North Carolina is home to several very old and rich traditions of folk pottery – those of the Cherokee and Catawba Indians, of the Catawba Valley in the central piedmont, of the Moravians around present-day Winston-Salem, and other communities — each of which has fascinated generations of travelers, collectors, and scholars. The sandhills region of North Carolina’s southern piedmont is home to a thriving pottery industry, widely known as the Seagrove tradition. A fortuitous combination of history and geology made the area around Seagrove, a Randolph County crossroads town on the Moore and Montgomery County lines, the cradle of one of the South’s most distinctive and popular forms of folk art. In the late eighteenth century, the piedmont drew potters because of the quality of the region’s clay, both the red clay that lies near the surface of the ground, which they used for earthenware pottery, and a gray clay found deep in creek beds, ideal for making sturdier stoneware. At the middle of the nineteenth century, the great Plank Road was built from Fayetteville to Salem, passing right through the sparsely populated sandhills and linking more efficiently the potters of Randolph, Moore, Chatham, and Montgomery Counties to a wider market that had need of good housewares, and encouraging the growth of the industry.
In this fertile environment, local families saw multiple generations of skilled potters who worked in cooperation, competition, and aesthetic conversation with one another. Today, descendants of those families – Cole, Owen, Owens, Craven, Luck, Chriscoe, Teague, and several others – carry on their ancestors’ work. In the last thirty or so years these families have been joined by dozens of potters from other places, who have set up shop and become part of the Seagrove tradition. By some estimates there are nearly one hundred active potteries – which usually consist of a workshop, kilns, and a separate showroom and store — within just a few miles of downtown Seagrove. This tour will carry you to several potteries along and near Route 705, the official “North Carolina Pottery Highway,” in Seagrove-proper as well as in the pottery-rich communities of Whynot and Westmoore. The destinations described below include some – but by no means all – of the potteries operated by descendants of those earliest families. This itinerary is not to be considered a comprehensive list of the area’s most traditional potteries, but rather a sampling. Give yourself a whole day – or better yet, a weekend – to explore the Seagrove area, so you can stop at many potteries, old and new. (Keep in mind that the North Carolina Pottery Center and many of the individual potteries are closed on Sunday.) There is a great deal going on in this creative community, and by stopping at lots of pottery shops, and speaking to the artists – who, if they are not at the wheel, are often more than happy to discuss their work — you will get a taste of the creative diversity and energy that exists within the Seagrove tradition.
A few words on pottery-shop etiquette. Many potters’ workshops are located behind their showrooms, easily accessible to the visitor. The artists will often be glad to show visitors where they work, but it is essential to ask permission before venturing beyond the showroom. The work spaces are not only a creative zone where the artists may require privacy, but are also the location of heavy equipment, strong chemicals, and at times, of course, fire. Adults as well as children must be careful in these areas, and only explore them with permission. Similarly, artists usually don’t mind if visitors photograph their pottery, but it is important to ask before doing so.
Seagrove is about two hours’ drive southwest of Raleigh. Located on Route 220, 15 miles south of Asheboro, Seagrove is easily accessible from such major highways as 64 and 73. There are plenty of major motels in Asheboro. Seagrove has a bed-and-breakfast, the Duck Smith House on Broad Street, and there are also accommodations available in nearby Biscoe, to the south. You will have several restaurants to choose from along and near this route, including the Jugtown Cafe, a few miles to the north on 220-A, the Seagrove Family Restaurant, located on 220 downtown, and the Westmoore Family Restaurant, on 220 at Dover Church Road in the Westmoore community.
North Carolina Pottery Center
This tour begins in downtown Seagrove, at the North Carolina Pottery Center, 250 East Avenue. Admission is two dollars for adults, one dollar for high school-age visitors (9th through 12th grade), and free for anyone younger.
The North Carolina Pottery Center is beautifully designed museum housing a collection of pottery from all over the state, which represents many traditions and eras, from pre-historic Native American vessels to the work of today’s best potters. Fine rotating exhibits in the main hall focus on specific potters and traditions in North Carolina. A rebuilt section of the weathered frame workshop of the late Burlon Craig gives a close-up view of the tools and equipment used by this master of the Catawba Valley tradition. The pottery of many active artists in and around Seagrove is showcased near the front of the museum; taking a look at these artists’ work may inspire you to visit their shops as you drive along on this tour.
In addition to exhibitions, the North Carolina Pottery Center hosts workshops, classes, and other pottery-related events throughout the year. Check the museum’s schedule to find out what special events may be happening when you visit. Keep in mind also that late in the fall of the year the town is home to the Seagrove Pottery Festival, sponsored by the Museum of Traditional North Carolina Pottery, which features the work of dozens of local potters all gathered in one place, and is usually held the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Before you leave the North Carolina Pottery Center, be sure to check out the groundhog kiln outside, an old-time kiln style still used by many of the state’s potters.
