Appalachian Figures
On paper Charles Counts was a potter. In practice he was a builder of communities who linked clay, quilts, and economic hope from the Kentucky coalfields to the hills of north Georgia and classrooms in northern Nigeria. Born in Lynch, Harlan County, in 1934, Counts carried the mountain South with him even as his work traveled far beyond it.
Early life and training
Counts grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, then returned to Kentucky in 1952 to study at Berea College, where he began his career in clay. He earned an MFA at Southern Illinois University in 1957 and pursued advanced study in ceramic design at the University of Southern California. During summers he apprenticed with Bauhaus-trained potter Marguerite Wildenhain at Pond Farm, grounding his practice in disciplined form and function. These milestones appear across his own papers at Berea College and in a vetted studio-ceramics biography.
Beaver Ridge to Rising Fawn
After Army service, Counts opened Beaver Ridge Pottery near Knoxville, producing sturdy stoneware for everyday use. He and his wife, Rubynelle Waldrop Counts, later established a combined production and training center at Rising Fawn on Lookout Mountain in Georgia. For roughly twenty five years the studio turned out pots, potters, and quilts, marrying functional design with a regional craft economy. The Berea finding aid and a curated ceramics entry both document the arc from Beaver Ridge to Rising Fawn and the training ethos behind it.
Quilts, community, and the Rising Fawn circle
Counts was also a weaver and quilt designer. With Rubynelle and the Rising Fawn Quilters he developed distinctive applique and quilting designs that circulated through guilds and exhibits. The Tennessee State Library and Archives preserves records for an “Emerging Life Tree” quilt by Charles and Rubynelle Counts and photographs related to the Rising Fawn quilters, showing how the couple’s textile work paralleled their pottery.
Writing as a craft tool
Counts wrote plainly about how craft could sustain families and towns. His federal report Encouraging American Craftsmen synthesized policy ideas for the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1972. He also authored two hands-on books, Common Clay and Pottery Workshop, that taught method and design from idea to finished form. Even his reflective essays bridged practice and place, including a Studio Potter memoir on Oak Ridge and a letter from Nigeria that linked his Appalachian grounding to his later work abroad.
Objects that speak
Museums collected Counts’s pots not just for good lines but for what they carried from his ridge-top studios. The High Museum of Art in Atlanta holds his 1963 Covered jar and a 1972 Vase Pot, both stoneware forms that show the balance of carved surface and functional profile that became his signature. Collection records confirm authorship, dates, and accessions.
Honors among craftspeople
Peers recognized Counts’s influence when the American Craft Council elected him to its College of Fellows in 1995. Contemporary ACC documentation and the Berea finding aid both record the honor alongside earlier state recognition.
Nigeria: teaching across cultures
A 1971 talk by British potter Michael Cardew nudged Counts toward Africa. Within months he accepted a post in the art department at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. He later taught full time at the University of Maiduguri. He remained engaged with Appalachian craft ideals while mentoring students and colleagues in Nigeria, a cross-current he described in his Studio Potter writing. Counts died in Nigeria in 2000 from malaria complications, closing a life that tied Harlan County to a global craft conversation.
Why he matters to Appalachian history
Counts belongs to a line of mountain artists who treated craft as culture, paycheck, and public good. He trained makers where they lived, built markets for their work, and argued in print that craft policy should serve rural people. His career reminds us that Appalachia has always exported ideas as well as coal.
Sources & Further Reading
Berea College Special Collections & Archives, Charles Counts Papers (finding aid; includes journals, sketchbooks, photographs, and a demonstration video; abstract notes birth in Lynch, Harlan County, KY). bereaarchives.libraryhost.com
U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Charles Counts, Encouraging American Craftsmen: Report of the Interagency Crafts Committee (1972), catalog record. HathiTrust
Studio Potter, “Letter from Nigeria,” Vol. 19, No. 2, Summer 1991, table of contents entry. studiopotter.org
Studio Potter, “A Handful of Clay: A Memoir on Oak Ridge,” Vol. 22, December 1993, noted in editorial scholarship. themagazineantiques.com
High Museum of Art, object records for Covered jar (1963) and Vase Pot (1972). High Museum of Art+1
Tennessee State Library & Archives, Quilts of Tennessee Collection (Addition): includes “Emerging Life Tree” quilt by Charles and Rubynelle Counts and Rising Fawn materials. sos-tn-gov-files.tnsosfiles.com+1
American Craft Council, College of Fellows announcement listing Counts among 1995 Fellows. digital.craftcouncil.org
The Marks Project, curated biography and compiled CV for Charles Counts. themarksproject.org
The Magazine ANTIQUES, “Potter with a Purpose” feature situating Counts’s life and work. themagazineantiques.com
Google Arts & Culture / High Museum of Art, aggregator page for Counts’s Vase Pot with museum metadata. Google Arts & Culture