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Hewitt’s and Owen III’s work are considered the stars of the hotel.
In addition to what is now on display and in storage, both potters
are being commissioned to create new large-scale pieces for the hotel’s
spa, which is in renovation this spring for three months.
Clockwise from top left: The entrance to The Umstead Hotel and Spa is located on the
campus of SAS in Cary, North Carolina. The hotel’s amenities, conference facilities and
many of its rooms overlook a lake and nature trails adjacent to the William B. Umstead
State Park. Local Wilmington women, from left, Margaret Weller-Stargell, JoAnne Fox
and Melisa Gallison shop at The Umstead’s gift boutique. Left: the “Genie Bottle” is one
of two by North Carolina potter Ben Owen III exhibited inside Herons.
one generation to the next. Owen III learned the pottery tradition at the knee of his
grandfather, Ben Owen Sr.,whose work is among several revered North Carolina
potters featured in a tiny museum at Cedar Creek Gallery about 25 minutes from
The Umstead Hotel and Spa in Creedmoor.
Owen III says he recalls that Cedar Creek’s co-founding potter, the late Sid Oakley,
visited his grandfather during Cedar Creek’s early years.
“Like my grandfather, Sid studied Asian culture,” Owen III says. “Sid used the
crystalline glazes,” for which Oakley became widely known.
Today, Cedar Creek Gallery, surrounded by its enclave of studios and vernacular
tobacco barns, continues to thrive in Granville County. On a chilly March day,
spring pokes its head out of winter’s bare landscape. The sun flirts through gray
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PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE UMSTEAD HOTEL AND SPA PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE UMSTEAD HOTEL AND SPA
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE UMSTEAD HOTEL AND SPA