After Hurricane Helene, East Fork and Asheville ceramic artists began the road ahead
Look at the kitchen cabinets of influencers like Emily Mariko or chef and writer Samin Nosrat, and you’ll find East Fork Pottery’s signature modern, thick-edged wares, offered in a variety of poetically named exclusive glazes (seasonal burgundy is “dark sea wine”; Mottled earth tones are “morel”). Launched in 2009 by Alex Matisse, The 40-year-old great-grandson of Henri Matisse, the beloved brand that symbolizes aspirational housewifery.
“I started East Fork not as I do today: as a potter making pots,” says Alex Matisse. Vanity fair via Zoom from one of the company’s factories. “I trained at this very special production school in North Carolina. I went out and made pottery on my own in rural North Carolina, outside of Asheville, and are doing very different work than what we do today.”
Now, with a workforce of more than 110 employees, producing nearly 600,000 products a year, East Fork’s products are so popular online that Limited or out-of-stock color palettes can be resold for 16 times the original price And collectors have a fan-run buying, selling, and exchange marketplace. When Hurricane Helene— which made landfall on September 26, affecting Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina — has reached the mountains of western North Carolina, East Fork’s candid social media updates have become more urgent. Concepts of one “climate paradise” (as Asheville has been labeled because it is inland, at high altitude, and has cooler than average temperatures) was dissipated. The changing behavior of tropical storms in the context of current climate change causes the so-called unprecedented more Normal.
Water damage surrounds pieces of coveted East Fork pottery.Courtesy of East Fork.
“For people here, who live in a place they thought was untouchable from climate change, to be affected so strongly and so quickly, it’s a big deal,” Matisse said. .
Matisse repeats what climate activists and scientists frequently emphasize: that Climate change impacts everyone. “The most disadvantaged populations feel it first, then everyone else starts to feel it. And I think this is one of those examples.”
For East Fork, the lessons of a previous disaster provided a roadmap for handling this one as the team followed, what he calls their COVID “playbook” to ensure employees still get paid when recovery area. Given East Fork’s large-scale operation, Matisse felt crowdfunding was not appropriate, so the company chose the familiar option of holding a sale. “We make and sell ceramics,” Matisse said. “Then let’s do it.” East Fork has focused its social media presence on highlighting the fundraisers, mutual aid appeals and raffles of other smaller producers and artists in the region and beyond , including Atlanta, where the East Fork brick-and-mortar store is located.
