans were the company’s most famous product). After merging with American Home Products in 1967, Luck’s Incorporated produced twenty-four meat and vegetable items.
During the latter half of the twentieth century and the first years of the twentieth century, North Carolina’s manufacturing sector revealed signs of deterioration, and such signs were seen clearly in Randolph County. There, several companies closed plants: B. B. Walker Company, Black and Decker, and Luck’s Incorporated. ConAgra Grocery Products purchased Luck’s in 2001 and in the following year closed the Seagrove plant.
Eight months later, Seagrove Foods, Inc., reopened the closed plant.
SourcesL. Barron Mills, Randolph County: A Brief History (Raleigh, 2008).
Since the 1800s, the Piedmont had long been the most industrialized Tar Heel region and continued to do so in the following century. During the mid-twentieth century manufacturing jobs started providing the majority of employment for North Carolinians.
In Seagrove (southern Randolph County), Alfred Spencer and Ivey B. Luck started Mountain View Canning Company in 1947. A year later H. Clay Presnell joined Spencer and Luck on their entrepreneurial adventure. In 1953, the owners changed the company name to Luck’s Incorporated and increased the number of local food products to be canned (Pinto beans were the company’s most famous product). After merging with American Home Products in 1967, Luck’s Incorporated produced twenty-four meat and vegetable items.
During the latter half of the twentieth century and the first years of the twentieth century, North Carolina’s manufacturing sector revealed signs of deterioration, and such signs were seen clearly in Randolph County. There, several companies closed plants: B. B. Walker Company, Black and Decker, and Luck’s Incorporated. ConAgra Grocery Products purchased Luck’s in 2001 and in the following year closed the Seagrove plant.
Eight months later, Seagrove Foods, Inc., reopened the closed plant.
SourcesL. Barron Mills, Randolph County: A Brief History (Raleigh, 2008).
Why This North Carolina Town Is a Mecca for Ceramics Artists
www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-north-carolina-town-mecca-ceramics-artists
Amy Beth Wright
Oct 14, 2018 8:00am
Eck McCanless at the pottery wheel. Photo by Richard Shoenberger.
Potter Kate Johnston creates a dynamic pitcher with a wide, plump belly; an elongated neck; and a curved, flower-like spout. It’s her own version of a classic pouring pot known as the Rebecca jug, and it illustrates her affinity for playing with proportions and aesthetics in her work—one of her favorite aspects of ceramics. Like many potters living among the rich ceramics traditions of Seagrove, North Carolina, Johnston has found that working there has driven her to take an innovative approach to the medium.
“After placing a work in historical context, I can ask my own questions of it, and have my own say at this point in time,” she reflects. And she’s in good company: The central North Carolina community hosts some 85 pottery studios in its 25-mile radius.
Her husband Daniel Johnston, a ceramics artist now focusing on fine art, is currently completing a permanent installation for the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. Through creating his large utilitarian urns among the skilled artists of Seagrove, he’s immersed in wood-firing techniques that are over 500 years old, having originated in Thailand and China. “Seagrove is comprised of a large group of potters working together in a small area that really pushes each other forward—and they do do that very quickly,” he observes. “There’s lots of stimulation and a lot of understanding.”Photo by Richard Shoenberger.
Designated in 2005 as the “State Birthplace of North Carolina Traditional Pottery,” Seagrove owes its deep ceramics roots, in part, to geology. The high hills and interaction with the coastal plain in the region “allows ash to settle in the water to create really good clays,” explains Lindsey Lambert, executive director of the North Carolina Pottery Center.
The clay’s origins trace back more than 500 million years, when tectonic shifts and volcanic activity formed the Uwharrie mountain range in central North Carolina (one of the oldest in North America). Molten rock just under the Earth’s surface in this part of the Piedmont plateau was densely packed and, over the course of millions of years, became igneous rock and then finer soil, abundant with feldspar minerals—calcium, alumina, silica, and sodium. During firings, silica hardens clay, while alumina slows the baking process to prevent cracking or breaking. And artists have been mining the material for centuries.
