The Fourteenth Shop

Seagrove, North Carolina has long been a center for handmade pottery, thanks to clay-rich native soil that has attracted generations of potters. Unlike the old-time masters profiled in Crawdad Slip: The Luck Family Potters (VL-3/00), New Life: The Cole Family Potters (VL-5/00) and Melvin (VL-1/01), this documentary focuses on a family of "newcomers" to the area--mere 30-year residents. Al and Milly McCanless, who bought a farm in 1973 as idealistic back-to-the-earth urban hippies and then utterly failed at farming, moved into pottery almost by chance. Today, their Dover Pottery (the "fourteenth shop" in the area), which first specialized in exquisitely painted majolica-like pottery, has branched out into the “crystalline” ware which features crystal patterns in the glaze. As with previous titles in filmmaker Jim Sharkey's series, The Fourteenth Shop interweaves biographical information with scenes of the potters at work, set to homemade music. Cubicle-bound artisans can only dream of this life. Recommended for public libraries and especially for regional collections. Aud: P. (R. Reagan)