Today we’d like to introduce you to Connie Matisse.
Hi Connie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
East Fork’s origin story is a wild one—and telling over the years always reveals something new in hindsight. Alex Matisse—my husband!—had finished three years of formal apprenticeship with master potters Matt Jones and Mark Hewitt. Both Matt and Mark made work in a traditional Southeastern vernacular and fired their pots in large, wood-burning salt kilns. I met Alex just after he’d bought property in Madison County, North Carolina, where he’d planned to build his own kiln and make pots in the style of his teachers. For a few years, that’s exactly what he did—thousands of jars, urns, cups, mugs, bowls, vases, plates, platters and more. He decorated them with a material called “slip”, in floral and geometric motifs. He made functional pots and he made big, big pots—some that came up higher than my shoulder. He sold pots in craft fairs across the Southeast but mostly from our house at what we call “kiln sales”.
In 2013, our friend John Vigeland, also a potter, reached out wondering what we thought about him coming out to work with Alex. We said, “Let’s try it!” John showed up and over the next few years the three of us each figured out we had special skills we could offer each other. We realized we wanted to do something much bigger than just making pots in Madison County. We started talking about building a business that was a full expression of ourselves and that built a bridge between the folk pottery tradition we loved so much and the rest of the world. By 2015 a vision for something beautiful, with lots of room to grow, that brought together our love of clay, our love of gathering around the table, and a commitment to translating our shared values to action.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
If a smooth road to growing a business exists, I’ve never been on it. Growing a mid-sized manufacturing company with an activist agenda isn’t easy. And doing it with your husband and friend doesn’t make it any easier. East Fork’s made it up and over hurdle after hurdle in part because Alex, John, and I have deep respect and love for each other—with that foundation we’ve been able to challenge each other when we’re in disagreement about big decisions, wrestle through the hard stuff, and put our heads together to find creative, unlikely, and brave solutions to problems that come our way.
What we’re doing is pretty unprecedented—Alex and the Production Team have spent years sorting through the rubble of a nearly extinct industry to see about breathing new life into it. Clay is a tricky, highly volatile material. On the marketing side, we engage in difficult conversations that few companies feel comfortable entering from their public platform. We’ve encouraged businesses and customers to ask big, hard questions—like how does white supremacy manifest in you? In your relationships with your employees? In the decisions, you make as a business owner? Having these conversations at work is going to bring up mucky stuff and put people on the defense no matter how cautiously you enter them.
We’re a tenacious sort, thought, and when we get knocked off the horse, we do what we need to do to rest, hydrate, get grounded, fill up, and get back in the saddle.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
East Fork makes contemporary ceramic dinnerware from regional materials in our factory in Asheville, North Carolina. We are 120 people and growing every day. We offer plates, bowls, mugs, platters, and more in a beautiful and obsessively considered palette of neutrals, and offer fun, punchy seasonal colors, too. We strive to be a leader in the business community, actively and openly wrestling with the harm-causing truths of capitalism while finding creative ways to better service and support the comprehensive—financial, emotional, mental, physical, spiritual—well-being of our employees and the communities within which we operate.
We have two beautiful shops—in Asheville and Atlanta—and of course you can find our work online at eastfork.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: eastfork.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eastforkpottery/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EastForkPottery
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpxzGkejO9v4r7PMdgcerOw
Image Credits:
Photo of Connie should be credited to Darrell Cassell
