Albert Hodge

Albert Hodge began creating pottery in 1989 when a knee injury forced him to retire from his job as a match cloth cutter for a furniture company. He built a workshop in his backyard, purchased an electric kiln and potter's wheel, and taught himself to make pottery. A left-handed artist using a right-handed potter's wheel, Hodge developed an unconventional technique in which he pulls the clay from the inside of his pot, instead of the outside. He collects nineteenth-century pottery from nearby "Jug town," North Carolina, the local name for the area where Catawba and Lincoln counties meet. The shapes and styles of these pieces continue to influence Hodge, who makes about twenty pieces every week.