Distinctive and elegant pottery forms with stunningly rich glaze surfaces

We are a husband and wife team who are thoroughly absorbed in our artistic life as full time studio potters in Seagrove, North Carolina. Our pottery studio is a collaborative environment that provides both of us with support to express ourselves as individuals. We brainstorm for ideas by formulating and testing clays, glazes, surface treatments, and playing off of one another’s intuition about the materials and processes that develop the final artwork. We make discoveries together that provide us with a “treasure trove” of clay and glaze vocabulary. 

       We both grew up in small college towns, Bruce, in Stillwater, Oklahoma and Samantha, in Blacksburg, Virginia.  We were both introduced to clay while attending our hometown universities.  Bruce found clay at Oklahoma State University and Samantha found clay at Virginia Tech.  Bruce received his BFA from University of Georgia in Athens, and after working as a professional potter for 13 years he went back to school and earned his MFA from the highly esteemed ceramics department at Alfred University. After four years at Virginia Tech Samantha transferred to the ceramics program at Alfred University and graduated with her BFA summa cum laude.

       Samantha Henneke writes, “Making pottery in the studio is an orchestration of designing and making the shape, decorating and glazing the form, and firing the glazed pottery piece to maturity.  The daily process of working with clay is a gratifying experience for me. I want my functional work to be beautiful and comfortable to use. I also create glaze paintings designed to hang on the wall. I am fascinated with macro photography and exploring my garden collecting images of insects in their environments. I utilize this activity to capture stories among the foliage, to create colorful compositions, and to form patterns that are snapshots in time and imagination.”

       Bruce Gholson writes, “I have been fascinated with fossils, fish, reptiles and insects since childhood. Recent interests have included fossilization in amber, Chinese scholar stones, and arrowheads from the region. I try to be unfettered and eclectic in the way I approach working with the clay, especially when choosing clay bodies, forming techniques, and types of firing necessary to achieve the surfaces that I desire. The material based intuitions that result, feed back into the creative process. I want a sense of comfort in use, combined with an eccentrically sublime sense of the handmade led by a transcendent force.“

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