..... Love is a Spinning Wheel

Potter Hal Dedmond spins a vase in his studio in Lawndale, N.C. Pieces created by Dedmond and his wife, Corine Guseman, can be seen at a pottery show Saturday at the couple’s 100-year-old farmhouse in northern Cleveland County. LAWNDALE, N.C.

It’s romantic and sensuous, but also a bit dirty, this business that has joined the personal and professional lives of Corine Guseman and Hal Dedmond.

Centered around slabs of wet clay, earthen kilns and hours of shaping, hauling and lifting, the pair seem to relish the rigors of their favorite endeavor.

Corine Guseman begins work on a vase in her studio. They’re potters – two of a growing number in North Carolina’s Catawba Valley.

For the last several months, dating back before their May wedding, they’ve been working to prepare for their first joint pottery show and sale, which will be on Saturday, Oct. 30. Like all newlyweds, they hope their reception will draw a huge crowd, and they’re providing an open invitation to anyone who is interested in coming to see their work.

The show, which will be held at Dedmond’s Lawndale homeplace in Northern Cleveland County, will feature Appalachian and Celtic folk music by Ginger Thistle, studio tours and “good pots and good fellowship,” the pair promise.

From start... “This is a celebration of the joining of our lives and our pottery,” said Dedmond, a Cleveland County native whose roots run deeper than the towering oaks that surround his 100-year-old farmhouse.

“This show is a celebration of new beginnings,” Guseman said. “It’s about two lives being meshed together. And more. It’s about what we envision here, for our pottery, our life together, and the future of the arts community in Cleveland County.”

.... to finish. That vision includes the creation of a sprawling, yet united, network that supports artists and their work.

“One of the things that we are really inspired to do is create a network of artist with a map that shows their location in Cleveland County, so that people can find them and seek out their works,” she said. “We would love to see people, who wouldn’t visit here otherwise, come to tour different artists’ studios or to participate in workshops like they do in Seagrove or other communities known for their art.

“Eventually, we would like to be able to offer clay classes that last a week or two with the participants actually staying on-site or nearby.”

On the land that looks out on the picturesque South Mountains, they have the room to support their vision.

Guseman and Dedmond call their acreage “The Compound.” The name sprang up along with the small buildings that dot the property, housing separate pottery studios, a storage cottage/guest house, and a building that houses her two electric kilns that look more like giant ice-cream freezers.

An open-air shed with a tin roof is shelter for Dedmond’s traditional groundhog kiln, where he fires all of his pottery. The house - built by his grandfather and renovated by Dedmond — is the dominant structure and the couple’s home.

“ We just feel so fortunate to be here, on this property, sharing our lives,” Dedmond said.

Despite the union of their souls, these artisans have by no means lost their individuality nor abandoned their unique styles of pottery. Clearly, opposites - albeit in the same artistic genre -attract.

“We’re still pretty much doing our own style of pottery,” Ms. Guseman said. “We don’t know yet the influence that we will have on each other as potters. It’s going to be interesting to see how our relationship plays itself out in our pots.”

Corine Guseman’s works are contemporary. The collection can be divided mainly into three categories: dinnerware glazed in the warm earth tones of green, blue and sand; delicately carved ceramic eggs displayed on pedestals, each different from the next; and bulbous vases that are hand-carved with geometric patterns in black and then glazed the color of the Utah canyon lands, where Corine spent her childhood.

Equally treasured, Hal Dedmond’s creations are functional, substantial pieces that maintain the Catawba Valley tradition of face jugs and kraut jars, some with Native American themes, washed in an alkaline glaze and wood-fired, rendering more earthy hues.

Google the potters - known as ceramic artists, among the cognoscenti - and you’ll find dozens of Internet articles about gallery showings, artistic associations, and critical acclaim.

A 1987 pottery class at a folk art center eventually lured Corine Guseman away from a successful corporate career. She taught pottery for seven years. Her works are being shown at the RedSky, Das Maultier and Carolina Clay Connection, all in Charlotte. She participated in a show at Charlotte’s Spirit Square and in a display that will continue through this month at the N.C. Pottery Center in Seagrove.

Ms. Guseman also was an affiliate artist at Charlotte’s prestigious McColl Center for Visual Art. She is the former manager of the teaching studio at RedSky Gallery and past president of Carolina Claymatters, a pottery guild.

Dedmond is touted as an artist who is continuing the lineage of traditional, Southern folk pottery. His work is shown at RedSky Gallery in Charlotte and at Dark Horse Gallery in Forest City. He participates in various shows sponsored by the Cleveland Arts Council, Carolina Clay Connection in Charlotte and also is participating in a display at Seagrove’s N.C. Pottery Center this month.

“Pottery is all about huge change, both in the clay and the people who handle it,” said Corine Guseman.

“People just get so enmeshed in it all. It’s a very spiritual activity and at least half of the people who take a pottery class see their lives transformed. It’s very meditative and helps to clear people’s minds and clear away the clutter that everyday life tends to create. It’s very simple; people just like the feel of clay in their hands.”

