[theme music] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend", join us from Seagrove as we highlight history in the making.

We'll visit the new Downton Abbey Exhibit in Raleigh, Hunting Boy Woodcarving, and preview the Searove pottery celebration.

Coming up next.

- [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by, Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions; From the Blue Ridge andthe Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches.

You're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[bright upbeat music] - Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend", everyone.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel.

And this week we are highlighting history in the making, arts, crafts, other handmade items, that tie us back to our history.

Today we're in Seagrove, pottery capital of the country, or the largest concentration of working potters in the United States.

I'm visiting several artists as they prepare for the Seagrove Pottery Celebration happening this year, November 19th, through the 21st.

This year, like last year, you'll be able to visit artists in their private studios, and there will be an online auction.

We'll learn more about the event in the show, but first let's join Rebecca Ward in Raleigh at the North Carolina Museum of History for a new exhibition of clothing featured in the popular PBS series, "Downton Abbey".

[bright upbeat music] - [Narrator] Now through January, 2022, you can see the stunning original costumes worn by the stars of the Emmy and Golden Globe winning PBS series, "Downton Abbey".

Weaving together popular culture, fashion and history dressing the Abbey features 35 original costumes that depict the progression of style across the British social hierarchy from 1912 to 1927.

- Well, I hope you mean that.

- [Narrator] Enter the exhibit, and you'll be transported back in time to early 20th century Britain.

- So the exhibit has costumes from all six seasons of the show, as well as the first movie [bright upbeat music] There are 35 costumes.

They span the time period from 1912 to 1927.

That's a time of great social change, World War I is causing change, the dawn of the jazz age, and that is reflected in the storyline in the show, but it's also reflected in the clothing and the costumes that we have.

The exhibit focuses heavily on costumes from the 1920s, but you are able to see some of that change over time from the earlier looks as well.

We've got some beautiful costumes that the family wore.

A lot of your favorites will be here.

If you've seen the show, I think you're gonna see somebody that you'll be excited to see.

[bell rings] - People can learn about what was going on in history around the world, during this time in the early 20th century.

Everything from the Titanic sinking, to World War I, to the roaring 20s, and so taking in the history and the culture and the fashion and the society that the show brought us, there's a real educational historical aspect to this.

- Harold hates to leave America.

- Curious, he hates to leave America.

I should hate to go there.

- You don't mean that, granny, when we're both so drawn to America.

- Indeed, indeed, we are.

Never more than now.

- [Narrator] While dressing the Abbey reflects a shift in fashion over time, it is also very in the moment.

People who have seen the show will recognize period pieces from specific episodes.

- We have called out on all of the object labels to remind people who are familiar with the show, oh, you will have seen this costume in this particular plot line.

For example, we have four costumes from Lady Edith's first disastrous wedding.

- We are gathered- - I can't do this.

- What?

- I can't do it.

- Overall, the costumes are a mix of original period garments, some pieces created from period fabric panels with elaborate beading and embroidery, put together with new materials to make these costumes.

And then there are some pieces that were made for the show.

One piece that's particularly fun is the dress that the Countess of Grantham, Cora, wore to Lady Edith's first wedding.

She has this really attractive silk, coat and dress, that is actually not an original dress, but it's the original fabric.

It was taken from a 1920s tablecloth.

We have others that were worn in multiple episodes.

For example, some of the servants' attire you see throughout the first several seasons.

[calm piano] [bell rings] - Oh my Lord, listen to that.

- I think one of the most striking things looking at the costumes, and it was true watching the show as well, is the different way that the elites dressed from the working class.

- People who watch the show, who may have preferred the downstairs staff, we also have Carson, and Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. Patmore, Daisy.

- I'm afraid I'm going to have to sit in your presence, my Lord.

- [Man] Of course.

- People who are familiar with the show, will find all kinds of things that make them excited when they come in.

But also people who just really like looking at period costume, the pieces are gorgeous.

