Synopses & Reviews
John Michael Vlach called
Brothers in Clay “not only the best study of American stoneware pottery now available but also a fine model for the presentation and analysis of hand-based technologies.” The anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss noted, “Mr. Burrison has brought to this undertaking a sensitivity, a finesse, and a flair for description and analysis that entitle the book to a place among the classics of this type.”
From Mud to Jug—both a companion and sequel to Brothers in Clay—deepens and enriches Burrison’s earlier study by focusing on the northeast corner of Georgia, which has maintained a continuous tradition of pottery making since the early nineteenth century. Through interviews, a census of active potters trained at the centers of Cleveland (White County) and Gillsville (Hall County), and more than one hundred color photographs of pots, potters, and their work spaces, Burrison captures the living tradition of one of the last areas of the United States where Euro-American folk pottery is still being made. The book also explores the roots and historical development of north Georgia’s stoneware tradition and includes rare historic photos that have not been previously published. The Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia, which opened in 2006 at Sautee Nacoochee Center in White County, is also acknowledged and described.
Review
“This is a neat little volume, one that is needed, given the current trends in Georgia pottery. The north Georgia region has now become the center of folk pottery for the state; the Meaders and Hewell families have national reputations; the Hewells’ Turning and Burning Festival draws more and more people; and the new Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia will attract newcomers and educate them into the local traditions. And of course, no one better understands Southern folk pottery than John Burrison.”—Charles G. Zug III, author of Turners and Burners: The Folk Potters of North Carolina
Review
“Anyone with a serious mud-love must read this comprehensive chronicle of one of America’s most vital and venerable pottery traditions. Each page bursts with beauty and insight, describing a tradition that relentlessly rejuvenates itself and brims with potential at every turn of the wheel.”—Mark Hewitt, coauthor of The Potter’s Eye: Art and Tradition in North Carolina Pottery
Review
“The book is visually stunning, with color photographs of pieces that jump off the page. Newly found historic photographs are wonderful additions. All told, this is a book that can beautifully stand on its own.”—
Choice Review
“
From Mud to Jug is a handsome book sure to grace any coffee table and stand with pride on the bookshelf with other scholarly volumes of pottery and material culture. . . . I expect both potters and scholars will value this work as I do.”— Moriah Hart,
Western FolkloreAbout the Author
John A. Burrison is a professor of English and director of the folklore curriculum at Georgia State University. In addition to Brothers in Clay, he is the editor of Storytellers: Folktales and Legends from the South and the author of Shaping Traditions: Folk Arts in a Changing South.
Table of Contents
A Foreword in Celebration,
by Henry Glassie ix
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xxi
1. Folk Pottery: A Handed-on Tradition 2
2. Clay County: Northeast Georgia 6
3. From Near and Far: Roots of the Tradition 20
4. Clay Cans: Two Pottery Dynasties 30
5. From Mud to Jug: The Production Process 42
6. Staying Alive: Original Uses of Folk Pottery 54
7. Changing Times: Threats to Functional Folk Pottery 60
8. New Markets: Keeping Their Hand in Clay 64
9. A Home for North Georgia Folk Pottery 86
10. The Living Tradition: North Georgia Folk Pottery Today 94
Notes 153
Books on Southern Folk Pottery
Index of Potters 159