- Being here in Seagrove, it's really important to me to be able to carry on the family tradition.

I make pottery here on the same road as all of my ancestors and my family members did.

I just really feel like it helps me connect to my work better in a way.

It's unbelievable that I'm able to turn with the same clay that my grandpa went out in the woods on our property and dug up over 20 years ago.

- You can't get any more local of a product than clay coming straight out of the ground into a potter's hands, being refined, and then being made into a wonderful work of art.

I think it's something special, it's something unique, and it is something that, quite literally, is a part of North Carolina.

[gentle music] - My name is Nicole Kluba.

I'm a fifth-generation potter here in Seagrove.

I've been doing pottery full-time for a little over two years now.

I do what I call functional works of art, so I make mugs, and cups, and plates, and that kinda thing, but I like to decorate them in a way where it could just be a piece of art to put in your house and just enjoy every day.

All of my pieces are inspired by nature, gothic imagery, and I specialize using the sgraffito technique, which is where you apply a slip on top and then you carve through and then that contrast, the color of the clay pops through so you have a good contrast.

This is definitely my favorite part of the process.

Just I don't know what it is about carving, but I really enjoy it.

I think one of the main things is, like, the contrast between the two and being able to see the design come to life, but not only that.

I really think that it's a relaxing process.

It's not something that I have to stress out about.

I can just sit here and work at my own pace, which is really nice.

All of my family members and ancestors before me all did pottery here in Seagrove as well.

The thing I have the most memories of is, like, going over to my aunt and uncle's house.

Me and my cousins would hang out in the pottery shops, or I'd go out there and kinda make, like, little pinch pots or, like, little hand-built animals.

I always loved pottery growing up, but it was always just a hobby, and then, you know, I graduated from high school and it was time to get a real job, so to speak.

At 18, I started working as a 9-1-1 dispatcher and I did that for two years, and then I worked in law enforcement for about three years, and I really enjoyed it and I enjoyed my time doing it, but while I was doing it, even though I did love it and enjoyed it, it just felt like it wasn't what I was supposed to be doing.

So, whenever I finally decided that I wanted to get back into pottery, you know, it felt like a weight off my shoulders and it felt like, you know, this is where I needed to be.

I had gotten a pottery wheel used, I got a really good deal on it, so I set it up in our kitchen, so I'd be slinging clay everywhere.

I had pots all over the kitchen table, but it was what I had to do to get started, so, and then my husband and my father-in-law, they built me my workshop here, so this whole last year, it was amazing, being able to have people come out to the shop and, you know, meet so many new people, have so many people interested in wanting to see my work, so it's just been a really great experience.

[gentle music] Over here where the shop is now, we have 23 acres.

My grandpa used to own a lot of property going down the whole road.

What I remember most of him doing was he would dig up blue clay and he sold it to a bunch of the local potters.

[gentle music] [gentle music continues] It's very special being able to work with the same clay that my family worked with, especially the blue clay.

It's wild clay that you find usually near, like, where a lake used to be or some kinda water source.

It's literally, when you dig it up, it's, like, a dark blue-gray color and it's not something you see very often.

It's a very plastic clay, which is something that you want when you're looking for pottery clay.

So, this provides a lot of opportunity for me to be able to work with wild clay from the property and being able to incorporate that history of my grandfather and my other family members.

Just being able to put my hands in and make pots out of the same clay that I know they were using?

I feel like it just kinda helps tie everything in together in a perfect way.

[gentle music] [birds chirp] So, I'm at the North Carolina Pottery Center today here in Seagrove, and I'm here checking out one of my great-great-grandfather's churns that he had made back in the late 1800s, early 1900s.

His name was Stephen Richardson and he was a potter here in Seagrove.

He made a lot of the more, like, primitive work, you know, like, the churns, the jugs.

You know, the functional pieces.

- To have a local potter come in and look at a piece that one of their ancestors made, there's just something special about that.

My name is Lindsey Lambert.

I'm the executive director of the North Carolina Pottery Center here in Seagrove, North Carolina.

Seagrove has, particularly since the early 1900s, had this real mystique kind of associated with it and with the clays in the area, and it's been an unbroken tradition.

If you think about it, those first settlers coming into the area weren't potters.

They were farmers.

They were looking for a place to set up a homestead and do sustenance farming.

They quickly discovered that here in the Piedmont region, not only were the soils great for farming, but the clays were exceptional for making things.

Those early potters would hire other potters to work with and for them as journeyman potters or apprentices.

Also family members.

That generational talent is an important part in particular because it just highlights how strong that tradition and bond to North Carolina and the clay and the soil is.

Nicole is one of our younger potters in the Seagrove area.

She's been here a few times before.

She's taken a look at her ancestor's pot in the display case, but I think we're going to do something a bit more special this afternoon.

She doesn't necessarily know it yet, but we're going to get her hands on that pot of her ancestors.

I'm actually going to have the case open and we're going to let her hold it for the first time.

This is circa 1900 and it's a really nice five-gallon butter churn, and here you go.

What do you think?

- Thank you so much.

It's crazy being able to, you know, hold a piece that my great-great-grandpa made so long ago, and I mean, it makes it really special, especially, you know, so many generations of being Seagrove potters.

It's just really important to me to keep the tradition going while adding, like, my own twist on things, but keep the tradition alive and help to honor them 'cause I know that they were, you know, some of those people that really helped shape Seagrove to be what it is today.

- You know, I think that he would be really happy to know that you are making pottery today and I think he would be really proud of what you're doing.

- Well, thank you.

I sure hope so.

I like to think that he is, as well as my great-grandpa and my grandpa and my other ancestors that's all made pottery, 'cause that's one of the big things with me making pottery now is I wanna try to keep those names alive.

'cause I know that, you know, they don't have a very huge name in Seagrove as potters, but I feel like they still, you know, did a lot for the community and they deserve to be recognized as well.

- I hope it inspires her even more than that background already has, and I hope it kind of kicks her into overdrive in terms of motivation with her own work and growing her own work.

It's just wonderful to have someone that young interested in doing what she's doing.

- It's really special to me to know that I will be, you know, a part of the future of Seagrove as well 'cause obviously I have a whole career to go in this.

Last February, we purchased three acres across the street and it had a little cabin on site.

The property that we purchased actually used to be my grandfather's property and it got sold off.

We're gonna have my gallery and my workshop over here as well as we'll have an extra addition built on for, like, the kilns and everything 'cause this is gonna be, you know, a huge step in my business as far as growing.

It's gonna be, you know, obviously I have a lot more space and freedom to create over here.

I feel like I have more resources.

It's really special to me knowing that, you know, the forever home of my business used to be my grandfather's land where he was living at, where he, you know, started his business of, you know, digging up the clay and selling it.

That just makes it all the more special.

- It's important that we have some younger potters in the Seagrove area working, continuing to build that tradition, continue creating these wonderful pieces, not just of art, but these stories that go with the pieces.

Seagrove is open for business.

It has been for a couple hundred years and hopefully for the next couple hundred as well.

- I really hope that, you know, more younger potters continue to come to Seagrove and start their careers up.

I'm very excited to see the changes and kind of be a part of that and helping pave the way for the future.

[gentle music] [gentle music ends]