Martin Paschall, of Paris, is a highly decorated potter who has been working with clay for over 60 years. As a child, his family used pottery pitchers, churns, storage jars, and liquor jugs—all made locally from the rich clay deposits in his area. Martin took for granted that every household used these types of pottery pieces, but he later learned that the region of Upper West Tennessee where he grew up has the largest ball clay deposit in the United States. Carroll, Henry, and Weakley Counties had the raw materials to support several production potteries. While many of these historic production potteries have since closed, the only large-scale ceramic pot manufacturing facility in the entire United States calls Carroll County its home.
Martin first learned the craft of wheel thrown and hand-built pottery in the 1960s as a college student at the University of Mississippi. After training with mentor Kyni McMillan, he became proficient on the wheel while learning about glazing, firing, loading kilns, and all facets of creating original pottery pieces. In 2003, he began to exhibit and sell his pottery at festivals, galleries, and retail shops. That same year he began teaching adult pottery classes at the Paris Academy for the Arts. When he began, he was the only person left in Henry County with a pottery wheel and kiln. Martin writes, “I believe preserving and passing down the traditional art of creating pottery maintains cultural identity, history, artistic heritage, and in some cases, economic stability.” A testament to the value of this art form in his community, Martin’s pottery classes have been full with a waiting list for 23 years.
As part of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program this year, Martin will be teaching Anna Atkins wheel thrown and hand-building techniques to create traditional stoneware pottery pieces. A Henry County native like Martin, Anna is excited to learn more about the rich clay history of the area. She has taken Martin’s wheel throwing class twice and learned to thrown well-crafted cylinders in order to create multiple advanced shapes. Anna is eager to learn to throw with more consistency and confidently throw larger forms. Among the many skills covered, Martin will be introducing handles, lids, spouts, surface textures such as carving, fluting, altering, and chattering. Martin will also challenge her to throw larger amounts of clay and two-piece pots to create some of the traditional utilitarian forms such as churns and storage jars. Anna is also excited to dive into the traditional processes in pottery, like harvesting, processing, and throwing wild clay found in this community. Together Anna and Martin will be researching and creating traditional pots like churns, storage jars, whiskey jugs, and strawberry planters. They will also be mining and using wild clay from Henry County to create many of the pieces. Anna explains, “Pottery has always played an important role in the lives of many people in my family and community. It decorated our homes and set out tables. Pottery is a wonderful way to express artistic ability, beauty, and style while creating functional pieces that can be used and passed down through generations. I love creating art that is tangible and useful.”
