In 1970, Jerry Fenberg and Charlotte Wooten Fenberg opened Humble Mill Pottery on Old Humble Mill Road near Seagrove, North Carolina. There were four or five pottery shops producing in the area at that time.
Earlier, in the 1960s Jerry and Charlotte had studied at the Memphis Academy of Art in Tennessee. It was there that a wonderful opportunity came about. A Japanese potter, Atsuya Hamada, visited and did a workshop at the Academy. Through him an introduction was made that allowed Jerry and Charlotte to go to Japan to work and live. Atsuya’s father Shoji Hamada sponsored their time there. Mr. Hamada Sr. was a distinguished, internationally known potter who was designated an “Intangible Cultural Treasure” by the government of Japan.
Jerry secured an apprenticeship with the Otsuka family at the Daisei kiln in Mashiko. This is the workshop where Shoji Hamada apprenticed when he came to Mashiko in his twenties. For two years the Daisei and Hamada workshops encouraged the Fenbergs. They and other patient Japanese people taught the young couple many things. There was also time spent with international visitors Bernard Leach, Franz Wildenheim, and many other, less famous foreigners.
Charlotte decorated pots at the Daisei and soaked up everything Japanese she could. She recalls “It was enormously enriching to be in that culture as an artist and as a new mother.” Her experiences still affect her today. She gained many insights as she walked and cycled along the roads and paths around Mashiko, learning many valuable lessons about raising children, preserving food, and hand-sewing traditional Japanese clothing. She considers herself fortunate to have had that time in the little rural village of Mashiko, Japan from 1967 to 1969.
Jerry came away with a wealth of uniquely Japanese ideas. Some of these were a sense of form, turning techniques, and the work ethic of the potter. Jerry felt a determination to find and use clay and materials from the land around Seagrove. This desire led him to spend many hours seeking the knowledge accumulated in the minds of a few of the potters in Seagrove at that time. Dorothy and Walter Auman, Melvin Owens, Ben Owen I, Joe Owen, Waymon Cole, Zedith Teague and her family, and others graciously shared their know-how gained over lifetimes. Some were no longer working potters and were keen to pass on their knowledge to one interested in doing things the old way.
For twenty-five years Humble Mill made high-temperature stoneware. Colors for decorating were limited. To get more of the colors she longed for, in 1995 Charlotte changed to mid-range stoneware and to fire only electric. Charlotte’s work reminds many people of majolica or faience. While similar in spirit, those styles are usually low-temperature earthenware with decoration painted on top of a white glaze. The difference is that Humble Mill Pottery starts on a harder, dark clay body; white slip is painted onto the body. Decoration is painted onto the slip, and then each piece is dipped into a clear glaze and fired. It is durable and long-lasting tableware. The pieces have a good vitreous ring to them, are food safe, and can go into the microwave and dishwasher.
The colors and decoration look old. They remind people of French, English, Portuguese or Italian pottery. Other people can see a “Japanese view of nature” that is still somehow a part of it. It is cheery to have around.
Charlotte has two sons who turn for her, and a daughter and daughter-in-law who paint and do sculpture. Her gallery and workshop are in a century-old house in downtown Seagrove.
2009 Celebration of Seagrove Potters - Nov. 20-22, 2009 
