SEAGROVE, NC POTTERY
THE LARGEST GROUP OF POTTERS IN THE UNITED STATES IS RIGHT HERE IN NC! LETS EXPLORE WHY!
Click on the Red Devil Face Jug to learn why Seagrove, North Carolina became the epicenter of clay.
HELPFUL VOCAB WORDS...
POTTERY / noun: pots, dishes, and other articles made of earthenware or baked clay.
POTTER / noun: a person who makes pottery.
CERAMIC / noun: pots and other articles made from clay hardened by heat.
CLAY / noun: a stiff, sticky fine-grained earth, typically yellow, red, or gray in
color and often forming an impermeable layer in the soil. It can be molded
when wet, and is dried and baked to make bricks, pottery, and ceramics.
KILN / noun: a furnace or oven for burning, baking, or drying, especially
one for calcining lime or firing pottery.
Native Americans in NC began making pottery about 3,000 years ago. As people
started farming and building homes they needed clay pots. Woman at this time mainly
made all the clay pots for cooking and storing foods, burial urns, and other uses. Many
Native Americans started selling their pots to whites up through the 1900s to make money.
Native Americans did not use the potters wheel, glazes, or kilns.
There was a time when small family owned pottery shops were located all over the Piedmont of NC.
Why do you think there was little pottery ever made in the Coastal Plain of NC (near the beach)?
There also were never many potteries in the Mountains becuase of such low population. The Piedmont
of NC had and still has a lot of clay in the ground available for potters to use for making their pottery.
The dominant potters during the late 1700s were the Moravians. They began their pottery work in Bethabara,
later moving to Old Salem. The Moravians pottery industry was very profitable (made them lots of money). They
mainly produced lead glazed (now known to be poisonous) pottery with slip (colored liquid clay) decoration. They
were known as being the best potters in the United States of their time! You can see their work when visiting old salem!
Around 1850 a large pottery area emerged around Randolph county during the same time the Moravians were hard at
work (see map below). This area is now known as the Seagrove area where we will be going on our field trip! Mostly all male
potters made similar bowls, jars, plates, and much more but they did not add decoration like the Moravians. These potters
would sell their pottery to local people that would use pottery items in their homes (see images below of pottery shops).
Around 1825 most NC potters switch to higher firing clays which were much stronger and they would not break as easy. They had to
find new places to dig for high fire clay and they switch over to non poisonous glazes! With the new clay, they had to fire their kilns much
hotter than before requiring more wood and time (see kilns being fired below in pictures).
Many potters had to work very fast and did not focus on decoration because a pot the size of a gollon of milk only costs 10 cents. WOW!
Potters had to make many pots to make lots of money. As the years moved on in the 1800s many potteries closed with the new cheaper
improvements of metal and glass containers. Potters who survived this transiton end up making more artistic pottery that was different in shape and
form and served various uses. Many woman began to play an important role in pottery making during the 1900s and began opening their own shops
and studios in the Seagrove area.
MAP OF NC POTTERY AREAS
SEAGROVE
SEAGROVE IMAGES...
FACE JUGS.FACE JUGS.FACE JUGS
Why Face Jugs???
This type of ceramic face vessel first appeared in the American South in the mid-1800s. Jugs such as these are attributed to a small number of black slaves working as potters in the Edgefield District of South Carolina. None of these skilled potters have been identified by name and the reason for making face vessels is unknown. People believe that the vessels may have had religious or burial importance, or that they reflect the complex responses of people attempting to live and maintain their personal identities under harsh conditions.
YARN BOMBING
COMING TO STOUGH. MADE BY YOU!
Click on the Blue Squid picture above to visit KnitsForLife where you will explore a sister team who love the process of yarn bombing. You will be able to see all the recent yarn bombing street art projects the sister duo have accomplished.
You all will be creating squares of colored yarn that we put together to wrap around trees around the school. Look through these photo examples and zoom in and out with your fingers to get a better idea of what we will be doing!
sewing yarn on loom tutorial
Watch this video when you have your potholder loom, yarn, scissors and hook. Be very very very very patient with yourself, your neighbors, and Mr. Kennington as this is a learning process for everyone. If you find yourself to be really good then please help a classmate out if they ask for help or if you see them struggling. If you need help then rewind and replay the video to the part you do not understand. If you are still confused then ask a classmate who is already passed the step you need help with. If you can not find any answers then raise your hand so Mr. Kennington can resolve your problem.
If the video to the right does not work then click on the needle above to watch the video!
The next video to the right will show you how to sew your completed pot holder squares together using a variety of stitches. The stitch that seems to be the easiest is the V stitch using a plastic needle and leftover yarn.