EF Workshop
The East Fork Workshop, formerly known as the Small Batch Studio, is where the work of wheel-thrown makers meet East Fork’s technical know-how. It’s our way of staying connected to the early days, when every pot started on the wheel. An intentional space where tradition and innovation work side by side.
We are potters.
In the early days of East Fork, every pot was made on a wheel in a few small workshops on a tobacco farm outside Asheville, North Carolina. As East Fork grew, we built a factory in town and took on new ways of making—presses, jiggers, RAMs—but never lost our love for hand-thrown pieces.
In 2019, our first apprentice, Cade Holloman, pulled an old wheel out of storage, plugged it in and started making limited-edition hand-thrown pieces again. We called it the Small Batch Studio, and later, the East Fork Workshop. It’s a place to keep our hands in clay, to make a few pots the old way, explore new forms and colors and to have a little fun while we're at it.
When Hurricane Helene destroyed our physical Workshop space in 2024, the program didn’t end, but evolved again. Today, the Workshop lives on through a network of potters who throw forms by hand in their own studios, then team up with us to bisque, glaze and fire. Potters like John and Mike work closely with Alex and our product team to bring new forms to life in East Fork clay.
We’ll continue to expand the Workshop program and will eventually find it a new home. The program is ever evolving, but what remains constant is our commitment to honoring our wheel-thrown roots.
Our Workshop Potters
John Vigeland
John and Alex first met as potter’s apprentices and later co-founded East Fork in 2010. As the company’s first CFO, John shaped our financial plan as we grew the business from a small-thrown wheel operation to what it is today. John stepped away from day-to-day operations in 2024, with a plan to return to the wheel. He was in the middle of developing a hand-thrown dinnerware line for East Fork Workshop when Hurricane Helene destroyed the building that housed the studio—along with all the in-progress pots. In 2025, John finished building a small studio on a piece of land outside Asheville and began throwing again. The Pitcher marks John’s first collaboration for East Fork Workshop.
Mike Ball
Mike, a potter steeped in North Carolina’s ceramic tradition, was at the very first firing of the wood kiln on the old tobacco farm in 2010. Involved with East Fork since the very early days, he took over as the first potter for the newly renamed East Fork Workshop in 2022. For two years, he singlehandedly threw every pot for the Workshop out of our Asheville facility before it was destroyed by Hurricane Helene. Since then, Mike has continued throwing in his personal studio, bringing pots back to East Fork HQ to be glazed and finished.
Workshop Archive
