Posts Tagged ‘Tom Spleth’

5th Annual Spruce Pine Potters Market Takes Place on Oct. 9 & 10, 2010, in Spruce Pine, NC

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

This weekend you can go see the changing colors of the leaves in Western North Carolina and do some early holiday shopping at the 5th Annual Spruce Pine Potters Market. The show features a super lineup of potters from that area and you’ll be knocked out by the work offered, but be warned – get there early and shop till you drop.

Here’s the info:

The 5th Annual Spruce Pine Potters Market will be held on Oct. 9 & 10, 2010, from 10am-5pm, in the Cross Street Building, 31 Cross Street in Spruce Pine, NC.


Cynthia Bringle                            Mike Henshaw

The visitor to the small mountain counties of Mitchell and Yancey, NC, could be forgiven for being unaware that the area is home to scores of America’s outstanding potters and ceramic artists. But the annual Spruce Pine Potters Market, coming up on the 9th and 10th of October, aims to remedy that situation by providing an opportunity to meet and get to know some of these clay artists “up close and personal”.

This invitational show features over thirty of the area’s best potters each year on a rotating basis, in an attractive display space at the peak of autumn leaf season. The event offers visitors and pottery collectors an outstanding opportunity to spend quality time meeting and engaging some very talented clay artists in a comfortable setting that includes unusually creative food vendors as well. Plan to spend a day (or two) mingling with this very special community of gifted and original potters.


Courtney Martin                           Jenny Lou Sherburne

The Potters Market is held in the Cross Street Building, a vintage textile mill recently converted into a spacious multi-use facility. Food, refreshments and the work of thirty invited clay artists should provide something of interest for the entire family. The annual downtown Spruce Pine Heritage Festival on Saturday is another bonus for young and old visitors alike.

Each year the Spruce Pine Potters Market invites one artist to participate who has not been in the show before, perhaps someone newer to the area or to clay.  This artist receives the honorary title of “Emerging Artist” and this year that person is Lisa Gluckin. She creates beautifully layered, handbuilt pieces using earthernware clay and colored terra sigilatta for her palette.

The clay artists range in age from their twenties through eighties and specialize in every aspect of ceramic work, from dinnerware to tile to figurative sculpture. Many of these potters are internationally known and have traveled the world in pursuit of their passion.

Participating potters included in this show are: Stan Andersen, Will Baker, Cynthia Bringle, Melisa Cadell, Naomi Dalglish, Claudia Dunaway, Jon Ellenbogen, Susan Feagin, Lisa Gluckin, Becky Gray, Mike Henshaw, Michael Hunt, Shawn Ireland, Lisa Joerling-Burns, Nick Joerling, Michael Kline, Ty & Julie Larson, Suze Lindsay, Courtney Martin, Kent McLaughlin, Shane Mickey, Jane Peiser, Mark Peters, Becky Plummer, David Ross, Ken Sedberry, Jenny Lou Sherburne, Gay Smith, Tom Spleth, Liz Summerfield, Joy Tanner, and Jerilyn Virden.

There may be a few others, but getting list right is always a challenge.

For more information and travel directions to the show visit (www.sprucepinepottersmarket.com) or call 828/688-3386 with any questions.

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Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville, NC, Features Works by Five Ceramic Artists

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

I think we need a new category – Pottery Exhibitions or something like that – or a whole new offering from Carolina Arts which keeps our readers up on all that is clay in the Carolinas. What do you think?

Here’s the press release:


Say, notice that quilt square?

Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville, NC, will present the exhibit, Contiguous, featuring ceramic sculptures by Cristina Cordova and Jerilyn Virden, and What’s in a Line, featuring ceramics by David Eichelberger and Tom Spleth, on view through Aug. 31, 2010.

Cristina Cordova’s provocative new sculptures are haunting yet beckon those who come upon them to look closely and try to understand their suffering and longings.  Through the primary vehicle of the figure, she is in constant search for a presence. These new works will include materials never before seen in Cristina’s sculptures.


A work by Cristina Cordova from her website.

Jerilyn Virden looks to primitive objects that have a contemporary relevance. She pares down forms and exaggerates isolated elements, thus accentuating their sense of generosity and strength. Virden will also be introducing new surfaces and forms for this exhibition.

David Eichelberger is captivated by the dialogue in his work between simplicity and complexity. He uses clean, graceful lines to capture qualities he finds in the organic world. This will be his first exhibit of post-graduate work.

Tom Spleth’s slip cast porcelain cups are made complete with tiny script capturing select and provocative messages. Spleth will also be showing his vase forms that are recognized for the simplicity of their truly unique forms. Combined, these two artists demonstrate the importance of the “line” in ceramic design.

And, our online exhibition is, Ceramic Sweets and Small Works, featuring ceramics by Jason Bige Burnett.