They're going to find things that really draw them in with the detail and the beauty of it.

- People from all 100 counties who love "Downton Abbey" can come see this exhibit and connect back to the show, plan to spend more than just a little time here at this museum, because there are so many other amazing exhibits and you'll learn a lot and really enjoy it.

- Dressing the Abbey, the iconic wardrobe of "Downton Abbey" is on display at the North Carolina Museum of History until January 17th, 2022.

The museum is at East Edenton Street in Raleigh, and it's open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and Sundays from noon to five.

For tickets and more information to this exhibit, visit them online @ncmuseumofhistory.org, or give them a call at 919-814-7000.

Right now I'm here with Lindsay Lambert, who's the director of the North Carolina Pottery Center.

Lindsay, when a visitor comes to Seagrove, how do they maybe get started?

- Well, one of the best ways for a visitor to Seagrove to get started is to stop right here at the North Carolina Pottery Center.

We have example shelves of pieces by local potters, and they can use those shelves and pieces on their shelves in conjunction with one of these local maps produced by the Seagrove Potters.

On the reverse side of the map, there's even little photos showing you what each of the potters are producing.

Which is important because they're all producing something different, and well, everybody likes something a little different too.

So it helps people figure out where they wanna go.

- Thank you, Lindsay.

Well, I think I'm going to go explore Seagrove.

- Well, you'll definitely want one of the maps.

- Thank you.

I used the Seagrove pottery map to make my way to Johnston and Gentithes pottery and sculpture.

Right now I'm here with Fred Johnson who's one of the potters on the sea Seagrove Pottery Celebration tour.

And I understand you like to use natural products in your pottery.

- Absolutely.

This is a chunk of clay that we dig here locally, and these are layers of volcanic ash that stacked up.

And supposedly this chunk of clay is between 250 and 300 million years old.

You just go out in the backyard and dig it up.

Here in this part of North Carolina, which is the Piedmont, we lie on what is called the fault line, and that's where a lot of good clays exists.

So that's what we're working with.

Look how soft that is, so soft.

- Oh yeah, it is.

It is.

And you actually have, that's rice, even though it doesn't look like it.

- Yes, this is the husk, the rice husk, ash.

Goes on black, comes out white to aqua.

And so I use 60 parts of this by weight to make this glaze that you see.

- Oh my goodness, that is beautiful.

- It has all kinds of, some crystals, variation.

- And I love the gleam on it.

Another craft that has long been a part of our history is woodcarving.

In the Western part of our state, this craft was mastered by the Cherokee who carved instruments, masks, icons, and more.

Right now let's visit Carver Billy Welch at his studio, Hunting Boy Wood Carving, in Robbinsville.

[calm music] - Well, my artwork is a part of the tradition of our people.

There's quite a few mask makers through the years that's been well-known, and I hope to be one of those that keep the art alive.

I'm Billy Welch from the Snowbird Community.

I'm a teacher and a woodcarver and I own the shop, Hunting Boy Woodcarving, just off 143 in Graham County.

The name comes from where I live, we live on Hunting Boy Branch on up the Creek, on the reservation, and it's where I grew up.

My ancestors walked here, camped here, hunted here, fished here, all the way back to the beginning of time from what I understand, you know, all the traditions were handed down.

For my part of it, my grandmother and our family made baskets.

It took all summer long, they would work and gather their materials to make the basket, and then they'd wave all winter long by the fire, and that would be what you would produce for a product for the spring to sell.

They were made from white oak splits, quartered, scraped, we use the natural dyes, and that influence probably brought me to where I am today with what I do.

This is a different version of the Madison mask.

I used the black walnut stain made from the husk, leaves, bark, or root of the walnut tree, and then you would rub it on the mask to embed the color.

The red was from the Indian paintbrush, the red flower you see in the woods.

Sometimes you just see the way it is and it comes to mind, and that's the way I rub the stain in.

That would be a version of the Madison mask, the traditional way.

