The Museum of the Cherokee Indian will offer a two-day workshop on making stamped pottery on Thursday, Nov. 1. Tammy Beane, of Collinsville, Ala., will teach how to make traditional Cherokee stamped pottery.
Cost for the two-day workshop is $10 per day for EBCI tribal members. Both days will begin at 9am and run until 4pm in the Art Studio of the Ken Blankenship Education and Research Wing of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. Entrance to the Art Studio is at the back gate of the Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds.
Thursday’s workshop will be an introduction to stamped pottery, for those who have not made this style before. Friday’s workshop will include more advanced techniques, for those who have made pottery before. Pots from the Museum’s collection will be available for study.
The workshops will cover the history of stamped pottery, which began almost three thousand years ago here in the southern Appalachians. Participants will learn to make large bowls that are hand coiled and stamped in the Qualla tradition. The workshop is sponsored by the North Carolina Arts Council and the Museum of the Cherokee Indian.
Tammy Beane taught pottery workshops at the Museum from 2002 to 2006, helping to revitalize Cherokee pottery. She makes museum-quality reproductions of southeastern pots from the earliest time of fiber-tempered pottery through the effigy pots of the Mississippian period through today, and reproduces the work of many southeastern tribes. He pots are sought after by museums and by archaeologists because they reproduce original pots with accurate details.
Participants in the workshop will receive copies of an article about Eva Catolster and her pottery methods in 1908. She was one of the last people in the Eastern Band to make pots using the stamped technique. She was also the daughter of Yonaguska. During the twentieth century many Cherokee women made pots in the Catawba style because this was popular with tourists. In the early 21st century, Cherokee potters became interested in learning about their older, more traditional style of pottery.
Class size is limited to 15 people. Sign up at the Museum Store and pay $10 for each day to be registered for the workshop. You can call and pay by credit card 497-3481 ext. 1000.
– Museum of the Cherokee Indian
