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Turtle Island Pottery
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Turtle Island Pottery gets its name from a Native American creation story. In the story a turtle swam to the bottom of a vast sea and brought up mud to make the land. In not too different a fashion, Maggie and Freeman Jones use mud to create their functional and decorative stoneware pottery. The duo moved to North Carolina in 1977. They started Turtle Island Pottery in 1980 after a few years teaching pottery, and since then have made pottery and raised their two children.

Turtle Island Pottery is known for its long-running line of functional stoneware distinct for its opaque white glaze and hand-brushed decorations of blue flowers, green and yellow accents, and dragonflies. Their more recent work is inspired by antique art pottery from the Art Nouveau style and the Arts and Crafts movement. Maggie and Freeman start their work on the wheel, then alter, manipulate, and add details.

Visitors to Turtle Island Pottery will find a house full of pottery. Maggie and Freeman work from their home a few miles away, but they are readily available to show their work at the gallery. That work ranges from the traditional Turtle Island line to smaller series of work. Noteworthy among their work are their lifelike depictions of animals and natural elements. Each piece ends up as an individual sculpture. Maggie and Freeman paint with minerals and heat by brushing on their glazes and letting the kiln do its magic. Not two pieces are alike!

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