Hal Dedmond started his pottery career in classes at Isothermal Community College and became a prot6g6 of Charles Lisk. Lisk is the first apprentice potter to work with the late Burlon Craig of Vale, whose works are on display at the Smithsonian and who is credited with bringing interest and acclaim - and collectors willing to pay huge sums — to Catawba Valley pottery.

Dedmond was one of 16 potters, including Craig, who participated in a millennium kiln firing in 2000. Craig died in 2002.

Corine Guseman and Hal Dedmond also are members of the N.C. Folk Society, Carolina Claymatters, The Mint Museum and the McColl Center for Visual Art. They

participate in myriad juried competitions, exhibitions and sales, including Treasures of the Earth and the Carolina Pottery Festival, both in Shelby. This month alone, the pair have participated in five pottery sales.

But don’t be intimidated. Unlike Craig’s pottery, which fetches hundreds and -increasingly -thousands of dollars, Dedmond and Ms. Guseman offer collectible art for average folks. Well, average folks with really good taste, anyway. Some is pricier, but most pieces are between $30 and $80.

Their own kitchen shelves are laden with pottery from friends and artists they admire.

“It’s all we eat off of and drink out of,” Ms. Guseman said. “And when we do, we think of whomever made it. It’s more than just a dish to us.”

With personal relationships a priority, and outreach their goal, Guseman and Dedmond continuously are brainstorming ways to reveal the simple wonders of their private haven to the outside world. Recently, they hosted a Bible study led by Dedmond’s sister.

“My sister’s lesson was about the potter’s house and we did a demonstration that really brought the story to life for everyone involved. We all loved being a part of it, and that’s the kind of thing that we want to keep doing.”

The setting of their first meeting was within the confines of their beloved and tightlyImit pottery community.

“I was at a show at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds and I saw her pots first,” Dedmond admits. “I thought the pottery was exceptional, and then I saw her. I thought to myself, ‘I’ve done a lot of shows and I’ve never seen that woman before.’

“So, I kept visiting her booth. Then, I decided I better buy something from her so she wouldn’t get suspicious about me coming around all the time. On the last day of the show, I went to her booth and told her I collected dinner plates and wanted to buy one of hers. She only had one left, so I bought it. I paid with a check, so she would be sure to have my name and address.

“That plate was the very first in my “collection.” But I didn’t tell her that for a long time.”

Ms. Guseman, cautious, and pretending not to notice Hal’s frequent visits, started inquiring about him too.

“I know a lot of potters, so I started asking them about him and I heard really good things,” she said. “I eventually e-mailed him and we communicated by e-mail for a while. Eventually, he came to Charlotte during a snow storm to see my studio, and he never goes to Charlotte.”

That was November 200 1.

“YOU could buy a house for as much as we spent on gas, traveling back and forth,” Dedmond says, with a grin that belies his concern about any money spent on travel.

But while love developed, their art suffered.

“Oh, I made a lot of pots,” Dedmond said, “I just didn’t fire a lot. Dating definitely cut into our pottery production.”

But marriage and studios in the same location have renewed their zeal and creativity.

“I think since we’ve been together Hal’s face jugs have a lot more expression. They are just full of life,” said Ms. Guseman of Dedmond’s feel-good pots and coffee mugs that feature mischievous grins, colorful, crossed eyes and bulging ears.

“And Corine’s are finer and more delicate,” adds Dedmond, admiring a meticulously fluted vase created by his wife.

“Before, when we weren’t married, it was difficult to find time to be in the studio. But, now, we are really there for each other and have the time to devote to our pottery.

“We both keep saying, ‘Wow, this is really good,”’ he said.

Dedmond’s life, work and artistic routine are fairly regimented. During the day, he works in a metallurgical laboratory for The Timken Co. at its Shiloh Plant in Rutherford County. He throws clay in the afternoons and evenings after work and on weekends.

“I have to make a certain number of pots a day in order to meet a quota to get ready for a sale,” he said, noting that Corine sets the quota. Outside their studios, they talk a lot, and argue sometimes, about glaze recipes and other clay-related topics.

But, once in their respective studios, the clay mesmerizes them. Numbers and deadlines, most everything, fades.

It happens like this:

Using a wire, Dedmond, clad in a t-shirt and jeans, cuts a smaller slab off a hunk of the native clay that is supplied to most regional potters by Don Craig of Golden Valley.

Slamming the clay onto his wheel with a thud, Dedmond dips his hands into a plastic bowl filled with dingy water and drops a foot onto the floor pedal that controls the speed of the spinning disc.

He lowers his head and his center of gravity, while the motion of the wheel and the determined efforts of his slippery fingers begin morphing the concrete-colored clay into a squat bowl.

Now, with both hands embracing the clay, and his upper body tensed, Hal Dedmond coaxes the clay into a tall, fluid cylinder that he swiftly shapes into an undulating vase.

Within 10 minutes, the work is slipped off the wheel, ready for embellishment and its first firing.

“It’s the sense of completion that makes pottery so appealing to people,” said Ms. Guseman, almost with a sigh.

The eyes of husband and wife meet, and both smile. As they leave the studio, clay spatters from the wet potter’s wheel are drying on the adjacent window.

