North America has a long and storied history of pottery, dating back thousands of years to when Indigenous peoples created clay vessels for food and storage. With the arrival of European colonizers, the tradition of pottery transformed in new hands and styles. And there’s one small town in North Carolina where you can follow this meandering thread (or clay coil) from the past to the present: Seagrove, known as the “Handmade Pottery Capital” of North Carolina (and the United States).
Located halfway between Raleigh and Charlotte, Seagrove is a town of just 250 residents, and yet it’s home to over 100 potters and 50 family-owned potteries. Besides brimming with arts and crafts, Seagrove also has a lovely community. Potters collaborate by sharing knowledge and resources, which they then offer to visitors, who can take pottery classes or see artisans at work. Education is at the heart of Seagrove, which seeks to promote and preserve hundreds of years of a history that almost disappeared.
Seagrove is a pottery mecca thanks to rich deposits of mud and clay created by volcanic activity of the Uwharrie Mountains. Haliwa-Saponi and Kayauwee tribes made ceramics until the arrival of English and German potters in the late 1700s. But with the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the early 1900s, mass-produced utilitarian wares started pushing out handcrafted work. Luckily, artists and collectors Jacques and Juliana Busbee stumbled upon Seagrove’s ceramics in 1917 and started selling them in New York before starting their own pottery in town in 1922, preserving and reviving the desire for handcrafted creations. A visit to Seagrove lets you immerse yourself in hundreds of years of history, as you can view historic artifacts, throw clay on the wheel yourself, or attend one of the town’s pottery- or craft-themed events.
The potteries of Seagrove
Begin your Seagrove journey at the North Carolina Pottery Center, open daily except for Sunday and Monday. This museum, gallery, and educational center focuses on the history of ceramics in North Carolina. Plus, you can see the work of local artisans, get a map of Seagrove’s studios, and even take pottery classes. The center is a legacy of Dorothy “Dot” Auman and her husband, Walter, who opened Seagrove Pottery in the 1950s, a museum in 1969, and helped plan the center. Dot preserved the history and traditions of pottery in Seagrove and elsewhere by focusing on the context of the craft: Who made it and where? Although the Auman’s museum closed, their collection is now at the Mint, one of the four museums that Charlotte locals love…