ClayPeople

Ben Owen III is a potter from Seagrove, North Carolina. His forefathers came to North Carolina from England as early as 1756 to ply their craft and furnish storage jars and other utilitarian wares for the early settlers. Ben’s grandfather, master potter Ben Owen, Sr., admired early oriental pottery displayed in museums and collections and translated those works into his own style of pottery. He worked as a potter at Jugtown Pottery in the early to mid 1900’s. Ben the III’s work was influenced by his grandfather’s style at an early age. He studied pottery from 1977 to 1983 as an apprentice with his grandfather and, later, at East Carolina University from 1989 to 1993. Like his grandfather, Ben III’s pottery reflects a foundation of traditional designs as well as oriental translations.