Bolick and Traditions holds first 2024 kiln opening

Jul. 1—Bolick and Traditions Pottery, based out Blowing Rock, hosted the first of its two annual wood-fired kiln openings on Saturday, June 29. The event was held at Bolick Pottery, a separate location in Northern Caldwell County. The kiln was opened at 10 a.m., whereupon visitors were able to take their pick of the freshly fired pottery. The event was, as usual, accompanied by local vendors, friends, and associates selling their own goods alongside Bolick.

Janet Bolick Calhoun, who runs Bolick and Traditions alongside her husband, Mike Calhoun, is the daughter of Glenn and Lula Bolick, who built Bolick Pottery in 1973.

The family traces its history with handmade pottery back 6 generations through family ties, according to Bolick and Traditions. The business carries on the tradition to this day, making and selling vases, flowerpots, tools, pitchers and teapots alongside face jugs and seasonal items like jack-o'lanterns and snowmen. Glenn and Lula received the 2018 NC Heritage Award from the NC Arts Council, according to Bolick and Traditions.

Saturday's event was the third kiln opening to occur since the Calhouns refurbished the kiln, adding extra space and allowing for 3 times as much pottery to be fired at one time, in the spring of 2023 according to Janet. She said that most of the product sold are fired normally, "but the wood-fired pieces we only do a couple of times a year. That makes it a little more authentic and special."

The kiln takes a lot of work to operate, though, and Bolick and Traditions used help from other potters in the area to manage the firing, including Kaylee Eggers, who works and has pottery featured at Bolick and Traditions, and who also had pottery featured at the event.

As individual pieces were removed from the kiln, they were carefully transported to three long tables underneath a tent, cordoned off by caution tape. Visitors gathered both around the kiln and around the tent to eye the new pottery as it came out. Statues and face jugs, mugs, bowls, teapots and sugar bowls and many more items gathered on the tables until the kiln was empty enough. Shortly after 11 a.m., the caution tape came down and the buyers pounced.

More than half of the spoils had gone in a few minutes, and around 90% had been sold by the end of the day, according to Janet.

The kiln openings have been happening for more than 30 years, Janet said, with the first opening happening the first year she and Mike got into pottery. They have since become a popular event for locals, drawing excitement each time they happen.

Glenn also mentioned that the other vendors at the openings are a crowd largely assembled from friends and acquaintances made over the years at showings and sales. Among the attendees were people selling handmade baskets and woodwork, sewn goods, other pottery, fried apple pies and barbecue and more. Live music was played on a nearby stage.

For those who may not have been able to grab what they wanted from the kiln, the Bolick shop was open, selling additional handmade pottery. The next kiln opening will happen the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and until then both Bolick Pottery at 4884 Bolick Road in Lenoir and Bolick and Traditions Pottery at 1155 Main Street in Blowing Rock are open every day.