Crystal King Pottery
As you leave the North Carolina Pottery Center, turn right (south) out of the parking lot onto Old Plank Road, and then left on Route 705, the Pottery Highway. The first stop, Crystal King Pottery, is three miles down the road in the Whynot community, and on the way there – and between all of the suggested stops – you will pass a great many other potteries, also great places to visit. Crystal King Pottery is on your left, at 2475 Hwy. 705.
Crystal King is one of today’s prominent young potters, the daughter of Terry and Anna King (whose own shop is northwest of town, at Reeder Road off of Burney Road). Crystal’s parents were trained by the late Walter and Dorothy Cole Auman, owners of Seagrove Pottery and influential teachers and mentors to many potters in North Carolina. While she makes plenty of wheel-thrown vessels, King garners most attention for her sculptural figures, which are built rather than thrown. Potters in this area often refer to small clay statues as “whimsies,” or, simply, “folk art.” King hand-builds animals – lions, hares riding atop turtles, and many others – and political figures like Uncle Sam, and specializes in depictions of Biblical scenes. King’s Noah’s Ark sets are a wonderful marriage of her talents for meaningful Scripture-based work and charming animal figures. Crystal King also builds face jugs, or “ugly jugs,” hand-thrown pots with facial features applied – one of the most recognizable and widely collected forms of Southern folk art.
Ben Owen Pottery
Continue south on 705 for three miles, to the community of Westmoore. On your left, at 2199 Hwy. 705, at the corner of Busbee Road, is Ben Owen Pottery.
In Ben Owen’s contemporary showroom, you will see the work of a young potter born and raised in the Seagrove tradition, whose work is true to the inherited methods of his forebears, and, at the same time, highly innovative in technique and aesthetics. Ben Owen III learned his art from his grandfather, Ben Owen, Sr. Owen, Sr., was the master potter at Jugtown Pottery for decades, and business partner to Jacques and Juliana Busbee, early promoters and entrepreneurs of Jugtown. (You’ll read more about the Busbees when you reach Jugtown, later in the tour.) Young Ben Owen, like other Seagrove potters – especially his grandfather – has made a study of Asian ceramics. Owen has found that the Seagrove tradition has a special affinity for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean forms and glazing techniques, which he can incorporate and improvise upon with beautiful results. You’ll see the Asian elements of Owen’s pottery immediately in its smooth shapes and brilliant colors.
Attached to the showroom is a small log cabin that was Ben’s grandfather’s shop. This cabin is now a museum of the Owen family’s pottery. You’ll see in showcases the work of generations of this creative family, pottery which incorporates a wide spectrum of tradition, utility, experimentation, and innovation.
Leaving Ben Owen Pottery, make an immediate left onto Busbee Road. Half a mile up the road you will see Westmoore Pottery, a small brick Tudor-style building on the left, at 4622 Busbee Road.
David and Mary Farrell of Westmoore Pottery are, like many of the artists here, potters who grew up elsewhere but who were drawn to Seagrove because of their love of its pottery traditions. The Farrells met as apprentices at Jugtown Pottery. No longer newcomers, they have been established artists here in Westmoore for thirty years.
The specialty of Westmoore Pottery is the recreation of early American and European ceramics. In this way their work differs from much of the tradition of the Seagrove area, but the Farrells were trained in Seagrove methods, and their appreciation for the past and the excellence of their ceramics makes Westmoore Pottery an important stop on this tour. Because of the historical accuracy of Westmoore Pottery’s wares, their pieces appear in dozens of living-history museums, and have been used in many movies, including “Cold Mountain” and “Amistad.” The Farrells are particularly renowned for their work in decorated earthenware, or redware, a medium that was largely replaced by stoneware in this part of North Carolina in the nineteenth century. The Moravian potters in Salem (present-day Winston-Salem) produced outstanding decorated redware, and their work is a special inspiration to the Farrells. Visiting Westmoore Pottery, you’ll learn about European North America’s earliest ceramic traditions, ancestors of today’s Seagrove pottery.
Original Owens Pottery
Make a left out of the Westmoore Pottery parking lot, and follow Busbee Road for about another two miles. The Original Owens Pottery is at 3728 Busbee Road, on your left.
The next two stops on the tour are potteries owned and operated by the children of the late M. L. Owens, a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award winner and one of the modern legends in the Seagrove tradition. (M. L. Owens’ children and Ben Owen III are second cousins, descended from brothers James and Rufus Owen, respectively, turn-of-the-century potters.)
