Biography

When asked how he became a potter, Moore County's Vernon Owens says simply that he was "born into a pottery family." His father, M.L. Owens, and grandfather, J. H. Owens, were potters. "I was hanging out in the shop with my daddy when I was four years old," he says. "It's kind of like somebody growing up on a farm; you know, you had the chores and you had to do the pottery." By the time he was ten years old, he was making pottery that his father could sell. "As I got older," he says, "I just stayed with it."

Many of the pieces he makes, such as candlesticks, pitchers, and bowls, are refined and well-proportioned traditional forms. But he is not unduly bound by tradition. "You want to do what you can do the best you can do it," he says, and sometimes "it takes change to make that work."

Vernon's interests in pottery making have led him to develop expertise in a full range of the potter's skills. He prepares and uses a mixture of local and commercial clays to produce his ware. He glazes it with a wide variety of materials ranging from salt to sophisticated chemical glazes. He shares his extensive knowledge about groundhog kilns with other potters--and continues to use these traditional wood-fired kilns occasionally. That's what he grew up with, he says. "I can go a long time without firing a wood kiln, and then the thing strikes me: it's time to burn a wood kiln."

Since 1983, Vernon and his wife Pamela have owned and operated Jugtown Pottery in Seagrove. Jugtown was founded in 1921 by Jacques and Juliana Busbee, who wanted to preserve and market the old salt-glazed stoneware and orange earthenware made in Moore and Randolph counties. In an unusual collaboration, the Busbees worked with master potter Ben Owen to develop additional shapes and glazes. From this came a pottery of great distinction.

When Vernon started working at Jugtown in 1960 at the age of 19, he began by copying Ben Owen's pots. "I tried to make 'em exactly like the old pots," he recalled, "and that's where I went wrong." That experience gave him a heightened respect for the older forms, but it also taught him that he could not "make somebody else's pot." In developing his eye for form, he has gradually found ways to create his own style and still remain close to the classic shapes that inspire him.

What does it take to be a good potter? "Almost anybody can learn to make a pot," he says. But he also recognizes that being an outstanding potter takes special gifts. "I really believe that you have to have the ability to make your hands do what your eye tells them to," Vernon says. "The next thing is being able to be critical of your own work."

His persistence, though, is not easy to explain, even to himself. When you grow up with something and have "done it all your life," he says, "it's hard to explain [why] you still want to do it that much." Clearly, for Vernon Owens, making pottery is more than a way to make a living. Maybe it's like the need he says he feels sometimes to fire a wood kiln, "I just have to do it."

Artist Statement

"If you make a shape once and decide it's right, you make it on and on and don't question it. With earthenware, it's the tradition that it leaks, so you can't change it. That just too bad because our forefathers had to make churns and crocks to hold wine, vinegar, molasses. If it had helt, they'd have had to done somethin' about it. You know, I like tradition. I'd like to go back and make pottery in the old way with groundhog kilns and that. But, I'd hate to know that I let tradition get in my way making something somebody could really use." from Raised in Clay: The Southern Pottery Tradition by Nancy Sweezy.

"I was hanging out in the shop with my daddy when I was four years old. It's kind of like somebody growing up on a farm; you know, you had the chores and you had to do the pottery. As I got older, I just stayed with it."