Billy Ray Hussey
Contemporary self-taught potter Billy Ray Hussey (born 1955) and his wife Susan, own Southern Folk Pottery Collectors Society, a museum, pottery studio, kiln, retail shop and auction house in Bennett, North Carolina. SFPCS’s highly popular absentee auctions are held twice a year – spring and fall.
Hussey’s earliest work was as a boy in the shop of M.L. Owens, his great-uncle. He made a pair of pottery dogs for author Nancy Sweezy. Hussey’s current work is approximately 75% sculptural – animals, people and creatures. Most of his figures are whimsical and comical. The rest of his work is utilitarian ware and a few artsy vases.
Like his great-uncle, Hussey uses local North Carolina clay and fires his work in a wood-burning kiln. Some of his pieces are lower fired earthenware; some stoneware. He has tried nearly every glaze available including salt, alkaline, lead and Albany slip.
Hussey produces less than 200 pieces a year. His mark since 1975 has been BH with a few additions. From 1975 to 1988 when he worked for M. L. Owens, it was BH with the Owens mark. From 1986 (he opened his own shop while working for Owens) until 2000, it was BH plus the kiln firing sequence in a circle. His kiln firings began with #3. In 2000, to commemorate the move from Robbins to 220 Washington Street, Bennett, North Carolina, 27208, Hussey changed the way the kiln numbers were displayed. He still marked everything with a BH, but added a B (for Bennett) lying on its back with the kiln numbers inside the two “humps.” The first kiln firing at Bennett was #50. Hussey dislikes dates; the kiln firing designation is the only dating system he uses.
Reference note by p4A.com Contributing Editor Pete Prunkl.