100 Russell Drive
Star, NC, 27356
(910) 428-9001
International wood firing conference at Starworks in Star, North Carolina
Seagrove Pre Conference Guest Artist
Having painted in my early days, I went to the Memphis Academy of Art to continue. After taking several pottery classes I changed my major.
After a couple of summers at Haystack School of Crafts in Maine and graduate school at NY State College of Ceramics in Alfred, NY, I set up my studio.
From 1965-1970, I was in Eads, TN and in 1970 I moved to Penland, NC.
Being a full time artist is my passion and pleasure. I hope yours is in the use.
Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist
Chad Brown enjoys making wood fired alkaline glazed and salted pots. Many of the shapes he makes today are like the ones his grandfather and great-great grandfather made. Chad focuses on two aspects of pots: shape and surface. The shapes are designed by him and the surfaces are decorated by fire. Occasionally the best shape and the best surface find each other; this is his forever pursuit.Groundhog Kiln
Chad will be firing the Groundhog kiln at the NC Pottery Center. Built by ancestors of the Luck family, this wood-salt kiln has a long history in this area of central North Carolina. Its an 60 cu/ft with a refractory quartz floor that is fired in the traditional groundhog style.
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Seagrove Pre Conference Guest Artist
Main Conference, Plenary Speaker and Interviewer
Tony Clennell is a second generation potter that has taught workshops in Canada, USA, Japan, China, Korea and Italy. He has a Master of Fine Arts from Utah State University and is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He has written more than 55 articles for ceramic journals and is exhibited in museums and collections in North America, Europe and Asia. He is author of “Stuck in the Mud” a book of irreverent tales, BS and nonsense. He is also the author of the Smokie Clennell BlogSpot which won Best Pottery Blog for 2015.
Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist
*Only Open for Tours during Pre-Conference*
Donna Craven is largely self-taught, but nothing happens in a vacuum. She began as a Seagrove journeyman potter in 1996. She learned the basics by working in various local potteries among which were Humble Mill Pottery and Turn and Burn Pottery. In the summer of 2001 she built a small groundhog kiln. The first kiln opening was held that fall and she have been doing only her own work since then.
In 2010 Craven built a much larger groundhog style kiln that she continues to fire 6 to 8 times a year. Her goal is to create continuity between the form and the surface of a piece in order to bring it to life. She uses a variety of materials and techniques to accomplish this. At the present, taped decorations using manganese, crackle slips and ash glaze are interesting to me. As a direct descendant of Peter Craven, one of the original pottery families of the Seagrove community, she has a deep respect for the integrity of the Seagrove tradition. It has an honest and simple strength that rings true.
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Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist
Invited Artists: Jari Versternen
Michael Mahan fires for the effects of natural wood ash and flashing in his Manabigama, a cross-draft kiln designed by potters Bill Van Gilder and John Theis. His firing methods vary as he and his son have spent considerable time trying different ways of firing and cooling, using a wide variety of clay and local materials. Mahan built his first wood-fired kiln in 2009. He built a second kiln of similar style in Ireland in 2013, where he and his Irish wife Mary Holmes spend their summer every year. Michael has been making pottery since the early 1980s.
Michael first learned pottery making at the craft center at North Carolina State University while studying writing and editing. He took production pottery classes at Montgomery Community College in Troy, NC, after a short career as a reporter at Asheboro's The Courier-Tribune. He worked for several potters in the Seagrove area before he and his first wife opened up Wild Rose Pottery in Seagrove, NC.
Michael’s son Levi now works out of what was formerly Wild Rose Pottery, and Michael operates a pottery shop in the community of Westmoore, seven miles down the road.
Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist, Panelist
Levi Mahan grew up in Seagrove, North Carolina at Wild Rose Pottery, run by his parents. Since 2009, he has worked for and learned from his dad at From the Ground up Pottery. Levi has assisted with wood kiln building, loading, and firing for potters across North Carolina. He fires with wood while focusing on incorporating local materials whenever possible.
