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closeA high school gym might not have the same ambience as an outdoor wood-fired kiln, but it does have its advantages.
“We have indoor bathrooms, which is great,” said Coni Merritt. “We don’t need porta-potties.”
Four years ago, Merritt and her husband, Mark, founded the annual Merritt Pottery Festival in Roberta. The first two festivals were held at the site of a wood-fired kiln built by the Crawford County Historical Society to bring attention to the county’s history as pottery manufacturing center during the 1800s.
Unpredictable weather led the Merritts to move the festival to the Crawford County High School gym, where it was held Saturday for the second time.
About 400 shoppers browsed among display tables set up by 14 vendors, whose wares ranged from $3 drinking cups to a massive $500 jug fashioned like the head of a giant bloodhound.
Most of the pottery was in the folk style with dark brown and green glazes. Bug-eyed “face jugs” abounded.
Merritt, whose husband comes from a long line of local potters, said Crawford County was one of Georgia’s major centers of pottery manufacture before the advent of plastic and metal containers made pottery obsolete for everyday food storage.
“It was the Tupperware of back then,” Merritt said.
Robert Pulliam, a high school senior from Monticello, traveled the 60 miles to Roberta just for the pottery show. He’s taking a pottery class at Jasper County High School and he was keen to get some ideas.
“I really like the face jugs,” Pulliam said. He had already made two of his own in class.
Shelby West grew up in Crawford County, where local history sparked his passion for making pottery. West now lives in Rome, but he returned to Roberta on Saturday to sell the pitchers, bowls and jugs he makes with the same methods used by the many potters who did business in Crawford County long ago.
West built a wood-burning kiln at his home in Rome.
He uses the kiln, Crawford County clay and an alkaline glaze made from local minerals to create the distinctive olive-colored wares associated with the area.
West developed an interest in the collectible antique pottery of Crawford County, but decided to make replicas when he found out he couldn’t afford the real thing.
He held up a pitcher he made and said, “You might walk in the woods around here and find something like this and sell it for a thousand dollars.”
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