Sculpting tradition

Owen, a fifth-generation potter based in Seagrove, North Carolina, learned to throw pots on the wheel from his grandfather, Ben Owen Sr., when he was 9 years old.

Ben Owen III learned to throw when he was 9. Now, as the owner of Ben Owen Pottery, he makes commissioned artwork for places such as the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo.

Ben Owen III learned to throw when he was 9. Now, as the owner of Ben Owen Pottery, he makes commissioned artwork for places such as the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo.

Since those early days, Owen has created work that resides in the Smithsonian Museum of Art, the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Tokyo, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Amanyara, a resort in the Turks and Caicos islands.

Owen lives and works with his wife on a 15-acre piece of land where his studio, retail store and collection of kilns also reside.

Ben Owen Pottery is located at 105 Ben's Place, Seagrove, NC.

Ben Owen Pottery is located at 105 Ben's Place, Seagrove, NC.

He grew up on a 120-acre cattle farm in Westmoore, North Carolina, a small town five miles south of Seagrove, with his parents and grandparents. As a child, Owen said, his then-retired grandfather taught him pottery basics, which became a fascination.

“I had to go work at the farm and help my dad,” Owen said. “But whenever I had a moment to go and spend time with them, Granddad would take me in the studio and go through the elemental steps of learning how to make pottery.”

Though Owen’s father, Ben Owen II, did not take over the studio as a potter — but instead worked on the glazing and firing processes — Owen himself grew interested in pursuing a career in pottery.

“As I became a teenager, I wanted to learn how to do this and learn how to work with the clay, and learn how to do something like what my grandfather had made,” he said.

The Owen family’s early style of work was influenced by their European ancestry — including pitchers, bowls and other functional items — while also including elements from the Han, Sung, Tang and Ming Dynasties that came by way of the Silk Road. Some of these vessels were stoneware characterized by blueish-green glazes and simplicity of form that Ben Owen Sr. mimicked in his work.

Owen said a shift in style came in the Industrial Revolution.

“They had to retool what they were making so that they could create a market for different work that you wouldn't find in other sources,” Owen said. “Through that, they were looking at outside influences.”

A collection of past Owen family work lives in the museum adjacent to the retail studio.

A collection of past Owen family work lives in the museum adjacent to the retail studio.

These influences led to the inclusion of themes from Southeast Asia, Mesopotamia, the Middle East, Central America and Southwest Native American groups, causing variations in color, size, shape and material.

Owen’s style has evolved over time as well, especially with a fellowship he had in Japan in the summer of 1995.

Owen and his host family during a trip to Kyoto during his 1995 residency. Courtesy of Ben Owen III.

Owen and his host family during a trip to Kyoto during his 1995 residency. Courtesy of Ben Owen III.

There, Owen said he learned to draw inspiration from nature for his work.

“One of the things I picked up the most in Japan was how they use nature as a big influence, whether it was an element of color — like peach blooms, to recreate a color that would relate or be similar to what you see in that small moment of time,” Owen said.

He said he compares the colors on a pot to a sunset.

“We were on a peninsula in Japan, South of Nagoya, and we would see the sunset every evening, and depending on the clouds or what was on the horizon, it would change the colors of the sunset,” he said. “From oranges, reds, to yellows to purples and blues. And you think about those elements happening to a pot that's in the kiln, and it's like a frozen moment in time, like that sunset. And you may not have that exact reproduction of it at a later point, but cherish that moment. We sell the pieces to customers that way, too.”

Vases displayed in Owen's retail store.

Vases displayed in Owen's retail store.

He said the fellowship was reinvigorating.

“I came home with a recharge, with an appreciation for, ‘How do we think about how we do things? How do we plan for things?’” Owen said.

Owen puts the finishing touches on a vase.

Owen puts the finishing touches on a vase.

Seagrove is home to over 80 potters, according to the Seagrove area website, an annual pottery festival and pottery events throughout the year, including wood firings and open studio weekends. The town also advertises itself as the 'handmade pottery capital of the U.S.' which has the largest concentration of working potters in the country, according to the town's website.

The legend goes that Seagrove’s pottery fame resulted from the land — an area rich in flexible clay to mold and farmland to keep the potters fed.

