Pot Stuff

Their stoneware pottery is warm and rich, with Moravian floral and abstract designs in somber colors of chocolate, slate blue and mustard yellow. "We are both interested in history," said David, noting stacks of reference books on English pottery. Historical accuracy is critical in their work, which has graced tables in the films "Amistad" and "The Patriot."

Patterns are drawn on the platters and bowls freehand, employing a process called slip trailing, which is the application of clay thinned to about the consistency of watery yogurt and squeezed from a bulblike tube directly onto the vessel, which is then fired and clear glazed.

"Collectors from all over the world find Seagrove," said David, who grew up in New York, attended graduate school in art and then apprenticed at Jugtown in the 1970s. There he met Mary, another apprentice, and they married and set up shop. "We have customers from Romania, Japan, Europe. We have a lot of archaeologists who collect our work. They say, 'We dig it up all the time, but we can never keep it.' "

Large decorated shallow bowls -- they could be pasta or salad serving bowls on 21st-century tables -- are $300. Gingerbread-style ornaments are $2. "Our 13-year-old son wanted a computer and I pointed to the wheel," said David. "If he wanted it, he would have to work for it. He earned $2,300 on those ornaments last year."

Turn and Burn: Country Cozy

Hummingbirds, lighthouses and dogwood branches adorn the pottery at Deborah and Dave Garner's Turn and Burn pottery shop. There are pie plates, decorative roosters, birdhouses, soap dishes and -- yikes -- a coiled clay copperhead that looks so realistic you want to grab a hoe and go after it.

"Our son makes those," said Deborah as she worked at the wheel. "He's real artistic."

There are also horsehair raku vases. "We clip the tail and mane, you know the hair is real thick. Then we throw it on pots in the kiln, the hair burns away leaving a dark soot line and shadow."

The result is very clean and contemporary, dark gray trails crisscrossed over white glazed vases. People bring the potters hair from their own horses to be used in the process, creating a personalized or perhaps commemorative raku of Trigger.

"We sell a lot of baby plates, too," said Deborah. These feature the baby's name and birth date on the rim and the baby's hand and footprints in the center. "Babies like putting their feet in wet clay." Baby plates are $65, birdhouses $42, mugs $4, horsehair raku $45, snakes up to $100.

Phil Morgan: Crystalline Glazing

Two miles down the road, Phil Morgan grows iridescent crystalline glazes in a complicated firing process. The result is dazzling: The porcelain pots appear to be covered in multicolored jewels.

Morgan claims to be one of seven people in the country who has perfected the technique of crystalline glazing. He says even he loses about 50 percent of his firings.

"There's lots of potential for disaster," said Morgan, sporting a Nascar ball cap and no front teeth.