Social - April 2003

May marks first Burlon Craig pottery festival

From staff reports

The legacy of North Carolina master potter Burlon Craig will be celebrated in May with an inaugural festival promising all the excitement of a traditional on-the-kiln grounds pottery sale.

On Saturday, May 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., more than 50 Catawba Valley Potters — those craftsmen who pull distinctive face jugs, glossy crocks and alkaline-glazed jugs out of spinning lumps of dense riverbed clay — will join in western Lincoln County on the grounds of West Lincoln High School, for the “Burlon Craig Pottery Festival – Celebrating the Evolution of Pottery.”

In addition to offering hundreds of pieces for sale, potters will provide demonstrations of their craft, throwing on the wheel, and share inside knowledge on selecting and identifying pottery.

Collectors will be thrilled to know that 50 pieces of original Burlon Craig pottery will be offered for sale for the first time.

Prized for their unique folk-art beauty, the late Burlon Craig’s highly collectible works are displayed in the Smithsonian Institute and are fervently traded on on-line auction houses, including eBay. A 1983 recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship Award, bestowed by the National Endowment of the Arts, Craig is credited with reviving interest in the Catawba Valley pottery tradition, a tradition that extends back generations to when Native Americans dug clay along the Catawba River’s bottomland to craft utilitarian vessels.

Anglo and German Catawba Valley settlers continued to make pottery and, in the 1930s, Craig, then a teenager, took an interest in the work of area potters. He apprenticed himself to a neighbor, mastering the techniques and drawing nationwide acclaim for his practical and fanciful pieces, still crafted from hand-dug Catawba River clay and fired in a traditional “ground hog” kiln.

Alerted to sales on the grounds of his western Lincoln County workshop by word-of-mouth, collectors from the Southeast turned out in mass, hoping to purchase a Craig original. The festival will possibly be the last time that the public will have an opportunity to be the first owner of a Burlon Craig original.

Festival pottery will be available from $5 up, perhaps for a small mug or bowl, up to a $1,000 or more for an art piece.

Each will be a unique treasure, says Bobbi Baker, chairman of the West Lincoln Branch Library Auxiliary, which is hosting the festival.

“Digging, grinding, pounding and preparing their clay is only one step in the process which makes Catawba Valley potters unique,” Baker said. “You can’t buy a ground hog kiln, you must build one — and they don’t come with instructions. When and how much wood to feed it takes years to learn and that is if you are lucky enough to have one of these master potters take you under their wing.”

Admission to the festival is $2 per person. Food and festival T-shirts will be available on site. Proceeds benefit the West Lincoln Branch Library. Half Way Supply, Inc. is sponsoring the festival.

The West Lincoln High School festival site is located on N.C. 27 West.

For more information, visit www.burloncraigfestival.com or contact Bobbi Baker at 704-275-1393.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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