Early ceramic production in what is now central North Carolina was happening 300 years ago. The indigenous people of the Saponi, Keyauwee, and Siouan cultures were creating functional and ceremonial objects from redware clay. And in the 18th and 19th centuries, as the region became more accessible to European colonists—due to the the Great Wagon Road between Pennsylvania and Georgia, and a major train depot designed by engineer Edwin G. Seagroves—they, too, found that pottery could provide a vital source of income.Works at Owens Pottery. Photo by Richard Shoenberger.
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Settlers catered to a steady customer base using gray clay from creek beds and creating salt-glazed stoneware pieces. Pottery was also a necessity at the time, predating the industrial production of glass, metal, and plastic tableware, Lambert notes. Some of the oldest potteries in Seagrove today trace back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Owens Pottery, established in 1895 and run by siblings Boyd and Nancy Owens, is the oldest pottery in the state of North Carolina; Jugtown Pottery was founded in 1917 by Jacques and Juliana Busbee, Raleigh artists who formed the business after tracking the origins of an orange pie dish they had received as a gift. The Busbees also opened The Village Store and Tea Room in 1917 in New York’s Greenwich Village, which was a vehicle for selling work from Seagrove potters and getting the word out about the creative community. Over the past century, the number of potteries in Seagrove has increased drastically.
Lambert credits the growth to the expansion of ceramics within academia, as well as the studio pottery movement after World War II, and a surge of interest in
folk art
in the early 1970s. In the wake of the Depression and Prohibition, long-standing potteries also evolved to develop more colorful glazes and decorative items. At present, the local population’s strong expertise in ceramics and the aesthetics of handmade objects continues to attract more contemporary artists to the area, Daniel Johnston notes.Works at Seagrove Stoneware Inn & Pottery. Photo by Richard Shoenberger.
Work by Frank Neef. Courtesy of Heart of North Carolina.
Today, the general atmosphere among Seagrove potters is collegial, with artists driven to find their own path, explains artist Crystal King, who runs her own pottery. “Seeing each other’s work all the time is refreshing and inspiring, and it also raises the bar,” she says.
Each potter in town, King continues, tends to be known for something special—be it a certain type of work or technique, or for inventive materials. King is known during the autumn season for her wheel-thrown pumpkins with handcrafted stems and leaves; like many of her peers, she uses her own glaze recipes. Eck McCanless is renowned for agateware, which involves blending multiple colors of clay together to create swirls and spirals. Frank Neef makes crystalline-glazed porcelain pieces, inspired by pots from the Song Dynasty in China and the Koryo Dynasty in Korea. Takuro Shibata’s Studio Touya is known for creating traditional Japanese ash glazes. And Jennie Keatts (of JLK Jewelry) creates jewelry inlaid with hand-painted stones, using glazes developed by Pamela Owens of Jugtown Pottery.
There are a few ways a newcomer might begin exploring Seagrove. Kate Johnston recommends going to the North Carolina Pottery Center for some grounding in historical forms and picking up a map there, or heading to the North Carolina Visitors Bureau at the visitors’ centers off of I–74/I–73 (the northbound side visitors’ center has a great display and map of local potteries). Though doing some research is your best bet for finding the specific kind of work you’re interested in, she also advises calling studios that are not open daily ahead of time, as many welcome interested parties.David Fernandez working at Seagrove Stoneware Inn & Pottery. Photo by Richard Shoenberger.
At the one stoplight in Seagrove, visitors find Seagrove Pottery Gallery, which showcases more than 100 local and regional potters. Nearby, the Seagrove Stoneware Inn doubles as both a bed and breakfast and the pottery studio of Alexa Modderno and David Fernandez—the latter of whom is also the city’s current mayor.
