LaReeca Rucker
The Clarion-Ledger
From the archives Sept. 26, 2010
Jamie Smith grew up playing in clay at his aunt and uncle’s pottery shop in Merigold.
“My first sculpture piece was Moby Dick,” he said. “I took a big block of clay and hammered on it. I beat a tail into it. Then I put some little teeth in it. They dried it slowly for well over a month.”
Today, Jamie and his brother, Stephen, help run McCartys Pottery, a hidden Mississippi gem nestled in the foliage in this tiny town outside Cleveland.
Lee McCarty and his wife, Pup, who died last year, founded the studio, which remains one of the unique features of the small Bolivar County community, population 608.
“That probably includes a dog or two that was added as a dependent,” said Jamie Smith.
