This town and its surrounding hamlets occupy only a few square miles in the corners of Randolph and Moore counties, yet they’re home to dozens of potters, one of the densest concentrations in the world. To paraphrase an old saw: You can’t throw a pot without hitting one.
Take a seat with three master potters to find out how to start your own pottery collection, their favorite pieces to make, and what it’s really like behind the wheel.
William Ivey can tell you most anything you’d want to know about longrifles, or pottery in the Seagrove tradition, or antique furniture crafted in Randolph County. What he values most about the individual pieces he’s collected over the years, however, are the personal histories they carry.
In central North Carolina, red clay is the sod beneath our feet, the bed from which nourishment springs, a source of work and of art. And for those of us whose roots are planted here, it colors who we are.
