Molding A Museum

Turning Folk Pottery Into Prized Art

By Linda M. Erbele

    In the 1950s, Lanier Meaders often stopped by a little mom-and-pop grocery store near Mossy Creek, a community stretching 5 square miles through the southern part of White County, to pick up a cold drink. He would show the storekeeper’s daughter a few of his pottery jugs, which had what he called “ugly faces” on them. He joked about trading a pot for a tank of gas. The little girl merely told him that she would make “pretty pottery” one day.
     Neither could have guessed that within 50 years, Meaders’ “ugly faces” would be featured in museums around the world and would sell for five figures. His work and that of many other Georgia folk potters — including Lin Craven, that little girl Meaders teased all those years ago — is on display at the Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia, which opened in early September near Helen. The museum is part of the Sautee Nacoochee Center, a campus developed during the past 25 years to nurture local creativity and protect the cultural and natural resources of the surrounding areas.

A Potter’s Past

    The museum and its 150-piece collection of folk pottery, valued at $3 million, is a gift from Dean and Kay Swanson, former owners of a telephone company in the area. “We’ve had an interest in the pottery of North Georgia ever since we’ve lived here,” Swanson said. Already collectors, they met Michael Crocker in 1999. Both a historian of the craft and a potter himself, Crocker helped them acquire representations of various artists from different periods. As a result, the Swanson collection continued to grow.
     In an effort to preserve and share their beloved collection with others, the couple assembled a committee that included Crocker, Atlanta architect Robert Cain, exhibit designer Dale Brubaker and Georgia State University folklorist John Burrison, author of 1983’s “Brothers in Clay: The Story of Georgia Folk Pottery.” The outcome of this collaboration is the Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia.
     Cain designed the building similar to the simple gable-ended structures that are common to the area. Large windows mimic sides of the open-air sheds in which many traditional folk potters work, allowing natural light to bathe the exhibits. It also encourages visitors to breathe in the valley landscape, a part of the folk heritage.

In 1967, the Smithsonian came to Mossy Creek to film a documentary. Meaders’ face jugs were sold at the Smithsonian’s Festival of American Folklife later that same year.

     Brubaker, who has designed exhibits for Fernbank Museum’s dinosaur exhibition, the Georgia State Capitol Olympics exhibition, and the Old Capital Museum in Millegeville, placed many of the pottery displays in front of sepia-toned photos of the Mossy Creek area. The small community in White County was home to the Meaders family and a thriving folk pottery tradition in the 19th century.
     While the Meaders family didn’t start making pottery until 1893, relatively late in the game, they were one of the few to continue their craft after the Depression when there was little market for the plain, often unadorned pots. In the 1930s, tourists on their way to Florida would stop at the Meaders’ shop in search of utilitarian churns, jugs, milk pitchers and pots. Then, in 1967, the Smithsonian came to Mossy Creek to film a documentary. Meaders’ face jugs were sold at the Smithsonian’s Festival of American Folklife later that same year. With every pot he turned, his fame grew, as did the allure of folk pottery in general. (Check out Meaders’ work online at www.meaderspottery.org.)

Put Your Back Into It

    Most people picture a potter sitting dreamily at a wheel turning out beautiful forms, but in reality, traditional folk pottery required a significant amount of backbreaking work. First, the raw material had to be found under several feet of topsoil. It was dug up by hand and transported home. There it would be milled, called “pugging,” to remove dirt and other impurities. This often involved a horse going around and around in circles, driving a wheel that stirred and mixed the clay, allowing roots and others bits of dirt to drop out. When that process was finished, a ball of clay would be weighed to ensure uniformity for a particular size crock or bowl. Then it was further refined by hand to remove air and even tinier bits of rock. This involved splitting the ball across a wire, slamming it into a board, and beating it in preparation for the wheel.
     After the piece is “turned” (traditional folk potters “turn” rather than “throw” pots), it is carefully set aside to dry for several days. At this point, the glaze can be applied. The inside of the item and sometimes the outside was covered with a purchased coating such as Albany slip. Next it was glazed, a process as distinct as the potter. In many of the clay clans (families that handed down their methods), glaze recipes were a close-kept secret. Glazes also help to identify the region of the country in which the pottery was made.
     When enough pieces have been turned to burn (traditional folk potters “burn” not “fire” their pots), they are carefully loaded into the kiln. The small entrance hole in a traditional kiln requires an adult to crawl inside and place the pottery. Wood is accumulated nearby, and it takes anywhere from eight to 12 hours to get the fire hot enough.
     The pieces cool for several days and then the artist crawls back into the kiln to retrieve the art and places it on the dirt floor of the shop.

Five face (Totem Pole) jug by Dwayne Crocker (right)

Museum Highlights

    The Sautee Nacoochee Center, home of the new museum, uses the gazebo atop the Indian mound at the corner of Highways 17 and 75 as its symbol. “I wanted to represent the native culture that had used the clay resources of this area before the white settlers,” Burrison said.
     In 1915, the Smithsonian, in conjunction with the Heye Foundation in New York, sliced open the mound and removed a number of Native American pieces, which were then packed up and sent to New York. Two years ago, Burrison began making inquiries, and finally this summer, a piece of earthenware taken from the mound almost a century ago, arrived on loan for the museum. “The piece would have been shaped by coiling long ropes of clay to form a bowl,” Burrison said. It is unglazed and was probably fired in an open pit.
     Burrison was also able to arrange for the loan of several pieces of Edgefield District area pottery, including two made by David Drake. Judged by many folk art experts to be an outstanding artisan of the 19th century, Drake was a slave who took his first master’s surname at emancipation. The quality of his work was so recognized, even in his lifetime, that his owners permitted him to sign the pottery he created.
     One of his pieces is a 25-gallon jar with an inscription around its upper rim that reads, “The sun, the moon, the stars — in the west are plenty of bears.” A distinctive feature of Drake’s pottery, the inscriptions show that he was able to read and write in a period when education for slaves was illegal. Georgia collectors Levon and Elmaise Register have been acquiring Drake’s work for approximately 15 years and loaned the Edgefield District pieces to the museum.

Northeast Georgia’s pottery roots run deep into Southern soil, and thankfully this folk tradition now has a place to call home — the Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia.

All photos courtesy of Robin Harrison

For More Information

Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia  Sautee Nacoochee Center
GA Hwy. 255 N
Sautee Nacoochee, GA 30571
706-878-3300
www.folkpotterymuseum.com

Hours
Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday Noon to 5 p.m.

Tickets
Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for children and seniors

Tidbit
In addition to audio/visual presentations, programs and demonstrations by local potters, visitors can look into a farm kitchen from the early 20th century.