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Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist
Fred Jonhnston’s origins in clay are rooted in the southern folk pottery traditions of North Carolina. Growing up in the rural south has given him access to its colorful history and characters, which serves as a wellspring of ideas. Storytelling is a regional pastime, consequently, he questions how a pot can tell a story. Yet his work draws from many cultures: Greek, Korean, Chinese, Pre-Columbian, European and Mimbres.
Johnston received a BFA from Alfred University in New York and a MFA from Penn State University in Pennsylvania before moving to Seagrove and establishing Johnston and Gentithes Pottery with his partner Carol Gentithes.
He continues to explore historical paintings, architecture, literature, sculpture and ceramics which he contrasts with the southern vernacular creating a hybrid and developing a personal language of forms and motifs. For example, he may use visual references from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch or the literature of Joel Harris Chandler’s tales of Uncle Remus to redefine the archetypal jug form of the southern United States.
At the moment, Johnston is interested in the abstraction of nature. He questions how mark making and decoration accentuates form while at the same time contemplating what forms are best suited for a particular zoomorphic motif. He relies on intuition, spontaneity and what is visceral as a mode of creating, and believes that a pot truly reveals itself over time and use. Only through deep investigation can one begin to internalize their ideas into a growing and evolving personal vision. The journey continues.
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Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist
Daniel Johnston digs most of the materials he uses to make and glaze his pots. The pots are fired in a large 850 cubic ft wood-salt kiln. From digging the clay to firing the kiln he puts all his effort into creating pots that have a powerful presence. It is important to him to create pots that are timeless but reflect the culture and times in which he lives.
LOCAL CLAY & GLAZE
The idea of using wood ash and clay to create a glaze is several thousand years old. Different proportions of these two remarkable materials can give a wide range of amazing results. These two seemingly simple materials have produced glazes throughout time that are unparalleled in diversity and beauty.
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Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist, Conference Organizer and Presenter
Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist, Conference Organizer and Presenter
Jugtown Pottery is a working pottery and an American Craft Shop located in a grove of trees and bamboo eight miles south of Seagrove. It is just off Busbee Road, a road named for Jacques and Juliana Busbee, the founders of Jugtown. Both artists with a love of craft and form, together they created Jugtown Pottery melding forms from world traditions with those developed in North Carolina. In 1917 they created a Southern Tea Room and American Craft Shop in New York City, and in 1922 they began stamping each piece with the circular Jugtown ware stamp.
The forms derive from simplicity and practice, a continuous line, then a complimentary glaze and occasional decoration. Drawing from the North Carolina tradition, you will find jugs, pitchers and candlesticks in wood fired salt glaze and frogskin, and tableware's in green, blue, brown and gray. Vases, bowls and jars in glazes made with wood ash, local clays, copper reds, greens and iron earth tones, have origins in world clay traditions.
Jugtown thrives on the aesthetic foundation laid out by the Busbee's. Vernon Owens, recipient of the NC Folk Heritage Award and the NEA National Heritage Fellowship, wife Pam Owens, son Travis Owens and daughter Bayle Owens are the main potters; while Bobby Owens mixes clay and glazes the pieces.
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Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist
"It has been my goal, all my life, to carry on as much of the old traditional work as I can." --- Sid Luck
Luck's Ware continues the ancient art of wheel-thrown pottery near Seagrove, the "Pottery Capitol" of North Carolina. Sid Luck, a fifth generation potter, and sons, Jason and Matt, continue the Luck pottery tradition. This pottery tradition is observed in the shape of many old time functional stoneware pieces such as candle holders, churns, jugs, pitchers, and teapots.
Sid digs local clay to use in some of his pottery. One of the wheels he still uses for turning was originally in his father's shop. A wood-fired groundhog kiln, built in 2003, is used to produce salt-glazed pottery similar to that produced many years ago by Luck ancestors. Bricks from the kilns of Sid's father and grandfather were used in the construction.
