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Sara Ayers talks with Cinda Baldwin about animal figures in her pottery. Sara Ayers was a highly accomplished Catawba potter who exemplified the major artistic tradition of South Carolina's earliest...Pottery
South Carolina, with its rich clay deposits, is the home to two different, but very important ceramic traditions - Catawba earthenware and alkaline-glazed stoneware. Before European contact in the 16th century, the Catawba Nation controlled much of what is now South Carolina and most of the North Carolina Piedmont. This tradition has continued through elder potters sharing their knowledge and skills with younger generations. While their techniques remain ancient, they have adapted their forms to changing markets. Kinship and community were also important in the development and diffusion of the alkaline-glazed stoneware tradition during the nineteenth century. Using European and African forms and labor the Edgefield, South Carolina, potteries produced containers used primarily for food preservation and preparation. As some potters migrated west and to other areas in the southeast, they spread the alkaline-glazed tradition into Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.
Content is provided by McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina.
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Within this Series
Audio
William J. Gordy (d. 1993), Georgia Art Pottery, Cartersville, Bartow County. Interview recorded June 1981. Dorris Xerxes "D.X." Gordy (d. 1994), Primrose, Meriwether County. Interview recorded June...Audio
Wayne Wilson, Wilson Pottery, Lula, Banks County. Interview recorded June 1981. Wayne Wilson is the son of Hallie A. Wilson, who was trained in the pottery shop of Maryland Hewell and in the nearby...Audio
Wayne Wilson, Wilson Pottery, Lula, Banks County. Interview recorded June 1981. Wayne Wilson is the son of Hallie A. Wilson, who was trained in the pottery shop of Maryland Hewell and in the nearby...Photo
Verna Suggs Duncan assisted her father, William D. Suggs (1878-1945) at his pottery in the town of Smithville in eastern Mississippi. After she married Joseph Duncan (1909-1963), her husband learned...Photo
Carrie Stewart and Gerald Stewart, Louisville, Winston County. Interview recorded June 1981. Gerald Stewart came from a deeply rooted family potting tradition. By 1888, his father Homer Wade Stewart...Audio
Eugene Pottery, Cowpens, Cherokee County. Interview recorded June 2007 as the Folklife Resource Center continues to document pottery traditions in South Carolina. Winton Eugene is a self-taught potter...Audio
Otis Norris, Sandhills Pottery, McBee, Chesterfield County. Interview recorded May 2007. A Kershaw County native, Otis Norris has been turning pots at his current location in Chesterfield County since...Audio
Oscar Smith, Lawley, Perry County. Interview recorded June 1981. Norman Smith began working in the family pottery in 1920 and opened his own shop in 1932 a few miles away. Arguably one of the most...Photo
Marie Gooden married into a potting family and was given informal instruction in shop operations and the nuances of turning by her husband, Horace Rogers. After his death in 1962, Marie decided to...