“You had to have both if you were going to be a potter, because it's nice to eat,” LoriAnn Little Owen, Ben Owen III's wife of 26 years, said.

But the science doesn’t exactly back that up.

Ryan Mills, adjunct professor of environmental sciences at Elon University, said the whole Southeast U.S. is home to rich clay deposits due to its humid climate which breaks down different elements in feldspars — a rock-forming mineral group — over time.

He said the Seagrove area has the right ingredients for both pottery and farming.

“They have water. They have rivers running through there. They've got some flat land,” Mills said. “If you have a high clay content, and also volcanic material, all that stuff is pretty rich in a lot of different elements that are required for growing the things. So it seems like if you had places where you had really good clay, you probably have a good chance to also have some decent agriculture.”

Mills said much of the region where Seagrove is located — in the Piedmont region of the U.S. — is made up of red clay and quartz. He also said the clay deposits could have originated from 500-million-year-old volcanic ash from the Uwharrie Mountains.

“Anything that was just old volcanic rock — all that stuff — typically has been altered into clay and quartz,” Mills said. “And there's clay everywhere.”

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Spruce Pine, North Carolina —about 4 hours from Seagrove — was one of the major producers of feldspar in 2018, with only five other cities across the country producing. In 2018, the U.S. ranked ninth in worldwide production of feldspar.

However, Mills said the geology of Randolph County, where Seagrove is located, is not necessarily different from the rest of the Southeast.

“The earth is really good at doing the same things over and over and over again,” he said. “If you're in a wet, humid environment, you end up getting a lot of clays. If you're in a drier environment — if you were out west, in a dry state, or dry locations — you tend to not produce as many clays.”

Indian clay. Courtesy of Ben Owen III.

Indian clay. Courtesy of Ben Owen III.

Mills said the geological differences of clay across the south can demonstrate what minerals they came from.

“The southeast is obviously a prime, very humid, wet region,” he said. “So we're going to have a ton of clay, and that the subtleties of the different chemistries of the clays will be indicative of the past geologic events, whether there were some volcanoes or what other materials might have gotten mixed in there.”

According to USDA, parts of the soil in Randolph County are made up of over 50% clay.

North Carolina clay production has not been particularly impressive according to the USGS minerals yearbook. Though the region produces clay, it's surpassed by other Southeastern states such as Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. Clay production has also declined over the past 60 years.

But even if what’s found in the soil isn’t unique in the Southeast, it’s clear that what’s found inside the artisans is.

LoriAnn said the town of Seagrove has continued to grow over time as newcomers come to study or participate in the pottery production.

“You have a mix of these traditional potters — some who never went to a pottery school at all, they went to their home pottery school. And then you have people with master's degrees from very well known ceramics programs from around the world,” LoriAnn said. “To bring them together is just a beautiful thing, because they really do cooperate and learn from each other, and respect each other's realm of knowledge.”

She said this blend of potters has created a beautiful community.

“Mix that up with people like Ben — who is from a deep tradition — and yet he went to college and studied ceramics,” she said. “He's the blend of the past and the future.”

LoriAnn said she has loved being able to watch Ben at work.

“Sometimes I will be busy about my work, and then I will walk into the studio, and he will be in the middle of throwing a monolithic pot, and I will just get mesmerized and stuck watching him, and I might be there for 30 minutes — just ‘Wow.’”

In those moments, LoriAnn said, she’s realized she is fostering something great.

“I am supporting a superstar,” she said, “but it's not what the world thinks of as a superstar. He's just really good at what he does, and he's proud to be doing it. And if we could all be so satisfied with what we do in life — do it like a superstar — this whole world would be a better place to live.”

Owen said it’s been interesting to see how the tradition of Seagrove has changed over time, with an influx of people who have learned about the town and decided to visit or move.

“They really were fascinated with what we had with the ongoing tradition that's been established here, that they either came here to work at first as an apprentice, and then they eventually decided to open up a studio here in the area and be part of the tradition,” Owen said. “It's just amazing how the influence has been for people deciding to move here and add to our tradition.”

