Seagrove and Sushi

This weekend Steven and I celebrated 12 years of marriage.

We decided to sneak off to Seagrove, NC.

This area of North Carolina is known for it's 300 years of Pottery.

This was very much an educational trip more than anything.

 We had no interest in making any huge purchase or anything extravagant.

We just want to see what the hype was about.

In college at Auburn University, 

I had professors that would make trips to this pottery region to make purchases.

In my mind it was qant little town, with maybe a simple little night 

life that we could sit and enjoy some wine and meet some locals.

We had done a little research and found a few B&B's.

So, Saturday Steven got in a run downtown and 

I got in a much needed Zumba session with a few of my favorite chicks.

We came home showered off and packed an overnight bag.

We were off on an adventure.

But, this town surprised us.

Everyone in town owned a pottery shop.

It wasn't like a little downtown area.

It was all sprawled with like 96 shops all over.  

You needed a map to guide you.

We were overwhelmed at where to stop and where to begin.

We finally pulled over and checkout this simple store made of center blocks.

This is where we met Mr. Phil Morgan.

He is a true artist.

This man is passionate about what he does.

He took so much time explaining his processes and educating

 us about the area and the people of Seagrove.

If you are ever in this town please stop in, he would love for you to visit.

He specializes in crystalline glazes.

His work is amazing.

 I asked the question, why do North Carolinian's put these faces on the jugs?

He asked if I wanted the real truth...I said "Yes".

Way back in the slavery days, the slaves use to sneak in to the plantation owners moonshine.

So, this particular plantation owner had his slave, which is Dave the Slave create these evil looking jugs to keep the slaves from drinking his moonshine.

So, there are lots of replications of these jugs and the sale for high dollars.

 Our next stop was at Pottery Junction.

This shop is owned by ReginaVoncannon.

She is super sweet.

This is a piggie bank and I loved it.

 Now these faces were not so evil.

 This looks like Cyrano de bosiak.

 This is right up my alley...deer hoof walking canes?  Humm...I think NOT!

 These were interesting pieces, these were fired with horse tail hair.

 These had feathers in the glazes.

 This is a cute pinch pot.

 This was another little interesting place.

There are four artist here.

Jessica took time and walked us through and explained the artist's work for us.

We learn a lot from her also.

 This pot is interesting, there are three different clays in this pot.

 These are hand painted and this reminded us of good friends we know down south.

 Here are more of those crystal glazes.

 This piece had such depth.

 HAND*HEART*HAND

 This is a shared piece, two different artist created this piece.

 Then we headed back and stopped for Sushi for dinner.

Yummy!

 Great date.

 So, we did not stay at a B&B, there was only one restaurant in town that 

stayed opened until 9:00pm on Saturday night.  

We were only an hour away from home and we decided to head back home for the night.

Here are our fortunes from the night.