New works by Burnett, aka Cakeboy, involve print processes and visual narratives that are simultaneously personal and universal. Burnett’s new forms both investigate multiple surface techniques and explore imagery that is influenced by the glitz and glam of carnivals, pop culture, and commercial design.

For further information call the gallery at 828/688-3599 or visit (www.crimsonlaurelgallery.com).

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Pottery Events Coming Up in Seagrove, NC, in June 2009

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

First off is the Cousins in Clay event on June 6 & 7, 2009, at Bulldog Pottery in Seagrove featuring works by Bruce Gholson and Samantha Henneke of Bulldog and invited guest and “clay cousin” Michael Kline from Bakersville, NC.

This will be a wonderful opportunity to meet the artists and add to your pottery collection or begin one. The event begins Sat. June 6 at 9am and continues through 5pm. On Sun. June 7 you can come by at 10am and stay till 4pm, but if you do that – you should buy something. And, why wouldn’t you – all three potters make wonderful works of art – and functional too.

On June 20, 2009, from 10am – 4pm at the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove you can come shop at the Pots from the Attic Fundraiser, a once-in-a-lifetime sale of slightly worn pots. I wondered what that meant so I asked and was told, “this could be anything that is chipped, broken, repaired, or just heavily used with signs of wear. Most of the pots for this event will be from the Dr. Everette James Collection with some other pots from various donors. This will be an outright sale of pots, so folks can browse around and see the pieces and prices and take them home that day.” Sounds like a deal. The good Dr. is once again coming to the aid of the Pottery Center.

You might want to come early for the best selection, but you also might want to stick around until 2pm when a booksigning for The Living Tradition – North Carolina Potters Speak, will take place till 4pm. This book includes interviews by Michelle Francis and Charles “Terry” Zug III of 20 of North Carolina’s most distinguished potters with photographs by Rob Amberg, all edited by Denny Hubbard Mecham, the Pottery Center’s former director.

The potters included in the book are: Paulus Berensohn, Jennie Bireline, Cynthia Bringle, Charles Davis Brown, Kim Ellington, Mark Hewitt, MaryLou Higgins, Nick Joerling, Ben Owen III, Vernon Owens, Pam Owens, Jane Peiser, Hal Pugh, Eleanor Pugh, Will Ruggles, Douglas Rankin, Caroleen Sanders, Norman Schulman, Michael Sherrill, Tom Spleth, Hiroshi Sueyoshi, Tom Suomalainen, and Neolia Cole Womack.

The book was published for the North Carolina Pottery Center by Goosepen Press and is available at the NC Pottery Center for $29.95, (cloth, 192 pages) and on this day between 2 – 4pm you can get your copy or copies signed. They’ll let you buy as many copies as you need – Christmas is right around the corner.

The interviews intimately reveal the “aspirations and attitudes” of clay-working in a contemporary, diverse tradition. From the “fast nickel” or the “slow dime” and the practicalities of pricing and selling, to technical discussions of kiln building, clay processing, throwing, glazing, and firing, to the spirituality of the creative process and the medium of clay as a “reflection of life,” potters from across the state vivify the struggle and reward of their lives and work.

Luminous photographs by Rob Amberg complement the artists ’ own words – revelatory of character and ripe with anecdote – in this culmination of a documentary project by the North Carolina Pottery Center to promote and protect North Carolina’s unique pottery-making history.

The book’s description is not in my words – as if you couldn’t tell, but I believe them – the Pottery Center is a first-class operation.

Now, if you haven’t figured it out yet or you’re new to this blog – I’m a big fan of the North Carolina Pottery Center and the potters of Seagrove – all 100 + of them. I like other potters too, in other parts of the Carolinas, but as long as they need me – I’m trying to be their biggest fan and that’s going to take a lot if I’m even hoping to get close to how big a fan Dr. Everette James is, which might not be possible.

Well, if people from all over the Carolinas and beyond, if there is such a place, would start traveling to Seagrove and taking lots of pots home with them (after paying for them) and told people in Seagrove that I made it sound like they were really missing out on something – maybe then – some people might think I’m as good as the “good Dr.” But, that would take a lot of people. I’d settle for second-best fan.

So, what if you just can’t go to Seagrove? I’m thinking. The concept just doesn’t compute, but I guess if it’s not possible, the Pottery Center can take orders for the book if you call 336/873-8430 or e-mail to (ncpc@atomic.net).

All proceeds from The Living Tradition and the Pots from the Attic Fundraiser directly benefit the North Carolina Pottery Center – if you use this link you can even go download sample pages from the book.

If you don’t need a book or a pot – you can go to the website and make a donation to the Center.

As far as the Cousins in Clay event – I hear it’s even possible to go to the websites of potters (links above) and see works there and purchase them by credit card and have them shipped to your door. You all know how to use credit cards, don’t you? Well, I mean our American readers know what that’s all about.

I guess that would be OK, but I still have a hard time getting my head around why you can’t go to Seagrove. What else are you doing in June? Cutting grass? You know there’s no NFL Europe anymore.

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