I've been carving for about 30 something years, and I have a lot of various accomplishments in my carving from speaking at Smithsonian and having pieces in the Smithsonian.

I don't even know how many masks I've made.

How to carve them and the look of it is something that I don't think you can train anyone.

The feeling of the wood directs me to carve the different masks that I make.

You throw the block of wood up, you open the log up, and it leads you, and it does me.

It's kind of like following a story through the wood, it's calling to you.

All I'm doing is cutting in just straight through.

Now you see the first [indistinct].

A lot of that comes from years of experience, just looking at it.

You can actually see two eyes looking at you.

So you see that line, we'll start right here.

It's still gonna reveal itself here.

If you look at one of the masks and you see it might be following you around the room, you look at and another one and it's real bold, standing strong.

It should draw you, if it don't, then it's not for you.

And if it does, then you know the meaning of what I've done through the wood.

The power, the strength that you see in the mask, it came from the reservation, and you can say I picked it up from the snowbird on the reservation.

That's a whole lot of meaning to me.

- Hunting Boy Woodcarving is at 2793 Massey Branch Road in Robbinsville, and it's open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM.

For more information, give Billy Welch a call, at 828-479-9554, or find him on Facebook.

My next stop in Seagrove was Crystal King Pottery.

Crystal comes from a long line of self-taught potters.

- I grew up here in Seagrove with a pottery family, both my parents were potters.

And they apprenticed with an older shop that was here, which had an eighth generation potter.

What was very important to her was history and tradition, and to hand that on.

So my parents carried on that legacy with a focus on folk art.

For me, that meant, from hand sculpting at an early age, that I would continue to do animal and figurative sculptures.

So although I still highlight with sculptures today, I also do functional and decorative work.

But what I'm especially known for is the animal and figurative work.

- Right now I'm here at Bulldog Pottery, stirring the glaze to make sure it doesn't settle too much.

And I'm also here with Samantha Henneke, one of the potters She's preparing for the Seagrove Pottery Celebration.

And what are you working on right now?

- Well, right now I'm getting ready to decorate my work.

And so my process is, I do a lot of dots.

And what's kind of fun about this is depending on...

It could just be all different possibilities.

And so like, if I were to glaze this this afternoon, it could be completely different, you know?

It just depends on what I decide, but I call this a pattern medley.

- [Deborah] A pattern medley?

- A pattern medley, so it has sort of like a quilted appearance too.

- I'm here at Bulldog Pottery, just popped up the hill to the shop here with Bruce Gholson.

Tell me, how do you kind of collaborate with your wife?

- Well, both of us throw pots, and then when it comes to glazing, that's where it becomes more collaborative.

Like I had done the slip work on this bowl and then turned it over to her to do the white spots.

- And that's really beautiful.

- And then it's got a black glaze on the inside.

- It's really lovely.

We look forward to seeing more of this on the Seagrove Pottery Celebration.

- Absolutely.

- I'm here with renowned potter, Ben Owen, who has helped to organize the 2021 Seagrove Potters Celebration.

Ben, what can we expect at this year's celebration.

- We are very excited about this year's fall celebration studio tour.

This year we're having it November 19th to the 21st, but because of COVID and some of the Delta variant we've decided to work with a studio tour format just out of safety for the public.

With that in mind, you really have a chance to go in and visit the studios in person, meet the makers, see really a wider range of work than just a limited booth space that would be in the festival format, and really get to see some of the behind the scenes, part of the process of how they make their work.

We have a lot of talented people in our community.

We have up to 40 studios participating in this, and they have been working for many months to prepare for the studio tour.

I believe the department stores have their place in society, and we all have a need to go there and shop for things, but we feel like we offer something that's really unique.

And here in North Carolina, especially being creative artists, making things from the earth, lately with some of the shortages of inventory or materials that may not be available on the shelf for the holidays.

Coming and shopping with a potter or a creative person in North Carolina, really is a wonderful way of supporting what we have here, kind of home grown, handmade, here in the region.

