Whynot Pottery
Whynot Pottery, established in 1982 by Mark and Meredith Heywood, is What makes Seagrove, Whynot, and other communities in this vicinity so unique is that pottery has been continually made here for about 300 years. There are as many as eighty shops within a fifteen minute drive of Whynot Pottery. Whynot Pottery is owned and operated by Mark and Meredith Heywood, and their work consists of mostly gas fired stoneware, along with some lower fired hand built work. Mark and Meredith have lived in Whynot for over thirty years and have made their living by producing handmade pottery since 1982. Both Mark and Meredith have a hand in every step of the production of Whynot Pottery. Pots are handled countless times before these treasures find their way into our home.
Except for the occasional part time helper, every piece that you’ll find in Whynot Pottery was made by one of them. If the piece has their “MH” logo stamp, it was surely made by one of them as they allow no one else to use that stamp. If the piece happens to be exceptionally special in some way they may sign it, most often with just their first name. It's simple, really. Whynot Pottery makes pots. Pots for vases, pots for pouring, pots for drinking, pots to serve from, pots to eat from, pots that are candles and pots that are lamps. Mark and Meredith start with high quality pre-mixed clay and form their pots on the wheel and occasionally with either rolled or extruded clay. After drying, the work is fired to about 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, to what they call bisque temperature. At this point the work is ready to glaze. Glazes are applied by either dipping the pots or pouring the glaze and sometimes a combination of each. All of their glazes are mixed on site and made up mostly of feldspar, flint, clay, calcium carbonate, and wood ashes. Metallic oxides (mostly iron) are added for color. And they never use lead. Their glaze kiln is fueled by LP gas, and it takes twelve to sixteen hours to bring the interior temperature to 2350 degrees and two full days for the pieces inside to cool enough to be handled. The intense heat of the kiln vitrifies the clay and melts the glaze, which partially soaks into the surface of the pots. Most people don’t know that until 1905, much of the area we now know as Seagrove was actually called Whynot.
Since no one was willing to answer that question, or agree on a name, the meeting dragged on late into the night. After hours of polite indecision, one brave and tired soul stood up and said, "Why not call it Whynot and let's go home?" And so for years, much of what is now Seagrove was actually Whynot. I can still remember many trips as a kid from Randolph County to Moore County to visit family, going past that town sign that says “Whynot”, and wandering what the story was. Now, I know. Whynot Pottery looks forward to seeing you Monday thru Friday, and for special events and firings.
Whynot Pottery 1013 Fork Creek Mill Rd, Seagrove NC 27341 Map It 336-873-9276
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located in
and named after the community of Whynot NC. The town is located about 2 miles from
downtown Seagrove, NC the famous capitol of North Carolina pottery.
Sometime around 1860, the people of the community found themselves
in need of an official name in order to establish a federal post office. During
a meeting called to address this need, many suggestions were considered. Each
prospective name was preceded with the question "Why not?"
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