Ballantyne Magazine covers news, events, real estate, restaurants, shopping, health, schools and business in the upscale Ballantyne Area of Charlotte, NC.
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BALLANTYNE | one tank trip T Heel Tar reasure SEAGROVE POTTERY CAPTIVATES PEOPLE 'ROUND THE WORLD By Regan Michelle White Photos provided by Seagrove potteries and Seagrove Area Potters Association NORTH CAROLINA'S HILLS, dales, rich mountains, sparkling streams and unblemished forests are renowned for their splendor, attracting year-round visitors and residents eager to capture the tranquility of rural life. And for hundreds of years, the hills east of the Uwharrie National Forest in the central part of the state have been a fertile setting for generations of potters. NORTH CAROLINA L , dales, rich mountains, sparkling streams and unblemished forests are renowned for their FROM THE GROUND UP N 'S HILLS can't be found anywhere else. "The thing that makes Seagrove different from any other area—this is the oldest More than 100 potters live and work in the famous Seagrove area, taking clay and firing it into utilitarian and decorative works of art. For centuries people have sought and collected the fruits of this creative region, pottery that 88 BALLANTYNE MAGAZINE can't be found anywhere else. "The thing that makes Seagrove different from any other area — this is the oldest area in the country where pottery has continuously been made," says potter Mary Farrell, who owns and operates Westmoore Pottery, 4622 Busbee Road, with her husband David. "There are other areas where they used to make pottery and it died out and someone has revived it. Seagrove has been a continuous pottery area for a long, long time." Well over 200 years, in fact. North Carolina's rich clay deposits were well known to Native Americans, who were SEAGROVE SE B SEA BALLANTYNE 88 miles - 1 hr., 46 min. the first to fashion the material into functional and ceremonial objects. In the late 1700s, immigrant potters, primarily English and Germans from Pennsylvania and Virginia, settled into the Seagrove area and began what would become a tradition of pottery-making that would change and adapt along with the country to survive. CELEBRATING TEN YEARS 2000-2010 "It changes a lot," Farrell explains. "In the 1800s it was different than in the 1920s and the 1970s — and different than it is today. One reason it has survived is that it does change. What people want to look at changes." Today, Farrell says the Seagrove area benefits from its diverse range of potters who WINTER 2010-2011