This is another episode from the first season of FOLKWAYS in 1982.

While most of the artists in that first series are no longer with us, this is a chance to visit them again and see some of the very best and authentic folk art practiced in the southern Appalachians.

Although the production tools available then can't match the quality of today's digital video, it's still a fascinating look back at part of our cultural heritage.

Survival pottery was bread and butter business for both the potter and his customers in the days before refrigeration. Food processing took a major amount of attention and depended heavily on the heavy clay and stoneware jugs, churns, pots and pitchers. They were as common as plastic and carboard containers are today.

This program features Burlon Craig, who at the time of production was one of the last folk potters still working in North Carolina.

At his home in Lincoln County, he dug his own clay, made his own alkaline glaze from ground glass and ashes, and fired his pottery in one of the last remaining ground-hog wood-fired kilns.

He became famous for his face jugs, although he routinely made all kinds of pots.

The series visited Burlon again in the 1990's to find him still working pretty much as he always had done. (see Pottery Revival in Catawba Valley) In the interim, pottery making had enjoyed a revival in North Carolina and there are now hundreds of excellent potters in the state. Craig's techniques and style inspired many new potters.