The smears seem like encrypted jottings, a spontaneous inventory of works created here, and designs upon which the potter and wheel secretly will conspire in the future.

For more information about the Oct. 3 olh show and sale, e-mail Corine Guseman and Hal Dedmond at peacepotsgmindspring.com or call 704-538-1057 or 704-477-0226. The address for the show, which will be held at 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., is 537-1 Belwood Lawndale Road, Lawndale. Ginger Thistle will perform from 3 to 5 p.m., and a bonfire will be lit, weather permitting. No admission will be charged and the show is open to the public.

An open-air shed with a tin roof is shelter for Dedmond’s traditional groundhog kiln, where he fires all of his pottery. The house – built by his grandfather and renovated by Dedmond – is the dominant structure and the couple’s home.

Despite the union of their souls, these artisans have by no means lost their individuality nor abandoned their unique styles of pottery. Clearly, opposites – albeit in the same artistic genre – attract.

“We’re still pretty much doing our own style of pottery,” Guseman said. “We don’t know yet the influence that we will have on each other as potters. It’s going to be interesting to see how our relationship plays itself out in our pots.”

Guseman’s works are contemporary. The collection can be divided mainly into three categories: dinnerware glazed in the warm earth tones of green, blue and sand; delicately carved ceramic eggs displayed on pedestals, each different from the next; and bulbous vases that are hand-carved with geometric patterns in black and then glazed the color of the Utah canyon lands, where she spent her childhood.

Equally treasured, Dedmond’s creations are functional, substantial pieces that maintain the Catawba Valley tradition of face jugs and kraut jars, some with Native American themes, washed in an alkaline glaze and wood-fired, rendering more earthy hues.

“Pottery is all about change, both in the clay and the people who handle it,” said Guseman.

“People just get so enmeshed in it all. It’s a very spiritual activity and at least half of the people who take a pottery class see their lives transformed. It’s very meditative and helps to clear people’s minds and clear away the clutter that everyday life tends to create. It’s very simple; people just like the feel of clay in their hands.”

Dedmond started his pottery career in classes at Isothermal Community College and became a protege of Charles Lisk, the first apprentice potter to work with the late Burlon Craig of Vale, whose works are on display at the Smithsonian and who is credited with bringing interest and acclaim to Catawba Valley pottery.

Guseman and Dedmond also are members of the N.C. Folk Society, Carolina Claymatters, The Mint Museum and the McColl Center for Visual Art. They participate in a myriad of juried competitions, exhibitions and sales, including Treasures of the Earth and the Carolina Pottery Festival, both in Shelby.

With personal relationships a priority, and outreach their goal, Guseman and Dedmond continuously are brainstorming ways to reveal the simple wonders of their private haven to the outside world.

The setting of their first meeting was within the confines of their beloved and tightly-knit pottery community.

“I was at a show at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds and I saw her pots first,” Dedmond said. “I thought the pottery was exceptional, and then I saw her. I thought to myself, ‘I’ve done a lot of shows and I’ve never seen that woman before.’

“So, I kept visiting her booth. Then, I decided I better buy something from her so she wouldn’t get suspicious about me coming around all the time. On the last day of the show, I went to her booth and told her I collected dinner plates and wanted to buy one of hers. She only had one left, so I bought it. I paid with a check, so she would be sure to have my name and address.

“That plate was the very first in my ‘collection.’ But I didn’t tell her that for a long time.”

Guseman, cautious, and pretending not to notice Hal’s frequent visits, started inquiring about him too.

“I know a lot of potters, so I started asking them about him and I heard really good things,” she said. “I eventually e-mailed him and we communicated by e-mail for a while. Eventually, he came to Charlotte during a snow storm to see my studio, and he never goes to Charlotte.”

That was November 2001.

“You could buy a house for as much as we spent on gas, traveling back and forth,” Dedmond says, with a grin that belies his concern about any money spent on travel.

“We both keep saying, ‘Wow, this is really good,”’ he said.

Dedmond’s life, work and artistic routine are fairly regimented. During the day, he works in a metallurgical laboratory for The Timken Co. at its Shiloh Plant in Rutherford County. He throws clay in the afternoons and evenings after work and on weekends.

“I have to make a certain number of pots a day in order to meet a quota to get ready for a sale,” he said, noting that Corine sets the quota. Outside their studios, they talk a lot, and argue sometimes, about glaze recipes and other clay-related topics.

But, once in their respective studios, the clay mesmerizes them. Numbers and deadlines, most everything, fades.

“It’s the sense of completion that makes pottery so appealing to people,” said Guseman.

The eyes of husband and wife meet, and both smile. As they leave the studio, clay spatters from the wet potter’s wheel are drying on the window.

The smears seem like encrypted jottings, a spontaneous inventory of works created here, and designs upon which the potter and wheel secretly will conspire in the future.

The show will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 537-1 Belwood Lawndale Road, Lawndale. Ginger Thistle will perform from 3 to 5 p.m., and a bonfire will be lit, weather permitting. No admission will be charged. For more information, call 704-538-1057 or 704-477-0226.