What Comes Next

Original Owens Pottery · Seagrove, NC

Jody Lee Owens

Son of Boyd Owens · Born 1972

Jody grew up around his father Boyd's pottery shop, absorbing the rhythms of the family business from childhood. He works with his father mixing clay, and making candy dishes regularly since 1993, and keeping one hand in the tradition his great-great-grandfather J.H. Owen started. He has three children: Kaylee Elizabeth, Samuel Kane, and Kassady Marie, and one granddaughter, Kylee.

Jugtown Pottery · Westmoore, NC

Travis Owens

Son of Vernon & Pam Owens · Born 1985

Travis Owens is the first potter in the family to have been born and raised at Jugtown itself. As a child he practiced on his own small wheel beside his mother Pam's, imitated his father Vernon's concentration at the wheel, and followed his Uncle Bobby around Jugtown hauling wood and stoking kilns. After graduating from NC State University with a B.A. in Art and Design, Travis joined the family as a full-time Jugtown potter in 2007. His energy and commitment carry the family tradition forward for yet another generation.

Jugtown Pottery · Westmoore, NC

Bayle Owens

Daughter of Vernon & Pam Owens · Born 1990

Like most children born and raised in a pottery family, Bayle has been involved in every aspect of the business — contributing ware for the shop, working behind the counter, and carrying the family's spirit into everything she does. She has a particular love for sculpting animal figures, a tradition at Jugtown that stretches all the way back to her great-grandmother Martha Jane Scott Owen, who made clay chickens for the Busbees nearly a century ago.

Traditions Pottery · Blowing Rock, NC

Janet Bolick Calhoun

Daughter of Lula Belle & Glenn Bolick · Born 1965

Janet grew up away from her Piedmont-based cousins but learned the pottery trade from her parents Lula Belle and Glenn Bolick. She married Mike Calhoun in 1986, and in 1991 they opened Traditions Pottery near Blowing Rock — now located in Blowing Rock's central business district. Janet's keen sense of style helps the family stay responsive to a craft-loving clientele, and she and Mike continue her father Glenn's musical tradition by hosting jam sessions at kiln openings and summer programs. She can be found each year at the NC State Fair's Village of Yesteryear.

"We live in the Mountains and our music reflects our heritage from both sides of the family, but the shapes of our pottery have come through our Owens lineage." — Janet Bolick Calhoun, NC Pottery Center Exhibition, 2009

Traditions Pottery · Blowing Rock, NC

Michael Harrison Calhoun

Husband of Janet Bolick · Born 1963

Mike Calhoun was not a potter when he married Janet Bolick in 1986 — he hung sheet rock for a living. But every night for the first two years of their marriage, he visited Lula Belle and Glenn Bolick at their pottery and practiced turning until midnight. That dedication turned him into an experienced, creative, and proficient potter. Mike is known particularly for his face jugs and attends the NC State Fair's Village of Yesteryear alongside Janet each year.