And I hope that you can take advantage of the opportunity and come and visit.

- Well, I can't wait.

It's going to be so much fun.

The 2021 celebration of Seagrove Potters studio tour runs November 19th, through 21st in Seagrove.

The tour features over 35 potters and includes an online auction.

For more information, go to discoverseagrove.com.

Right now let's head across our state to Cabarrus County, where there are seven acres of an antique pickers dream that you've just got to see.

John and Theresa Liskey take us on an adventure to Cline's Antiques.

[bright upbeat music] - A picker is somebody that sees something, sees value in about anything that they come across.

- [Theresa] Picking antiques has become a popular pastime and a great place to hone that skill is at Cline's Antiques.

- It's like a slice of vintage America, that's what it feels like.

You're stepping back into time, you're finding things that are vintage, but you're also finding things that you can use today.

So I just love it.

- This is a good example of the kind of yard decor I sell.

This is a [indistinct] made out of actual spoons, has ball bearings, and like I say, sell for $25, It's I think a pretty neat item.

- [Theresa] The man that started this business on his family chicken farm nearly 45 years ago is Don Cline.

- I would say it's a business that sells all kinds of antiques and all kinds of decor items with sort of, one of our specialties, is advertising signs, both old and new.

- He kind of sets you in line with family, like a uncle or a grandfather, just very caring and loving.

And you can tell he really enjoys doing this, - This is our, I guess you'd say, our menagerie, I reckon, I've always liked about unusual stuff, and, and like I say, I guess these are unusual.

Like I say, I've always liked weird stuff.

- When you come here it's like you're going back to visit a family member.

You're always welcome to come and he'll answer any questions you have about things and share stories with you, so it's always a nice trip.

- [Theresa] Before the term, picker, was coined, there was another word that identified these treasure hunters.

- In fact, a word for picker used to be doorknocker.

My manager, Tim, was an excellent door knocker.

They would literally go out in the country and knock on doors and ask them if they had anything they wanted to sell.

- A lot of people go to yard sales, and go to thrift stores, they'll got to auction sales.

They go to different places and resell them like a dollar on.

- We are buying things that we love while we're here.

We love old rustic vintage finds that you can't find in a regular box store.

- It's been an interesting business.

There's a lot of things to know about, and you never learn it all.

- There's no other place that I can think of personally, with this much land and this much space that families can go to.

To me, it's enjoyable because if you build a relationship and start coming here, it might be somewhere where you wanna come sit under the Oak tree over there, where they've got tables, and sit around and talk to the guys and enjoy yourself and learn the history of this.

And they'll tell you everything.

- A philosophy that Mr. Cline lives by benefits both the community and the environment.

It's the simple concept of recycling.

He lives by the old adage, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

- Our landfills are filling up and it just galls me to see all this stuff that's thrown out, it just bothers me.

That's why I feel like that my pickers taking this stuff off the curb and selling it to me so I can sell it to somebody that will use it is really providing a service.

- I would say, it's like a treasure hunt.

You never know what you're gonna find, but you're gonna find something that you love.

- It's a place to come, and you need to wear your blue jeans and maybe your boots, you know, because we don't do a lot of dusting and whatever.

- This is definitely one of North Carolina's unique treasures.

It's a one of a kind place and a great destination.

- Cline's country Antiques is at 11839 North Carolina, Highway 49 in Mount Pleasant.

And they're open Thursday through Saturday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

For more information, give them a call at 704-436-6824, or go online to clinesantiquesmpnc.com.

Well, that's it for tonight's show.

We wanna thank the folks in Seagrove for hosting us, and don't forget, the 2021 Seagrove Pottery Celebration coming up in November, and the auction, because this is such a special event.

The potters are super excited and creating unique pieces that will only be available during the celebration.

And remember if you've missed anything in today's show, you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org Have a great "North Carolina Weekend", everyone.

[bright upbeat music] - [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches.

You're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[theme music]