I did not get to attend this first time event in Seagrove, NC, although I wanted to. I did the next best thing, I kept in touch by reading the blogs of the various blogging potters who were getting ready for this event – and reports of how things were going – hours after they happened.
Over the last four or five months I have been watching the events unfold during this rebirth of unity between Seagrove area potters. Outsiders were trying to divide this small community of artisans in a power play for control – threatening the existence of the NC Pottery Center and many of their financial futures.
The majority of the Seagrove potters banded together to help save the NC Pottery Center from closing its doors (see other blog entries) and forged a new path to the future in creating the Celebration of Seagrove Potters festival – which took place last weekend.
The opening Gala was a sellout, the festival attracted 5,000 happy shoppers, but like all communities – where there is celebration – tragedy is not far behind.
Lisa and Chris Luther of Chris Luther Pottery were one of the 60 participating potteries in the Celebration of Seagrove Potters festival. Chris Luther is a fourth generation potter of the Chriscoe pottery family of Seagrove, NC. In some of the blogs there are pictures of Chris at the festival with a big smile on his face standing in or near his booth – filled with potential customers. There were a lot of smiles on potters’ faces in those pictures.
Putting on this first year festival was a lot of work and took a lot of time in preparation, so many of those smiles were smiles of relief with a hint of strain mixed in. On Saturday night, after the second day of the festival, Chris and his wife were at a fellow potter’s home helping celebrate a 50th birthday when the phone rang and another potter on their way to the party spotted flames coming from their pottery studio. Luckily other potters in the area helped make sure those flames didn’t reach the Luthers’ home, but the studio could not be saved.
This was the second fire to burn down a potter’s studio since I started covering the plight of the NC Pottery Center. Early on the studio of Whynot Pottery had burned down and following the story of their recovery has been intertwined with the story of the Pottery Center’s recovery. So here in the middle of this small community of potters celebration – tragedy strikes again.
I don’t know Chris and Lisa Luther – I’ve never met them and their names never came up while following these recent events, but I feel like I know them – they were part of all that’s been going on in Seagrove.
Linda and I also experienced a loss to fire. Before we were in the business of doing this arts newspaper we ran a custom photo processing business for almost 16 years – back in the days when custom processing meant doing it by hand – before digital photography. When we stopped that business to concentrate on the arts newspaper full time I always felt I had the greatest hobby photography lab in existence – just a short walk away from our house to our backyard garage. It was the best kind of darkroom – the kind you didn’t have to take down every time you finished to recover a part of your home – once I closed the door I could be printing photos in a matter of minutes. The equipment was the best you could have – some they just didn’t make anymore. I looked forward to spending many an hour back there – not printing someone else’s photos, but mine.
Because our son was very young then we had also stored our growing pottery collection back there and most of our photo collection – negatives and all – in safe keeping from eager sticky hands.
One night we were woken up by someone driving by to tell us our garage was on fire. The local volunteer fire department was there quickly, but what the flames didn’t destroy their water hoses finished off.
To this day I can’t go through some things pulled from the destruction – which might be salvaged without getting sick to my stomach. It’s not even easy writing about it. I lost more than 20 years of photography in that fire. We lost a lot in that fire – most couldn’t be replaced by insurance and insurance isn’t meant to replace memories.
So when I read about the success of the potters in Seagrove and then started reading about the Luther’s tradegy – it hit home. You wonder why life is like that. Why in the middle of celebration does tradegy have to come knocking, in our case, or the phone rings in their case?
Well, I’m sure the Luthers will be looked after – they may live in a small community but that community has a big heart and strong will – we’ve seen that in the last months. And, fire is part of a potter’s life – it gives, but it can take too. Like I’ve said before here – don’t mess with potters.
If you want to lend a helping hand – I’m not sure at this point what you can do, but when we find out we’ll let you know. I did read about a Potters Relief Fund booth which was at the Celebration of Seagrove Potters festival, but didn’t see anything about it on the festival’s website.
The Chris Luther Pottery website is (www.chrislutherpottery.com), The pottery address is: Chris Luther Pottery, 4823 Busbee Road, Seagrove, NC 27341. More details later.
Update: We now have the address for the Potters Relief Fund in Seagrove, checks should be marked for Chris Luther. The address to send checks is: The Potters Relief Fund, c/o Caldwell-Hohl Art Works, 155 Cabin Trail, Seagrove, NC 27341, or call @ 336-879-9090. Checks should be made out to the Potters Relief Fund.