Thirty five years ago, Michael quit his job as a newspaper reporter and began making pots in Seagrove. Nowadays, deadlines are dictated by wet clay rather an editor looking over his shoulder. MICHAEL MAHAN has been making pots in the Seagrove area for nearly 35 years. A former newspaper reporter, he now lives in Westmoore, six miles south of Seagrove. He grew up in Miami, Florida, and moved to North Carolina in 1974. While attending N.C. State University, he wrote a couple of stories on potters while working as an intern at the Enquirer-Journal in Monroe, NC. Michael took a couple of pottery classes at the university and didn't find a means to pursue his interest in clay until moving to Asheboro in the early 1980s where he worked as a reporter at The Courier-Tribune for several years. He and his first wife, Jane Braswell, opened up Wild Rose Pottery in 1986, after they both took classes at Montgomery Community College in Troy for a few years. Michael opened up his current shop in 1998. He has three children: Wil, Chelsea, and Levi. Both Chelsea and Levi work in clay, and their work is for sale at Michael's shop. Levi is a full time Seagrove Potter. Michael lives with his wife, Mary Holmes who grew up in Limerick, Ireland.

I grew up in my parents' pottery shop in Whynot, just down the road from Seagrove, North Carolina. My dad still maintains a gallery and studio there where I currently sell most of my work. The Piedmont region of North Carolina, the people, the culture, the food, the ground underfoot, are what made me and in turn they are what I make from today.

Chelsea Rose Mahan is a graduate of UNC Asheville and University of Colorado at Boulder. She loves to work in clay at her fathers studio in Seagrove NC. She currently makes new work in Pensacola, FL.