Long road of friendship leads to pottery venture

Cathy Crumpler and Mary Sholar have one of those joined-at-the-hip friendships, some weeks spending more time together than they do apart. They have shared interests and a shared Christian faith. They celebrate together during the good times and console each other through the bad — and lots of that celebrating and consoling takes place in Crumpler’s art studio, where they spend inordinate amounts of time doing pottery, in a venture they call Duplin Potters/Clay in Hands. Currently, they are preparing for their fourth annual kiln opening, slated for Saturday, October 19.

Crumpler and Sholar’s friendship began when both were teaching at East Duplin High School. Crumpler, an art teacher who lives outside Mount Olive, spent the earliest years of her career teaching at various schools throughout Duplin County, before winding up where she’d wanted to be all along: her alma mater, East Duplin. Sholar, a science teacher who lives in Duplin County’s Pin Hook community, arrived at East Duplin after having taught at a couple of private schools.

One day, Sholar remembers, “We sat together at a teacher’s meeting and we started talking.” Once they started, they never stopped. The friendship they formed transcended their East Duplin connection, and it was only natural they’d remain close even after they both retired from the school, Crumpler in 2013 and Sholar in 2014.

For Crumpler, her post-retirement decision to become a potter felt very natural. “I have always just loved anything that was art,” she says.

For Sholar, it was more of a stretch. “Never in a million years did I think I’d ever be doing anything like this,” she admits.

But once she started, she found that her background in chemistry came in handy. “The glazes that we use have certain chemicals in them that help produce the dramatic colors that come out, especially like with your transition metals and your oxides and those types of things,” Sholar explains, slipping back into science teacher mode. “To me, it’s like having a fireworks explosion—you know how you get all the different colors—and that’s what you get when you pull things out of the kiln. And it’s all due to high temperatures that are reached in the kiln.”

Crumpler explains that there are two different kinds of potters — those who shape (or “throw”) clay on a pottery wheel and those who hand-build, using simple tools like slab rollers. Crumpler and Sholar fall into the latter category.

One of Crumpler’s early influences when she began working with clay was Frank Grubbs, a highly regarded ceramics instructor at the University of Mount Olive. Crumpler (along with her daughter, Sarah, also a potter) took a class under Grubbs, during which the instructor eschewed step-by-step instruction, in favor of acting as a guide for students as they pursued their individual projects.

Subsequently, Crumpler and Sholar studied under the late Dan Finch, a renowned master potter in Bailey, for about a year and a half. Finch’s teaching style was similar to that of Grubbs. “You just get into the clay,” Crumpler recalls of their time in Bailey. “You watch what this person’s doing and what that person’s doing, and you figure it out.” She describes it as a “learning by doing” experience, with Finch there to answer questions, provide pointers, and offer encouragement.

While Crumpler offers praise for instructors Grubbs and Finch, Sholar is quick to add another name — Crumpler’s — to that list of esteemed teachers. “I’ve learned a lot from Cathy,” she insists. “Sometimes I feel like I’m a student of hers.

“It’s amazing,” she continues. “She can take a piece of clay, and she can just make some of the neatest, most creative pieces you’ve ever seen.”

Crumpler returns her friend’s compliment, noting, “She’s a good potter. She learns quick.”

As they sit working side by side in Crumpler’s studio, “We really feed off of each other,” Sholar says, adding, “I think I feed off her more than she does me.”

When Sholar is working on a particular piece, she welcomes Crumpler’s input. “Cathy will say, “Why don’t you do it this color?’ or ‘Try such and such.’ So, she pushes me.”

At times, their work is punctuated by the feedback they give one another or even idle chitchat. Other times, “we don’t talk, we’re so absorbed in what we’re doing,” Sholar says.

Because the two are so close and so often on the same page, one might assume they share a common approach to their pottery work — but nothing could be further from the truth.

Crumpler shows up in the studio with a notepad in hand, her labeled drawings providing a blueprint for the day’s work that lies ahead. “She’s all the time doing homework,” Sholar says, adding, “I’m, like, fly by the seat of my pants.”

Crumpler admits to being an ardent YouTube viewer, noting that not only does she pick up practical tips regarding how to improve her techniques, but she also finds new ideas. “We don’t want to steal from them,” she emphasizes, when talking about viewing other potters’ work, “because we wouldn’t want them to steal from us.”

Instead, it’s about seeing something she likes, and then, “I ask myself, ‘What can I do different than that?’”

Creating each piece of pottery is, at the very least, a days-long process that entails numerous steps, including two separate firings (heating to very high temperatures) in the kiln that is housed in a smokehouse on Crumpler’s property. Not everything goes smoothly all the time.

“You are gonna have fails,” Crumpler notes. “You’re gonna have mis-fires.”

This can, of course, be extremely upsetting, especially if it’s a piece you’ve put a lot of time into. “But we know that that’s the nature of pottery,” Crumpler allows. “When we were going to Dan Finch’s, they said, ‘It’s not done, ‘til it’s done.’”

One of Crumpler’s long-held visions has been to depict the empty tomb of Jesus, and, to that end, she has molded several tombs, only to have them explode during the firing process. Recently, though, while browsing in a crafts store, she found a portrayal of an empty tomb, made of wood; she purchased it and then sculpted a figure of Jesus to put alongside it. She’s satisfied with this solution — but that doesn’t mean she’s given up on one day successfully building a tomb from clay.

Of course, not every breakage of pottery occurs in the kiln. Sholar recounts the story of a basket she was working on: “Before I could bisque fire the piece, I broke one of the handles. Instead of throwing away the piece, I cleaned it up and fired and glazed it anyway.

“It turned out beautiful,” she continues, adding that it has come to have special meaning for her. “It just shows that even if we become broken, we still have a purpose for our lives that can turn out beautiful.”

Over the course of the year, Crumpler posts their pottery pieces on her Facebook page, and several years ago, the pair began holding a Christmas Kiln Opening each fall, offering their pottery pieces for sale to the public. Both women enjoy making nativities, and these have proven to be especially popular with buyers. They also provide a wide variety of other pieces, as well: ornaments, mugs, ceramic Christmas trees, gnomes, and so on.

Two other vendors are taking part in this year’s kiln opening: Heavenly Delights Bakery (selling sweets) and Red Truck Designs (offering wood carvings and leather goods).

For those planning to attend the opening, Crumpler advises, “If there’s something in particular they want, we don’t have a lot of multiples this year, like we normally do, so they need to get there early.”

This year’s Christmas Kiln Opening, scheduled for Saturday, October 19, will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. outside Crumpler’s studio at 2519 Tram Rd., Mount Olive. Since this is an outdoor event, there is a rain date of October 26.