The weekend before Thanksgiving, the Museum of North Carolina Traditional Pottery will host the 37th Seagrove Pottery Festival, while the Seagrove Area Potters Association will host the annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters—both of which offer abundant opportunities to get to know local potters and their work. Other annual events include kiln openings in mid-April, Christmas in July, and open studios in honor of American Craft Week in October.
Ultimately, Daniel Johnston observed, “the public is responsible for having kept this going. Without the hundreds of thousands that purchase—without a lot of people buying a lot of work—the community would not continue to thrive.” He described long-standing customers who have collected enough pottery to use handmade dishes during every meal, and remarked that customers “are owed a great deal of respect for having maintained that.”
Amy Beth Wright
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated that Celebration of Seagrove Potters is hosted by the Museum of North Carolina Traditional Pottery; Celebration of Seagrove Potters is hosted by the Seagrove Area Potters Association. The Museum of North Carolina Traditional Pottery hosts the concurrent Seagrove Pottery Festival.
www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-north-carolina-town-mecca-ceramics-artists
Amy Beth Wright
Oct 14, 2018 8:00am
Eck McCanless at the pottery wheel. Photo by Richard Shoenberger.
Potter Kate Johnston creates a dynamic pitcher with a wide, plump belly; an elongated neck; and a curved, flower-like spout. It’s her own version of a classic pouring pot known as the Rebecca jug, and it illustrates her affinity for playing with proportions and aesthetics in her work—one of her favorite aspects of ceramics. Like many potters living among the rich ceramics traditions of Seagrove, North Carolina, Johnston has found that working there has driven her to take an innovative approach to the medium.
“After placing a work in historical context, I can ask my own questions of it, and have my own say at this point in time,” she reflects. And she’s in good company: The central North Carolina community hosts some 85 pottery studios in its 25-mile radius.
Her husband Daniel Johnston, a ceramics artist now focusing on fine art, is currently completing a permanent installation for the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. Through creating his large utilitarian urns among the skilled artists of Seagrove, he’s immersed in wood-firing techniques that are over 500 years old, having originated in Thailand and China. “Seagrove is comprised of a large group of potters working together in a small area that really pushes each other forward—and they do do that very quickly,” he observes. “There’s lots of stimulation and a lot of understanding.”Photo by Richard Shoenberger.
Designated in 2005 as the “State Birthplace of North Carolina Traditional Pottery,” Seagrove owes its deep ceramics roots, in part, to geology. The high hills and interaction with the coastal plain in the region “allows ash to settle in the water to create really good clays,” explains Lindsey Lambert, executive director of the North Carolina Pottery Center.
The clay’s origins trace back more than 500 million years, when tectonic shifts and volcanic activity formed the Uwharrie mountain range in central North Carolina (one of the oldest in North America). Molten rock just under the Earth’s surface in this part of the Piedmont plateau was densely packed and, over the course of millions of years, became igneous rock and then finer soil, abundant with feldspar minerals—calcium, alumina, silica, and sodium. During firings, silica hardens clay, while alumina slows the baking process to prevent cracking or breaking. And artists have been mining the material for centuries.
Early ceramic production in what is now central North Carolina was happening 300 years ago. The indigenous people of the Saponi, Keyauwee, and Siouan cultures were creating functional and ceremonial objects from redware clay. And in the 18th and 19th centuries, as the region became more accessible to European colonists—due to the the Great Wagon Road between Pennsylvania and Georgia, and a major train depot designed by engineer Edwin G. Seagroves—they, too, found that pottery could provide a vital source of income.Works at Owens Pottery. Photo by Richard Shoenberger.
