East Fork Pottery, a modern pottery brand rooted in North Carolina’s centuries-old ceramic tradition, turns 15 this year. I had the opportunity to sit down with owner and founder Alex Matisse to reflect on how they’ve grown from a two-person team firing in a wood-fired kiln to now more than 130 employees, making close to one million pieces of pottery each year.
Early Roots
Matisse came to North Carolina when he wasn’t quite 21 years old, leaving behind his family of artists and anthropologists in the Northeast. He enrolled at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, without ever having stepped foot on campus. It was here that Matisse learned the centuries-old ceramic tradition of making pots that gripped him tightly in the chest and didn’t let go.
“I had just happened to land in this very fertile soil of pottery,” reflected Matisse. “In North Carolina specifically, there were these very rich and very alive enduring traditions.”
He fell in love with the physical and labor-intensive process of using a wood-fired kiln. Through a connection at Guilford, Matisse met potter Matt Jones who had a workshop outside of Asheville and a large, hand-built kiln. Matisse began helping him with the overnight weekend shifts, keeping the kiln burning 24/7…