He said much of today parallels his grandfather’s time period, with foreign influences contributing to the success of the community, just like when Ben Owen Sr.'s generation used external ideas to create new pieces which could not be replicated by a big box store.

“It's really been wonderful to see how we've been able to preserve and nurture the future for earthen vessels being made in this area,” he said. “We can see these outside influences on another level, very much like when my grandfather was growing up.”

Ben, who took over from his grandfather, said passing on this tradition is vital.

“It's important to be able to teach the next generation. A lot of people ask, ‘Aren't any of your kids going to take over and do any of the process?’ And I tell people, ‘Well, you never know, right now they're young, and they may come back to it one day,’” he said. “Who knows, it might be a grandkid one day, but it's kind of like Granddad and my learning from him.”

Elizabeth McAdams, the studio assistant and retail manager, is learning some of the Owen family tradition.

Elizabeth McAdams poses with one of her carved bowls on Sept. 21.

Elizabeth McAdams poses with one of her carved bowls on Sept. 21.

“It's a very neat thing that this tradition is passing on to multiple people,” McAdams said.

She has been making ceramics for eight years, but has been with Ben for a little over two. McAdams said it has been amazing to see how valuable the Owens family is to the Seagrove community.

“There are people who remember coming here when Ben's grandfather was here. There are people who came on field trips with their school class when they were little, and they remember Ben's grandfather demoing on the wheel for them,” she said. “That's a very neat thing for people who have followed the lineage of the pottery tradition here in Seagrove.

McAdams said she enjoys being a part of the Owen family tradition.

“It's a very special thing to be here, learning those skills that aren't necessarily passed down without being here in person, some of those little things you don't learn when you're not around someone,” McAdams said. “People come in and they ask if I'm related to the family, and it's a no, but in a way, yes, I am. I am here, part of that tradition.”

Owen has continued his family’s tradition by sourcing clay from local deposits — including a stoneware clay pit that has been in his family for generations.

Seagrove is located along the N.C. Pottery Trail — a nearly thirty-mile span of North Carolina Highway 705 — that is home to dozens of potters and studios

Seagrove is located along the N.C. Pottery Trail — a nearly thirty-mile span of North Carolina Highway 705 — that is home to dozens of potters and studios

While Owen said much of the clay comes from the North Carolina area — Charlotte, Kings Mountain, the Catawba Valley, south of Hickory, north of Pinehurst and in Candor — other materials for glazes are sourced from around the southeast U.S. and the world, like cobalt from Australia or copper from France.

“It's like the coconut cake or the banana pudding,” Owen said. “You can make or source most of the local ingredients, but we still have to buy the bananas and coconuts where they grow.”

Owen said he has to pay constant attention to the mineral analysis of the materials because these play a role in how the glaze will come out of the kiln.

“We're halfway a scientist as well as an artistic craftsman,” he said.

In North Carolina, pottery makes up a part of the tourism industry and spending, which increased 6.9% from 2022 to $35.6 billion in 2023. Seagrove potters, including Owen, contribute to this through interactions with customers via wheel and kiln loading demonstrations.

“Having that interaction with people, it just helps them to find more joy in life, to know these vessels — whether they buy it to use for themselves, or they buy to give as a gift — knowing that the vessels may go and bring joy in someone's life, that means a lot,” Owen said.

Owen speaks to a visitor through his studio window.

Owen speaks to a visitor through his studio window.

McAdams said she loves the connection between artist and buyer in the shop.

“I really enjoy the fact that you can take this work and it's part of someone's daily ritual,” McAdams said. “It's part of something that they're using in their home, adding a little bit of beauty to everyday life.”

Owen took over the pottery studio from his grandfather, Ben Owen Sr.

Owen took over the pottery studio from his grandfather, Ben Owen Sr.

However, Owen said his favorite part of working in clay is not just the end result.

“It's not the finish line, or the actual firing and seeing the finished pots or the results. It's more about the journey along the way. What are the little things along the journey that you pick up that make the little nuances or variations to the pots, that make them have more of a unique identity than being a carbon copy of a previous one you made?” Owen said. “That's what makes the Seagrove area special: Each pot really is a sketch for the next one.”