Published On: 01.16.17 | 

By: Michael Tomberlin

Earthborn Pottery’s Tena Payne is in the ‘throws’ of her passion as an Alabama Maker

EarthbornFeature

Tena Payne, owner and designer of Earthborn Pottery, said she's received orders from chefs who have eaten at restaurants that carry her dinnerware and turned them over to see the brand imprint on the bottom. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama NewsCenter)

The Maker: Tena Z. Payne

Earthborn Pottery, Leeds

AlabamaMakersLogoTena Payne was a self-described “troubled teen” unable to find a connection with anything.

Then something changed.

“The day a professor from Samford University, Dr. Lowell Vann, came over and demonstrated in our high school art class, I was forever hooked,” she said. “If you’ve ever seen anybody throw on a potter’s wheel, it’s just fascinating – the transformation of that lump of clay into a beautiful vessel with seemingly no more effort than moving your hands. It was just amazing to me and I just had to do it.”

Earthborn Pottery is an Alabama Maker that dishes it out with the best from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

Payne would find her way into the art shop every spare moment she had. She was so drawn to the potter’s wheel that the school let her take it home over the Christmas break. She spent that holiday reading books, trying techniques and shaping an interest into a new life’s passion.

“It’s just one of those things with the transformation of materials. It’s almost like alchemy,” she said. “We’re taking ingredients out of the ground, we’re rearranging them and we’re putting them in the fire – it’s just such a dynamic, exciting, always interesting process.”

Earthborn Pottery uses multiple steps in a process from clay to kiln to produce a single piece of functional art. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama NewsCenter)

Earthborn Pottery uses multiple steps in a process from clay to kiln to produce a single piece of functional art. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama NewsCenter)

Although Payne makes it look easy, it really is not. When she was the resident potter at Tannehill State Park, visitors would watch her work and declare how simple it must be. At times, she would offer to let them sit at the potter’s wheel and try their hand at it. The resulting mess would be proof that not everyone was meant to be a potter.

Payne likens potting to playing piano. Both require practice to develop a base skill that becomes muscle memory before getting to a point where the art can flow through.

Payne worked at a “normal” job in publishing while pursuing her art in her spare time. Like most artists, she was trying to produce art that would sell well enough to allow her to make that her new career.

Then she met Birmingham chef Chris Hastings.

Hastings wanted Payne to make him dinnerware for his restaurant, Hot and Hot Fish Club. When Payne asked Hastings if they had to be round and white plates, the chef said he was looking for functionality but encouraged Payne to be creative with the design and color.

Earthborn Pottery can now be found in 90 restaurants across the country. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama NewsCenter)

Earthborn Pottery can now be found in 90 restaurants across the country. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama NewsCenter)

“As long as I met his criteria I could get as funky as I wanted to with the shapes and the glazes, etc.,” Payne said. “It was a lot of fun being turned loose. You don’t often get turned loose on something.”

After walking into Hot and Hot and seeing her work everywhere, Payne wanted to see her work in more restaurants. She believed if she could get one other restaurant contract, it would allow her to quit her day job and focus on pottery.

Then she hit the jackpot – almost literally.

At her first trade show in 2003, the Bellagio casino and resort in Vegas commissioned her to do dishes for its Sensi restaurant.

“It was like one of those moments of, ‘Yes!’ followed by ‘Oh, no! What am I going to do?’ because I was still working in my basement at the time,” she said.

But she made the order and transitioned into making Earthborn Pottery a viable business. Fourteen years and 90 restaurants later, she has proved not just viability, but longevity as well.

“This relationship that I’ve been able to bring to the dinnerware and to the chefs – because they’re artists, too – the food is their medium and my art frames their art,” she said. “Chefs and potters are a lot alike. We both take our ingredients out of the ground. We arrange them according to our purposes or our experiences. We put them in the ovens and then we offer them up to other people.”

In addition to restaurants, Earthborn makes pieces for corporate dining rooms like Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama and Alabama Power.

“Alabama Power has always been a wonderful supporter of the arts,” she said. “It was a real blessing when they came to me to talk about their corporate dining room.”

Earthborn Pottery uses multiple steps in a process from clay to kiln to produce a single piece of functional art. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama NewsCenter)

Earthborn Pottery uses multiple steps in a process from clay to kiln to produce a single piece of functional art. (Michael Tomberlin / Alabama NewsCenter)

Earthborn produces large and small commissioned orders and sells individual pieces that are sold in a number of shops around the state.

Payne is often asked to create original works to be given as gifts when state officials or economic developers are traveling to visit other countries or companies. She said she felt the pressure when she was asked to produce two teapots for some Japanese officials – not because it was for dignitaries but because she knows how good Japanese potters are at making teapots.

The gifts, like most of what Earthborn produces, was well-received.

The company has purchased an old Mira-Flex watch band and case factory in Leeds to set up its production and kilns. Payne has room for a small studio to keep the creative juices flowing and there is even room for her to hold classes to teach others how to be potters.

In that room, there is a row of eight potter’s wheels. Each one has the potential to unlock the passion in someone else the same way it was unlocked in Payne many years ago.

 

The product: Hand-thrown pottery in earth tones or any variety of commissioned works.

Take home: A one-cup, footed noodle bowl ($18) or a square plate (prices vary based on size and shape). Products can be found at The Cook Store (Mountain Brook), Bromberg’s (The Summit and Mountain Brook), English Ivy Home Décor & Gifts (Hoover), Artists Incorporated (Vestavia Hills), Alabama Goods (Homewood) and at the Earthborn gallery in Leeds.

Earthborn Pottery, 7575 Parkway Dr., Leeds, AL 35094

205-702-7055, http://earthbornpottery.net/