Ohrigami TM: the art of folding clay on the potter’s wheel

Smiling man and woman taking a selfie in a lush backyard with trees and garden decorations.

An older man smiling and holding a large ornate ceramic urn or vase indoors.

A smiling woman with short, curly hair wearing glasses, a patterned scarf, a gray blazer, and a necklace.

Photo of Dick and Dot Moran the great grandchildren of George Ohr.

Photo of Dick cradling a Clark House Pottery Mustache Jug. Dot Moran makes us feel like family with her generous kindness, family signed cards and seafood dinners. Their children have welcomed us and helped us with our booth at the Peter Anderson Festive. We feel so honored and blessed to know them.

In 2011, the George Ohr family descendants formally, in writing, welcomed both Bill and Pam into their family and thanked them for continuing this type of work. This was an incredible honor! The direct descendants of George Ohr have purchased more than 250 pieces of Bill’s pottery.

Handwritten note congratulating Bill Clark on the occasion of a seafood gathering, dated 11-6-11, with signatures from multiple individuals.

After getting married in Florence Italy in 2000, Bill & Pam returned to Greenville, SC and built a wonderful studio together under tall trees behind their home and named it Clark House Pottery LLC. Their pottery is mostly influenced by the designs of the Mission Arts and Crafts movement of the early 1900’s. Their work is one-of-a-kind, hand thrown, sculpted, and decorated art pottery. They make work using earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain clays on the wheel and hand sculpting and then hand glaze each piece with both commercial and custom formatted glazes.

Bill has been making pottery for 55 years and apprenticed with Harding Black in San Antonio, Texas in high school. In 2003, Bill began a new path in clay when he saw a piece of pottery made by George Ohr, the “Mad Potter of Biloxi, Mississippi”. He was determined to discover the mechanical throwing methods on the potter’s wheel that made those light and unusual shapes. Bill has incorporated the method into his own design interpretations and taken it much further.

Pam has been making pottery for 35 years. She enjoys making original designs with flora and fauna using hand building, sculpting, carving, slip trail and surface texture techniques. Pam is known for her twisted clay horse sculptures. Her horse “Shasta” took her into fields and streams to explore nature and dream about making beauty. Pam also enjoys experimenting with glaze recipes and altering familiar ones.

Bill & Pam’s art pottery is in the following Museum Permanent Collections:

Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY

American Museum of Ceramic Art in California

Dallas Museum of Art

Mississippi Museum of Art

San Angelo Museum of Fine Art in Texas

Newark Museum in New Jersey

Museum of Art and Science in Macon Georgia

McKissick Museum of Art, South Carolina

South Carolina State Museum

Museum of York County.

Their pottery can be purchased at:

Southern Highland Craft Guild Galleries

Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans

Craftsman Guild of Mississippi Gallery in Ridgeland, MS

South Carolina Artisans Center in Walterboro, SC.

Trails Jewelry and Art Gallery in Greenville, SC

They are thankful to many happy collectors for their encouragement and support of their work and the Ohr descendants that have helped propel them to numerous good milestones in their journey in clay.