Artist creates pottery using Corolla wild horse hair, gives back to herd
Michael Middleton’s pottery is an amalgamation of local elements.
Clay and sand dug up near his Moyock home go into the mix, but the most distinct feature of his work — smoky black lines branching across surfaces — comes from another habitant of North Carolina: wild horses.
Middleton collects hair from the horses of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, which rescues and rehabilitates wild horses and ponies in the Outer Banks. His vases, pots and ceramic vessels, which are thrown by hand and fired using a raku process, are placed in the kiln at a lower temperature — a mere 1,200 degrees compared with the 2,400 degrees to fire stoneware.
After removing the pieces using a pair of metal tongs, Middleton brushes horse hair across the surface. The hair singes, sparks and leaves behind carbon imprints on the vases and pots.
Some imprints look like maps of rivers and streams. Others look like inky brush strokes. And some resemble storm clouds and lightning.
As much as Middleton uses from his surroundings, he tries to give back. A portion of proceeds from the sale of his pots, vases and ceramic vessels goes to the Corolla fund.
On a Sunday in October, Middleton was immersed in the completion of ceramic holiday ornaments in the shape of Betty, a horse at the fund. Betty, a Dews Island mare, was named after one of the fund’s supporters, Betty Lane, who passed away in May.
“I was trying to figure out what horse to use for our Christmas ornament for the fund,” Middleton said. “She was at the fence, just standing there for 30 minutes like she was saying, ‘Hey, it’s me!'”
The ornament shows Betty in relief with her ears pointed back, “because that’s what she does,” Middleton said.
Middleton and assistant Jeff Winstead loaded the ornaments into a gas kiln in an enclosure on Middleton’s property. The gas kiln stands next to a sloping wood-burning kiln, something Winstead and Middleton built themselves during pandemic lockdowns.
Middleton and Winstead are teachers at Hickory High School in Chesapeake. Middleton teaches ceramics; Winstead history. The two hit it off when their kids were in a musical, and have worked together since. In addition to the kilns in Moyock, Middleton also has a studio and teaches classes in Chesapeake. The two talked about building a larger studio and consolidating their pottery work closer to Moyock.
After several minutes spent in the kiln, the ornaments were hot enough for some of Betty’s hair to be pressed to the surface to make patterns.
Winstead removed the ornaments and lined them up with a spatula, like cookies fresh out of an oven. Middleton pressed the hair to the ornaments to create the distinctive squiggling lines.
The ornaments will be offered for sale at the Fall Open House at Betsy Dowdy Equine Center, hosted by the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 14.
In the time since Middleton made his first horse hair clay pot for the fund in 2019, his work has grown to include rooster feather bottles, with proceeds donated to the preservation of Key West roosters, and memorial clay pots for retired racehorses.
Cianna Morales, 757-957-1304, cianna.morales@virginiamedia.com