Advertisement
Settlers catered to a steady customer base using gray clay from creek beds and creating salt-glazed stoneware pieces. Pottery was also a necessity at the time, predating the industrial production of glass, metal, and plastic tableware, Lambert notes. Some of the oldest potteries in Seagrove today trace back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Owens Pottery, established in 1895 and run by siblings Boyd and Nancy Owens, is the oldest pottery in the state of North Carolina; Jugtown Pottery was founded in 1917 by Jacques and Juliana Busbee, Raleigh artists who formed the business after tracking the origins of an orange pie dish they had received as a gift. The Busbees also opened The Village Store and Tea Room in 1917 in New York’s Greenwich Village, which was a vehicle for selling work from Seagrove potters and getting the word out about the creative community. Over the past century, the number of potteries in Seagrove has increased drastically.
Lambert credits the growth to the expansion of ceramics within academia, as well as the studio pottery movement after World War II, and a surge of interest in
folk art
in the early 1970s. In the wake of the Depression and Prohibition, long-standing potteries also evolved to develop more colorful glazes and decorative items. At present, the local population’s strong expertise in ceramics and the aesthetics of handmade objects continues to attract more contemporary artists to the area, Daniel Johnston notes.Works at Seagrove Stoneware Inn & Pottery. Photo by Richard Shoenberger.
Work by Frank Neef. Courtesy of Heart of North Carolina.
Today, the general atmosphere among Seagrove potters is collegial, with artists driven to find their own path, explains artist Crystal King, who runs her own pottery. “Seeing each other’s work all the time is refreshing and inspiring, and it also raises the bar,” she says.
Each potter in town, King continues, tends to be known for something special—be it a certain type of work or technique, or for inventive materials. King is known during the autumn season for her wheel-thrown pumpkins with handcrafted stems and leaves; like many of her peers, she uses her own glaze recipes. Eck McCanless is renowned for agateware, which involves blending multiple colors of clay together to create swirls and spirals. Frank Neef makes crystalline-glazed porcelain pieces, inspired by pots from the Song Dynasty in China and the Koryo Dynasty in Korea. Takuro Shibata’s Studio Touya is known for creating traditional Japanese ash glazes. And Jennie Keatts (of JLK Jewelry) creates jewelry inlaid with hand-painted stones, using glazes developed by Pamela Owens of Jugtown Pottery.
There are a few ways a newcomer might begin exploring Seagrove. Kate Johnston recommends going to the North Carolina Pottery Center for some grounding in historical forms and picking up a map there, or heading to the North Carolina Visitors Bureau at the visitors’ centers off of I–74/I–73 (the northbound side visitors’ center has a great display and map of local potteries). Though doing some research is your best bet for finding the specific kind of work you’re interested in, she also advises calling studios that are not open daily ahead of time, as many welcome interested parties.David Fernandez working at Seagrove Stoneware Inn & Pottery. Photo by Richard Shoenberger.
At the one stoplight in Seagrove, visitors find Seagrove Pottery Gallery, which showcases more than 100 local and regional potters. Nearby, the Seagrove Stoneware Inn doubles as both a bed and breakfast and the pottery studio of Alexa Modderno and David Fernandez—the latter of whom is also the city’s current mayor.
The weekend before Thanksgiving, the Museum of North Carolina Traditional Pottery will host the 37th Seagrove Pottery Festival, while the Seagrove Area Potters Association will host the annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters—both of which offer abundant opportunities to get to know local potters and their work. Other annual events include kiln openings in mid-April, Christmas in July, and open studios in honor of American Craft Week in October.
Ultimately, Daniel Johnston observed, “the public is responsible for having kept this going. Without the hundreds of thousands that purchase—without a lot of people buying a lot of work—the community would not continue to thrive.” He described long-standing customers who have collected enough pottery to use handmade dishes during every meal, and remarked that customers “are owed a great deal of respect for having maintained that.”
Amy Beth Wright
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated that Celebration of Seagrove Potters is hosted by the Museum of North Carolina Traditional Pottery; Celebration of Seagrove Potters is hosted by the Seagrove Area Potters Association. The Museum of North Carolina Traditional Pottery hosts the concurrent Seagrove Pottery Festival.
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