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Hideo Mabuchi is a self-taught ceramist currently focusing on thrown-and-altered vessel forms for atmospheric firings. When not in the studio he teaches and conducts research as a Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University. Combining these interests, he is working to develop new teaching approaches that integrate ceramics with scientific and humanistic studies to bring craft into the core of liberal undergraduate education. He is likewise engaged in various studies of the physics of color formation on wood-fired ceramics using high temperature imaging and optical/electron microscopy.
Conference Panelist
John Neely is Professor of Ceramics at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. With a BFA from Alfred University and an MFA from Ohio University, he has exhibited and lectured in the US, Europe and around the Pacific Rim. He is known in woodfire circles as the originator of the “train kiln” concept.
Details:
@neelyjc
Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist
Main conference Demonstrator
Invited Artists:
Cynthia Bringle, Tony Clennell and John Neely
During college, Ben Owen’s interest in form, design, and color piqued; and he began to forge his own unique path in clay. Through technical exploration and academic influences, Ben’s clay vernacular began to evolve. Travels in the US attending workshops and conferences along with a fellowship in Japan, extended his continued research. He has said, “My approach to working in clay is inspired by many influences. Tradition and vision merge to forge the future, as I honor the historic Owen aesthetic while creating a new, unique body of work. Culture, blended with influences in nature, inspire my work. With studies in China, Japan, Australia and Europe, as well as in the university setting, I have continued to create a unique identity from culture and nature.”
Ben’s recent passions have included glaze creation and experimentation. “For some pots, I use a four-chambered wood kiln with a firing process of up to four days. The prolonged exposure to ash and heat develops a wide range of color and texture on the clay. Other glaze techniques have evolved in a gas or electric kiln with a precision in temperature control to manipulate the finish. Some pieces are re-fired to develop layers and depth on the finish.”
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Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist and Conference Organizer
Anne Pärtna is a graduate of East Carolina University (2007) and holds an MFA degree with concentration in Ceramics. She received her BFA degree from Estonian Academy of Art (2000), in her native Estonia where her family still resides on a farm on the Gulf of Finland. She threw her first pot on the hub of an overturned tricycle when she was nine years old while her younger brother spun the wheel. Anne prefers the volatile atmosphere of wood firing but also uses salt and simple glazes to bring the surfaces of her wide range of forms to life.
Anne and her partner Adam Landman live in Seagrove NC, where they are nurturing a partnership in business called Blue Hen Pottery.
Her Bourry-box kiln takes roughly 24 hours to fire with an overnight shut down. Small amount of salt will be used at the end of firing.
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Blue Hen Bourry Box kiln cooling down after firing.
Seagrove Pre Conference Guest Artist
Main Conference, Interviewer, Demonstrator and Panelist
Joseph combines the styles of traditional, Southern alkaline glaze ware and East Asian design, among others. Using two wood-fired kilns, he produces both salt and ash-glazed wares, ranging in size from very large sculptural vases to planters and a variety of beautiful, functional tableware. In 2015, he expanded his creative range to include large, hand-built sculptural ceramics.
Seagrove Pre-Conference Artists
Main Conference Panelist
Invited Guest Artists of Studio Touya include:
John Neely and Joseph Sand.
Studio Touya is owned and operated by Takuro and Hitomi Shibata
Hitomi Shibata @studiotouya
Hitomi Shibata is a Japanese native and a ceramic artist in Seagrove, North Carolina. Has Ceramic art degrees (Bachelor of Education & Master of Education in ceramic art) from Okayama University in Japan. She got professional career in Shigaraki which is one of the oldest and biggest pottery villages in Japan. Rotary International scholarship brought her to the USA and became a special student at University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in 2002. She moved to Seagrove, NC, USA in 2005, and set up her permanent pottery studio which is the biggest potters town in USA in 2007. She makes functional woodfired pottery and sculptural ceramic work in her studio and fires wood kilns. In 2017, she became a member of International Academy of Ceramics (IAC) in Geneva, Switzerland. Has many exhibitions in Japan, USA and Internationally.
