Burlon craig biography of mahatma
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Craig shoveled his clay from the bottomland along the South Fork of the Catawba River, and then trucked it home to grind it in a pug mill. The blue is thought to be caused by the mineral rutile (titanium dioxide) that occurs naturally in the bottomland clay near a branch of the Catawba River. "I'd bring Daddy's mule and grind his clay for him.
That was a lot of money back then."
During the 1930s, Craig worked with a number of different local potters, including Luther Seth Ritchie, whom he called Uncle Seth, and Floyd Hilton. He was one of 10 children raised on a family farm. Our collections database comprises information gathered over the museum’s history; consequently, some records may be missing information, include offensive or discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas and analyses.
Growing up, Craig chopped lumber from his father's land for local potter James Lynn, who used the wood to fire his kiln. He would give me 25 cents for bringing the mule and grinding the clay. A generous man, he continues to share his skills and is patient with those who wish to learn from him.
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Upon returning to North Carolina, he bought Harvey Reinhardt's kiln and farmland.Craig helped revive the Catawba pottery tradition, developed by German immigrants in the eighteenth century, which used wood-fired kilns and alkaline glazes made from local materials ("Burlon Craig," William Oppenheimer, Folk Art Messenger, 2002). Next, he turned his jugs, jars, pitchers, and other forms on his foot-powered treadle wheel, pulling up the walls of the pots as he pumped the flywheel with his left foot.
His alkaline glazes were made from local materials — usually crushed glass bottles, wood ashes, iron cinders, water and clay — and then finely ground in a hand-turned, water-powered stone mill. He ran his pottery in Vale, North Carolina, and is honored there with an annual festival called Burlon Craig Day.
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Burlon Craig
Artist
born Hickory, NC 1914-died Vale, NC 2002
- Also known as
- Burlon B. Craig
- Burlon "B.B" Craig
- Born
- Hickory, North Carolina, United States
- Died
- Vale, North Carolina, United States
- Biography
As a teenager, Burlon Craig apprenticed to a local potter in North Carolina, gathering clay and turning objects on the wheel (Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia, 1990).
There is a purity to Craig's work: His shapes are elegant, the textures of his glazes rich and earthy. Craig settled there with his wife, Irene Lindsay, and to supplement his income as a potter and farmer, he worked in the North Hickory furniture factory machine rooms.
Until the late 1970s, Craig made primarily utilitarian stoneware for his neighbors — churns, pitchers, jars, crocks, candlesticks, and a few birdhouses and flowerpots.
If you would like to suggest improvements to a record, please submit your feedback here. Eventually, Craig learned pottery making from Lynn, watching him burn, make glazes, and prepare clay. Finally, he "burned" his wares in a huge wood-fired groundhog kiln, a long and arduous task lasting eight to 10 hours.
Later, he worked a mule for another local potter. He worked in a furniture factory for almost twenty years, but continued to make pottery in the evenings. As the temperature rose far above 2000 degrees, the pots heated up to a white-orange hue.
One of the distinctive features of Catawba Valley pottery is a blue tint that appears in the glaze when the kiln temperature is white-hot.
His long experience shows in the deceptively simple forms he has favored.