The Original Owens Pottery is across the road from the homeplace where M. L. grew up. (The old house is no longer standing.) M. L.’s father James first established his pottery here in 1917. The showroom is located in a small log cabin, and an extensive complex of sheds behind it houses the wheels, glazes, kilns, drying racks, clay mills, and other equipment. Nancy Owens Brewer and Boyd Owens, M. L.’s youngest children, make excellent production pottery here, primarily utilitarian dinnerware.
Make a left out of the parking lot, and then take the next left onto Jugtown Road.
Around the corner from the Original Owens Pottery is Jugtown Pottery. Founded in 1922 by Jacques and Juliana Busbee, Jugtown Pottery is on the National Register of Historic Places. Jugtown is operated by Vernon Owens, who, like his father M.L. Owens, is a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award winner, and Vernon’s wife Pam Lorette Owens, also a very highly regarded potter. Other artists working at Jugtown include Vernon’s older brother Bobby, an expert in glazing and firing techniques, and Charles Moore, who has been associated with Jugtown Pottery since the 1950s, and is known for his animal figures and knowledge of building groundhog kilns. Travis and Bayle Owens, Vernon and Pam’s children, have entered the family business, and Travis’ work is sold in the shop.
Next door to the sales cabin is the Jugtown Museum, where you can learn about the history of this important establishment. Jacques and Juliana Busbee, founders of Jugtown, were artists and art promoters who, around the time of the First World War, became aware of the pottery industry just southwest of their native Raleigh. The Seagrove tradition at that time was not moribund but was certainly flagging, and the Busbees, whose imaginations were captivated by the region’s old-time forms, so compatible with the contemporary arts and crafts movement, set about to revitalize the local industry. With connections to the art market in New York, and with the expert craftsmanship and partnership of local potters – most notably Charlie Teague, Ben Owen, Sr., and, years later, a young Vernon Owens – the Busbees did indeed have much to do with the resurgence of Seagrove pottery. Since Mrs. Busbee’s death in the 1960s, Jugtown has been through a series of ownerships and business models, and continues to be an influential force in piedmont pottery. In the Jugtown Museum, you will see many wonderful pieces made by the Owens family over the generations.
When you leave Jugtown Pottery, backtrack – right on Jugtown Road, right on Busbee road – and make a right back onto 705. Take the next left, just past the Westmoore Family Restaurant, on Dover Church Road. Follow Dover Church Road for four miles, and then make a right on Willie Road. After two and a half miles, make a right on Adams Road. Almost immediately, turn left at the driveway into Luck’s Ware.
The pottery tradition in Sid Luck’s family stretches back five generations, to Luck’s great-great-grandfather William Luck, born around 1810, who worked with the Cole family in Whynot. Sid’s sons Jason and Matthew are potters as well, bringing the family tradition into its sixth generation.
Luck turned pots for the J. B. Cole Pottery when he was twelve years old, and acquired much of his pottery know-how from early life experience. After a tour of duty in the US Marine Corps and receiving a degree from North Carolina State University, Luck became a chemistry teacher in the public schools. During all this time, however, he kept one hand in the clay, turning pots part-time. Twenty years ago he opened Luck’s Ware. It was intended as a part-time enterprise, but quickly grew into his full-time calling, and has been ever since.
Sid Luck and the other potters of Luck’s Ware employ a variety of firing and glazing techniques. A few years ago he and his sons built an old-fashioned groundhog kiln behind the shop, which, using the method of his ancestors, Sid fires with lightwood stumps harvested from the pineywoods on old family land. Many of the bricks used in the construction of the kiln were recycled from Luck’s great-grandfather’s kiln. Easily distinguishable by the heavy coating of gray-green salt glaze that they accumulated during many firings in the nineteenth century, these bricks are a tangible reminder of the Luck family’s long legacy of craftsmanship here in the sandhills.
End of Tour
Leaving Luck’s Ware, the final stop on this tour, you have a couple of choices. If you make a right back onto Adams Road, you will soon hit Business 220. Following 220 north, back into and through town, you will pass quite a few potteries, including Bulldog at the far south, Latham’s at the far north, and many others in between. Alternatively, if you turn left out of Luck’s Ware, you can follow Adams Road back to 705 and visit some of the potteries that you may have missed on your first pass. Please pick up some of the brochures, widely available here, that list Seagrove-area potteries. There are nearly one hundred potteries within about fifteen miles of the town. In these shops you’ll meet more eighth- and ninth-generation members of Seagrove’s old pottery families, and many newer contributors to the Seagrove legacy. We encourage you to explore and enjoy all of these artists’ wonderful work.
For more information about area potters and pottery, please visit the Seagrove Area Potters Association and the North Carolina Pottery Center’s Directory of North Carolina Potters.