Takuro Shibata @takuroshibataceramics
Takuro Shibata is a Japanese native, ceramic artist in Seagrove, NC which is
one of the biggest pottery town in North Carolina, USA. He holds a degree in engineering and applied chemistry from Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. His interest in ceramics led him to become an apprentice at local pottery studio in Shigaraki in 1997. He and his wife Hitomi first visited Seagrove, NC in 2003 and returned to Seagrove area two years later when Takuro accepted a position as the director of STARworks Ceramics. They established Studio Touya in historic Seagrove and built a Shigaraki style Anagama kiln. Takuro has developed a national reputation as a studio potter and as a wild clay specialist, and invited by many conferences and workshops includes NCECA, Penland School of Crafts and Woodfire NC Conference in the past. He was selected as a member of International Academy of Ceramics (IAC) in Geneva, Switzerland in 2019.
Studio Touya Pottery Wood Kilns
Takuro and Hitomi have an Anagama plus two chamber wood-fired kiln, and built a new smaller wood kiln.
They built their Shigaraki style Anagama (16 feet long, 7 feet wide and 5 feet high) with catenary arch salt chamber (6 feet long, 4 feet wide and 6 feet tall) in 2009-2010. They both were active potters in Shigaraki, Japan, and had many chances to help firing many different wood-fired kilns in US & Japan. It looks like a very typical Anagama, but it has some new ideas from American wood kilns, for example they made 4 side stoke holes (normally no stoke holes for Anagama in Shigaraki), and added big salt chamber to get a variety of results from the Anagama Chamber. Also, they made the second chamber's firebox bigger enough to be able to fire by itself. So they can fire just second chamber to make functional table wares.
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Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist
Main Conference Organizer
*Only Open for Tours during Pre-Conference*
David Stuempfle will be giving a tour of this kiln and studio. The newest kiln on site is a flame-shaped anagram built with the help of Estonian kiln builder Andres Allik.
The original kiln was built in 1992 and is a tunnel-type, cross-draft kiln, approximately 30 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 7 feet tall with side-stoke ports the length of the kiln. David fires twice a year, and firings range from 100 to 150 hours. Most of the pots are loaded through the chimney, with some loaded in through the front of the firebox.
Change, risk and growth are important aspects of working with clay. David tries to use the kiln a little differently each time by trying different woods, stacking patterns, and firing schedules. Although people who use wood kilns will achieve many results that are similar to one another, he feels that each kiln is capable of producing results unique to itself. It is important to be aware and receptive to the kiln personality both during use and when evaluating the results.
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Seagrove Pre-Conference Artist
Main conference Panelist
Kate Waltman graduated from Alfred University in 2010 and has been making pots in Seagrove ever since. Kate’s pots are made using local materials, boldly carved with organic patterns inspired by Art Deco design, and fired in a variety of atmospheric kilns. She is the owner and co-founder of The Triangle Studio, which houses several artists studios and has a collective gallery. Kate shows her pots internationally and has lectured and taught throughout the USA.
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Seagrove Pre-Conference Guest Artist
Main conference Panelist
Jari Vesterinen , born 1964, has been working as a potter, artist and teacher since he made his BA in Ceramics in 1994. During the final thesis and after that he made reseach for Finnish clay resources, red clay and kaolin, and possibities to use these clays in studio pottery.
He was a full time teacher for 15 years, 2000-2015, at Hame University of Applied Sciences. The main themes in teaching were architectural glass and ceramics, and studio ceramics. Vesterinen made his MA in Art Education in 2012 at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland.
Since 2015 Vesterinen and his partner, Aba Luostarinen, has been running Glass and Ceramics Center Kuu, in Mallusjoki, Southern Finland, and focused in wood fired ceramics. Jari Vesterinen was an resident artist in Starworks Clay Studio in 2015.
