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Excellent Production! - Recommended; Library Journal, November 2001

For reviews of Melvin click on the image above

This project received support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts

 

Melvin

48 minutes

Completed in 2000

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$25 plus tax and shipping. ($50 public performance outlets)

Traditional music performed by Melvin Owens

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WINNER 2nd PLACE BEST DOCUMENTARY
CAROLINA FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL 2001!
 

"What's unique about him and this pottery business is this is all he's ever done. Some people hold degrees in different stuff, he holds one workin' in pottery."
Boyd Owens; son.

Melvin Owens made pottery in Seagrove, North Carolina, for over seventy years. He came from a long line of potters; a line that drifts back to the 18th century and the founders of the Seagrove pottery industry. At eighty-three years old, when this documentary was shot in 2000, Melvin would go from his home to the family pottery shop in his red Ford pickup and turn pots, face jugs, and Rebecca pitchers. The pottery he turned out was truly collectible, not only for its beauty but for its connection to the person who made it. A tiny part of his unique spirit may be instilled in the pots he turned, and maybe not. But that doesn't really matter. If you knew Melvin and happen to come in contact with the pots he made they will return memories of him - of something he said, something he did, or even something he didn't do, and then, most likely, you'll laugh in fondness of him. Then again, you may blush depending on who you are. Either way, Melvin will get to you.

That nine-pound hammer,
Done killed John Henry
And it's gonna kill me,
and it's gonna kill me
Oh! Roll on buddy ...


Melvin played guitar and sang folk and sacred songs for most of his life. He got great enjoyment out of it, as did anyone who got to hear him. "I can't stop playin'. If I do my fingers will get stiff," he said to me one evening. So, he played some more. Sacred songs, George Jones, Hank Williams songs, and, as he called them, "foolish songs!" - comical songs that, like many comical songs, don't make much sense if you think about them too much. He was also a good cook, with his own views on what was healthy and what was not - "I don't want no barbecue, that stuff's too fat!" He made me a hamburger one day and as he was making the hamburger he said the key to making a hamburger was "to beat them sides up" which he proceeded to do. It was a good hamburger. Also, I'll never forget the day he was telling me about the benefits of some homemade wine that he used to like to drink sparingly. He used it more as a medicine and went on to say "there ain't no singin' in that wine" in regards to its potency. What a great description, I thought. I also thought that's the kind of wine I need. As I am apt to "overwine" myself sometimes.

"A surgeon, once he gets done with you he don't care 'bout ever seeing you again ... Did you know that?"

Melvin had back surgery and hip replacement. He'd gotten hit in the head with a cable. He was hard of hearing. He burned his hand and arm badly, "You can take the skin from any part of my body, but I don't want no plastic!," is what he told the plastic surgeon he encountered at the hospital who was tending to his burns. And yet, in spite of these physical ailments he would still get up and continue on with his life. "I'm just as happy as I ever was," he said. "My wife told me 'night or two 'fore she died, she said, 'I want you to just enjoy yourself like you always have.' I've always been happy. Never been done in the dumps. That's nonsense." He knew that one of the reasons for his contentment was the family he had around him. His wife, Marie, worked side by side with him throughout her life while raising eight children. The children, in turn, helped as children do, until they grew into their teens and began putting out pottery with speed and skill. "I had six people working for me. We was burnin' ev'ryday; thirty-five hun'red pieces a week in those big ol' walk-in kilns. My whole family was in with me," he said proudly and with a smile. How often he smiled as he thought of his sons, daughters, grandchildren, and his late wife, Marie.
... How often he made others smile too. Melvin died in April 2003. This world is a better place because of him. Roll on buddy.
 
 

 
     
 

Owens Pottery is located at 3756 Busbee Road, Seagrove, NC 27341. Phone (910) 464-3282. Here you will find the work of Melvin, Boyd, Nancy, and Lori. Just down the road at 330 Jugtown Road is Jugtown Pottery where Vernon, Pam, and Bobby Owens have their shop and museum. Their phone number is (910) 464-3266. Traditions Pottery, where Melvin Owen's daughter's family, the Bolicks, have their shop, is located near Blowing Rock at 4443 Bolick Road, Lenoir, NC 28645. Phone (828) 295-5099. They also have a website at www.traditionspottery.com
 

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