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| - The earliest Catawba Valley pottery was earthenware made by settlers of German descent who established farming communities in the region. By the early 1820s, however, Catawba Valley potters had adopted stoneware technology that allowed for the manufacture of stronger, larger and more varied wares. Artisans made utilitarian wares needed by the local farming community, such as churns, molasses and whisky jugs and food storage vessels of various sizes. Any decoration was simple, usually limited to one or more incised lines.
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| abstract
| - The earliest Catawba Valley pottery was earthenware made by settlers of German descent who established farming communities in the region. By the early 1820s, however, Catawba Valley potters had adopted stoneware technology that allowed for the manufacture of stronger, larger and more varied wares. Artisans made utilitarian wares needed by the local farming community, such as churns, molasses and whisky jugs and food storage vessels of various sizes. Any decoration was simple, usually limited to one or more incised lines. At the turn of the 20th century the food industry began to rely increasingly on glass and canned food storage along with refrigeration. These innovations brought about a severe decline of the utilitarian pottery industry nationwide, including the pottery community in Catawba Valley. Potters who chose to continue the craft had to rely on tourism and an interest in handmade crafts fostered by the American Arts and Crafts movement. Innovations included decorative techniques such as “swirl ware” ; pottery made by combining two or more different colors of clay. They also introduced unique forms such as “face jugs”. The origin of this form is obscure, but it may be derived from traditional German pottery forms such as the Bartmann jug. Face jugs became, and continue to be, popular with collectors of folk art pottery. These efforts notwithstanding, by 1960 only one craftsman, Burlon Craig, was still producing pottery in the Catawba Valley. However, since the 1980s, increasing interest in hand produced clay ware brought other potters to the region. These potters, including Charles Lisk and Kim Ellington, have generally continued the stylistic, glazing and firing traditions of this artists community.
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