Holiday Kiln Opening 2024
Pottery & Showroom Open dates & times:
Friday, November 29 10-5pm
Saturday, November 30 10-5pm
Sunday, December 1 noon-5pm
Saturday, December 7 10-5pm
Sunday, December 8 noon-5pm
Saturday, December 14 10-5pm
Sunday, December 15 noon-5pm
Enjoy a beautiful day in the country! Twice a year we fire over 1000+ pots in our massive wood kiln, or our gas kiln, and invite everyone to visit the pottery for a Kiln Opening! It’s a great chance to tour the pottery workshop, walk inside the massive kilns, and shop in our large barn/gallery/showroom for beautiful pottery for yourself or for the perfect gift.
The shelves are full of beautiful mugs, tumblers, plates and bowls, elegant vases, pitchers, lidded jars, serving bowls, large platters and planters ~ all made by master potter, Mark Hewitt, and his current intern. All the pots are stamped with the firing number. This will be Firing ‘112’ so the pots will be stamped 112 and the stamp of the potter who made them. Most of the pots have been made by master potter, Mark Hewitt with a very small selection made by visiting potters.
Mark’s selection of ‘Big Pots’ – life-sized vases and jars – are also on display. Families are always welcome. We have swings!
Can’t wait?
Need a shopping appointment at a different time?
Not to worry, we are happy to set up an appointment with you.
Please call 919-542-2371 and listen for Carol’s cell number in the voice message, or email us at [email protected].
COVID guidelines: All staff are fully vaccinated and our large barn/showroom with open doorways is more like being outside than in, so masks at your discretion.
To be notified about kiln openings via email and/or postcard, please sign up here. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram (@markhewittpottery) for photos of the kiln loading, firing and unpacking, and images of the new pots!
The history of our Kiln Openings
BC (Before COVID) and beyond…
Pre-2020: For the past nearly 40 years, here in North Carolina, we’d fire a load of about 1500 pots in one our massive wood-burning kilns three times a year, and hold a “Kiln Opening.” We’d unpack the kiln, clean and price all the pottery, load up the shelves and tables in our barn/showroom, send out a postcard, email, and social media posts, and open up to the public for two lively weekends of selling a wide array of pottery. We held Kiln Openings in the Spring, late Summer, and the first two weekends in December. They were fun, festive events with plenty of pots for everyone. Light refreshments were served in Mark’s workshop. Customers, friends, and family came from far and wide for good chat, a chance to tour the pottery workshop, wander inside the kilns, meet our current apprentices, shop, and enjoy our idyllic country setting surrounded by the meadows and pond. Children were (& still are!) always welcome ~ we have a swing set and playhouse just to make their visit more enjoyable:)
Then came 2020. In March 2020 we were forced to furlough our two apprentice, cancel our spring firing and our Spring Kiln Opening. Mark fired the smaller gas kiln a couple of times which resulted in far fewer pots, but the results, thankfully, were lovely. In lieu of sales here at the pottery, we created and opened an online store, which was wonderful for customers from around the country and beyond who weren’t able to come to our kiln openings. We even shipped pots to people in our local area when we were all cautiously keeping our distance. Eventually we put together a quarantined crew to pack and fire the big wood kiln and figured out a way to hold a safe Summer Kiln Opening by extending it from two weekends to nine full days, and scheduling appointments so only a few people were here at any given time. It was different, and maybe a bit less festive, but it was something, and the feedback we got was that folks loved having their own appointments! So, we did it again for our Holiday Kiln Opening 2020! We opened up on Black Friday, November 27th, and were open for at least a few hours a day, and all day on weekends until December 23rd!
Summer 2021: We fired the kiln in late May and held a June Summer Kiln Opening, adding a few extra days midweek to spread out the visitors. We followed COVID guidelines, and our large barn/showroom makes physical distancing easy. It was wonderful to have you back, and spend time together again.
Winter 2021: We held our Holiday Kiln Opening 2021 starting on Friday, November 26th and continuing for the following 3 weekends.
Since then we have been holding 2 Kiln Opening events a year.
Summer 2022: Summer Kiln Opening: June 11, 12 & 18, 19.
Winter 2022: Holiday Kiln Opening: November 25, 26, 27 and Dec 3, 4 & 10,11
Summer 2023: Summer Kiln Opening: May 27, May 28 & June 3, 4
Winter 2022: Holiday Kiln Opening: November 24, 25, 26 and Dec 2, 3 & 9, 10
Summer 2024: Summer Kiln Opening: June 1,2 and June 8, 9
Twice a year: For now we plan to stick with two firings a year and Kiln Openings in May/June & November/December.
COVID guidelines: All staff are fully vaccinated and our large barn/showroom with open doorways is more like being outside than in, so masks at your discretion.
Sign up here for our mailing list ~ to get a postcard and/or email about kiln openings and other events, including preview photos and video a few days beforehand! For more photos and news, follow us on Facebook and Instagram @markhewittpottery.
Pop-Up Sales: We hold occasional Pop-Up Open Studio days with lots of discounted pots, and it is great fun. We might do that again, so make sure you sign up to get our newsletter (check your spam) and or follow us on IG @markhewittpottery and Facebook!
Watch cool videos of Mark making pots here!
We are always open by appointment to visit the pottery. Please call 919-542-2371 (and listen to the message for our cell number) or email us at [email protected]. We always have a lovely selection of finely crafted pottery for yourself or for the perfect gift. And we ship pots to you and your loved ones from our online store, as we have almost no pottery available in galleries and stores.
Who made what?
For help identifying which potter – Mark or his apprentices – made a piece of our pottery you can view information about the stamps they each put on the bottom of their pots here.
Thanks for reading all this! We hope to see you here are the pottery one day soon:)