Visiting Seagrove, NC: A Potter’s Guide

Most towns have a pottery shop. Seagrove has around 50-60, tucked along back roads, many of them right next to the workshop where the pots were made. If you throw or build, it’s one of the best day trips you can take.

Why Seagrove

It started with the clay. The ground around Seagrove is full of it, and local families were turning it into jugs, crocks and churns back in the 1700s. Plenty of today’s potters are descended from those families, and plenty more moved here just to be part of it.

The work runs the whole range: salt-glazed and wood-fired pots that look the way they did a century ago, bright modern glazes, sculpture, and everyday mugs you’ll want to use every morning.

Start at the North Carolina Pottery Center

The North Carolina Pottery Center (233 East Avenue) tells the story of pottery across the state, and it’s the easiest place to grab a map of the studios. It’s usually open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm, but check before you go.

The Celebration of Seagrove Potters

Every year on the weekend before Thanksgiving, the whole town turns into a pottery show. This year the Celebration of Seagrove Potters is November 20 to 22 at the old Luck’s Cannery (798 NC Hwy 705 E):

• Friday 5 to 8:30 pm
• Saturday 9 am to 5 pm
• Sunday 10 am to 4 pm

What costs what: the Friday gala is ticketed ($65 this year, and the ticket also gets you into the show on Saturday and Sunday). The weekend show at the cannery has a small admission at the door, which has been about $8 in recent years. The self-guided studio tour is free, and you can pick up a map at the cannery without buying a show ticket. Check the event page for this year’s prices before you go.

The same weekend, a separate event, the Seagrove Pottery Festival, runs Saturday and Sunday, November 21 and 22, at Seagrove Elementary School. Different potters show at each, so check which one the potters you want to see are in.

Can’t make November? There’s a Celebration of Spring in April too.

A few tips

• The studios are spread out, so pick the ones you want and group them by area. Phone signal comes and goes, and a paper map is handy.
• Outside festival weekends, a lot of shops close a day or two a week. Look up hours first.
• Throw a few towels or some bubble wrap in the car. You’ll be glad you did.
• Talk to the potters. Most of them love talking clay, glazes and kilns with people who make pots too.

Back home

Fair warning: a day in Seagrove makes you want to get back on the wheel. If you’re just starting out, here are the six tools beginners actually need, and if those clean feet caught your eye, here’s how to trim them. Our throwing tools and glazing tools are here when you’re ready.