The Coastal Carolina Clay Guild promotes region’s potters
Committed to Craftsmanship
IS A WONDERFULLY old-fashioned
word. Really old-fashioned, as in
dating back to medieval times.
In the Middle Ages, guilds existed for masons, cobblers, blacksmiths,
weavers, dyers — just about everything that involved craftsmen and
merchants. Guilds created standards, served as a forum for members to
exchange ideas, and passed on skills to apprentices.
Ten years ago, a group of Wilmington-area potters borrowed from
the past to enhance and promote their present-day art, forming the
Coastal Carolina Clay Guild.
The nonprofit group was
created in 2007 “to promote
and exchange knowledge
and information about all
types of ceramic arts,” the
mission statement reads. “It
provides mutual support,
encouragement, and
education for its members
and the community.”
“There were a lot of us
that wanted to share ideas
and have opportunities to
have workshops,” says Brian
Evans, one of the founders
and the current president.
“We all just decided, let’s
sit down and talk about
starting a guild. It’s a group
of resources. It gives oppor-tunities
that otherwise
wouldn’t be there. When
you collaborate as a group,
you have all these human
resources to actually get
something done.”
Medieval guilds had con-siderable
power. The guild
said who could join. If you
didn’t get in, you couldn’t
make a living. The pottery
guild, conversely, is open to anyone.
“Anybody can join,” says Brenda Thomas, an original member and cur-rent
treasurer. “You don’t even have to be a potter.”
Most, though, are either established artists or those who want to
learn more about the craft.
“The main benefit, I think, is just the camaraderie and the exchange
of knowledge and the exchange of ideas,” Thomas says.
The group is a mixture of professional potters like Evans and hobby-ists
like Thomas. They meet every other month to attend workshops,
22
WBM november 2017
exchange ideas and discuss
their craft.
“Our meetings are really
informative,” Evans says. “I
have a kiln washing recipe
memorized from a workshop.
I get little bits and pieces from
every workshop I go to. It just
builds on your knowledge.
We also get speakers, and
they are not necessarily clay
people. Mark Wilde-Ramsing,
one of the archaeologists from
the Blackbeard ship, did a
presentation.”
Dr. Wilde-Ramsing is the
former deputy state archae-ologist
with the Underwater
Archaeology Branch and
project director of the Queen
Anne’s Revenge shipwreck
project. His wife, Dina, is a pro-fessional
potter.
“He mainly focused on the
history of the pottery that he
found,” Evans says. “He knew
it well enough to identify it. It
was an interesting way to tie
pottery into other fields. It’s
not just collaborating on clay
ideas, but trying to get ideas
from other areas. We’ve had
by SIMON GONZALEZ
“GUILD”
Above: Brian Evans, one of the founding members of the Coastal Carolina
Clay Guild, crafts a bowl at his wheel. Right: Steve Kelly is a member of the
guild and a teacher at Orange Street Pottery.
WBM FILE PHOTOS
trending