 The Western North Carolina Pottery Festival returns for its fifth year on Saturday, Nov. 7, in Dillsboro with an expanded lineup and a special clay “Olympics” competition. Dillsboro is about 50 miles west of Asheville, next door to Sylva.
Event organizers continue to be surprised by the popularity achieved by the festival in a short period of time. With dozens of well-known applicants from across the nation, the number of juried potters has been expanded to 42 this year. Last year’s show had 36 exhibitors.
The 2009 festival includes potters from 13 states, including Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, New York and New Jersey, as well as North Carolina and surrounding states. The featured potter is Trent Berning of California.
“There are name potters in the show we never expected to have, and we had to turn away 30 potters, so there is competition to get in,” said organizer Joe Frank McKee of Dillsboro’s Tree House Pottery. “It’s become a premier event. We have potters from every type of clay medium.”
Berning, of Berning Clay Gallery in Fallbrook, Calif., has a master’s degree in ceramics from the University of Tennessee and is an instructor at two colleges. He is known for creating large pots featuring slip decoration, which uses fine clay in a variety of colors blended into liquid form and applied to pots.
Another artist of note is Richard Aerni of Rochester, NY. Aerni, a potter for 30 years, specializes in single-fired, wood-ash glazed functional stoneware. His work is sold in galleries across the country and is on display at the Smithsonian Institute.
New this year is the clay Olympics challenge from 1-3 p.m. Friday at Tree House Pottery. The competition is sponsored by Shimpo, a pottery equipment company, and includes 20 potters attempting to create the tallest cylinder and widest bowl in 10 minutes.
Saturday’s festival hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. Admission is $2 per person and includes a ticket for a day-long raffle. Children under 12 are admitted free. “All the smiling faces in Jackson County and the people supporting the WNC Pottery Festival make this a special event,” said McKee. “Our potters like interacting with people and are willing to share information. They’re not just here for money, they’re here to share their craft.”
For festival info, call (828) 631-5100, or visit: www.wncpotteryfestival.com. |
