Starting March 4, 2022
Whynot Pottery will be open four days a week.
Wednesday – Saturday: 10 A.M. until 4 P.M.
Other days and times may be available by appointment.
Our gallery space is small, so masking is encouraged.
On a busy day you may need to wait a few minutes to allow others to complete their visit.
Email us or call. If you call and no one answers we may be too muddy to pick up the phone but if youleave a message, we will return your call, often within minutes.
If you are planning days in advance email us at contact@whynotpottery.com or call (336) 873-9276 and Leave a message indicating when you would like to visit.
We just make pots, pots for pouring, pots for drinking, pots to serve from, pots to eat from, pots that are candles, and pots that are lamps.
We start with high-quality pre-mixed clay to form our pots on the wheel and occasionally with clay either rolled or extruded. After drying the work is fired to about 1800 degrees Fahrenheit; what we’d call bisque temperature. At this point, the work is ready to glaze.
Glazes are applied by either dipping the pots, pouring or spraying the glaze and sometimes a combination of each.
All of our pottery glazes are mixed on-site and made up mostly of feldspar, flint, clay, calcium carbonate, and wood ashes. Metallic oxides (mostly iron) are added for color.
We never use lead in our pottery.
GLAZE FIRING
It takes ten to twelve hours to bring the interior temperature of our LP gas fired kiln to 2350o and two full days for the ware inside to cool enough to be handled.
Why Whynot?
Until 1905 much of the area in North Carolina that is now called Seagrove was known as Whynot.
In about 1854 the people of the community found themselves in need of an official name in order to establish a federal post office. During a meeting called to address this many suggestions were considered. Each prospective name was preceded with the question “Why not?”
Since no one was willing to answer that question, or agree on a name, the meeting dragged on late into the night. After hours of polite indecision, one brave and tired soul stood up and said, “Why not call it Whynot and let’s go home.”
