Crafting fine pots combines art, hard work

By Sarah Watson

Published: August 6, 2008

Imagine a stretched-out flame more than 20 feet long.

Now imagine the tips of fire painting thousands of pots, some several feet tall, others just a few inches.

Twice a year, Tye River potter Kevin Crowe along with several friends and fellow artists stoke a massive flame to finish off five months’ worth of work.

Crowe, 59, started his artistic career in the early 1970s as a glassblower in Jamestown, in a job he took to pay the bills. One night coming home from work, Crowe was in a serious motorcycle wreck.

Three months of convalescence involved his wife bringing him to her job at a pottery studio, he said. “I tried it one night and all the apples lined up.”

The couple squatted in a Williamsburg barn for almost three years working their craft. When the barn was condemned, they moved to Nelson County where they purchased 24 acres near the Tye River.

They lived in a tent for three years without electricity while they worked to build their studio, Crowe said. “Had I known any of that beforehand, I never would have done that.”

A native of Northern Virginia, Crowe said he was reluctant to make a living in the arts because his upbringing had no emphasis on it.

But clay and ceramics had enough bricks of fire and heavy lifting that “on some level, it made it seem OK to be a guy and make pots.”

Crowe’s work is nationally recognized and he frequently travels to teach workshops so other artists can learn from his techniques.

Of particular note is his unique month-long firing process in a 450-square-foot kiln. Crowe said. “Each firing is unique because different kinds of wood create different tiny smoky atmospheres of ash in the kiln.”

Each firing uses six cords of wood and Crowe and his team work around the clock to ensure there’s enough fuel for the fire.

Unlike most types of pottery, 90 percent of Crowe’s pots have no glazes on the exterior. Instead the colorations and designs are the result of the firestorm of ash melting on the pots and interacting with the clay, Crowe said.

Crowe said he finds comfort and a greater need in his work as the world becomes more reliant on virtual information.

“As we become more digitized, … makers have a more critical role to play in our culture than we did in earlier years,” he said. “We make the objects for the small rituals in daily life. For the people that made the work and the people that use it, there’s a conversation about something that’s stable and supportive and reaffirming.”