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GREENSBORO — Ruth Martin still remembers the lesson she learned about Guilford County’s place in the public mind when it comes to pottery.

A man was admiring Martin’s pottery at an arts festival some years back and he commented that Martin must be from Seagrove. No, Martin replied, she lived in Jamestown.

That didn’t sit well with the customer.

“The guy kind of huffed and said, 'Well, if it’s not from Seagrove, then it’s not North Carolina pottery,’ ” Martin recalled.

It’s a story that makes potters from these parts cringe, but it illustrates the reality that those working with clay here face: Seagrove casts a long, long shadow.

For some area potters, that shadow seems to have grown darker lately.

A Seagrove-based group recently decided to hold a new festival at the Greensboro Coliseum on the same weekend as a long-running show at the Farmers’ Curb Market.

When the Seagrove contingent announced their show on the same April weekend, Greensboro potters feared the worst and moved the market show to an earlier weekend. But the hard feelings remained.

With the economy digging into many potters’ back pockets, the new festival felt like an act of aggression to some.

“I don’t care about Seagrove. I don’t want to talk about them,” said Greensboro potter Jim Rientjes. “But they did one thing wrong. They stepped into my territory and threatened my income.”

He and others say they’re constantly fighting an uphill battle to convince customers that pottery isn’t synonymous with Seagrove.

“What we’ve been doing is banging our heads on the wall trying to convince people you don’t have to give Exxon $30 to go down to Seagrove,” Rientjes said. “You can get a pot here that’s just as good.”

The Greensboro spirit

In his Elm Street studio just south of the railroad tracks, Jim Gutsell is bent over an electric wheel, shaping a hunk of clay.

With mud-brown Crocs, blue jeans, tan shirt and white beard, he’s the picture of the potter at work.

He’s also something of a godfather of Greensboro pottery, having founded the market festival more than a decade ago and achieved commercial success.

Over time, more potters have come to call Greensboro home, with about 100 in the local guild, the majority from Guilford, Forsyth and Rockingham.

There are strong programs at a number of local colleges, Gutsell said, and while relatively few potters make pots full time, the quality is high — just as high as Seagrove.

For many Guilford potters, Seagrove’s success owes as much to marketing as it does to the inherent quality of the pottery there.

For years, the state has funded efforts that promoted Seagrove as a pottery destination.

That succeeded — but at the cost, some say, of other potters in a state where pottery has a statewide tradition.

“The key thing about North Carolina is you can’t throw a rock in any one direction without hitting a potter,” Rientjes said.

A rich history

Two hundred and sixty years of history.

That’s what Seagrove has that Greensboro doesn’t, said Phil Morgan, a Seagrove potter and organizer of the new coliseum festival.

It’s not about marketing, it’s just about a long, long tradition that people recognize.

“There’s lines of pottery families here. You’ve got the Cravens, you’ve got the Owenses, you’ve got the Lucks. And there’s others. Teagues. Coles,” he said.

It’s not a question of quality, Morgan said.

“It’s hard to catch up with 260 years,” he said. “You can’t change that.”

But some Greensboro potters say the history of their cousin to the south can be exaggerated.

Not everyone in Seagrove learned at their great-grandfather’s knee, they say.

“Most of them went to the community college and learned from a guy who got his MFA from UNCG,” Gutsell said.

Economic hard times

The economic crunch has hit potters along with everyone else. At Gutsell’s shop, where the passing trains rattle the air, business is slow.

“The stop-in traffic has almost died here,” he said. “I’m getting about $2.50 an hour for my time.”

And that’s on top of the fact that making a living with pots is nearly impossible. The average potter’s income amounts to just $7,000 a year, Gutsell said.

That reality is the backdrop for the tussle over the festivals.

For many Greensboro potters, the market show has long been a key money-maker. Rientjes estimates that he and his wife, Molly Lithgo, bring in about a third or fourth of their yearly income during the one-day event.

For his part, Morgan said he wasn’t aware of the scheduling conflict. “You’re not going to make everybody happy. We’re going to have a very nice event in Greensboro,” he said. “Maybe they’ll take part in it next year.”

That remains to be seen. While they sit in neighboring counties, the distance between Greensboro and Seagrove might be farther than ever.

“I don’t have to move to Seagrove to make pottery,” Lithgo said. “I can do that here.”

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or jason.hardin@news-record.com