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INSIDE THIS SECTION:
THE BRUNSWICKftBf ACON LP BSporfs, Pages 6-10
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1993 H L ? _i 11
WmmrMFishing reports, 1 I
HIROSHI SUEYOSHI'S pottery is in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian 's Renwick Gallery.
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ELLEN JONES of Long Beach works on hand-building a " trea
sure box. "
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9 Hi
HA 1.1)1(1 A of Southport etches designs along the border of a
hand-built piece.
LAURA SPATHOLT of Calabsh attends pottery classes twice a week in Southport.
Expressions In Clay
Students Explore The Functional, Sculptural Art Of Pottery
Shall tlw clay say to him that fashioneth it, What
makest thou ?
? Isaiah 45:9
TEXT AND PHOTOS
BY LYNN CARI-SON
This is my ceremonial cup," the potter
joked, applying a few design touches to a
cylindrical clay vessel big enough to hold
two gallons of liquid. "This is not what it started
out to be. but this is what the clay told me it want
ed to be."
So who says a cup has to be 6 to 8 ounces, any
way? Or that it even has to look like a cup?
Certainly not Hiroshi Sueyoshi, Japanese-born
potter and teacher guiding a friendly group of
novices and experienced amateur potters through
hand-throwing, hand-building, glaze-making and
decorative techniques at the Franklin Square pot
tery studio in Southport.
The students are studying pottery through
Brunswick Community College; Hiroshi is a vis
iting instructor from Cape Fear Community Col
lege holding four six-hour workshops with them.
An award-winning potter whose work is on
permanent display in the Smithsonian's Renwick
Gallery, Hiroshi has assigned the fashioning of a
ceremonial cup. as well as a treasure box, to the
students.
The Japanese take their ceremony very serious
ly, he advises; even the act of getting up and
drinking coffee can be one
As for treasure boxes, he's not looking for
something to stow jewelry in. rather a work of
clay which symbolizes anything that the potter
treasures.
Hiroshi learned pottery 23 years after first pur
suing engineering ("I didn't like it") and industri
al design ("you can't express too much of your
own opinion"). What appealed to him was pot
tery's outlets for both functional and sculptural
expression.
Pottery, after all, is one of the world's most en
during crafts, its oldest and most widespread art.
Primitive peoples fashioned pots and bowls of
baked clay for their daily use. Clay tablets and
other objects are critical to the archaeological
process of dating settlements and civilizations.
And. closer to home, pottery has a place in the
history of North Carolina. Potters settled Jugtown
in Randolph County around 1 750, and today, fifth
generation potters continue family traditions of
both functional and artistic pottery in the
Seagrove community near Asheboro.
Laura Spatholt, a student in Hiroshi's work
shop, drives from Calabash to Southport twice a
week for pottery classes, and has for two years.
"It beats work," says Jamie Smith of Southport,
working a potter's wheel side-by -side with
Spatholt.
"It is work," Spatholt replies, "except at work 1
feel a little more in control of what I'm doing."
At the end of their second session, Hiroshi's
students are clay-spattered, while Hiroshi, except
for his hands, remains relatively clean. Some are
working on potter's wheels, others using their
hands and various tools to hand-build their pro
jects. He moves quietly around the room, answer
(See STUDENTS, Page 4-B)
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