Episode 64 | Face Jugs, Monsters and the Art of Stacy Lambert

Kyle and Matt dive into the life, work, and wild imagination of North Carolina folk potter Stacy Lambert, using old photographs, stories, interview footage, and pieces from Matt’s collection to trace how Stacy developed a style completely his own.Stacy Lambert BioStacy was born in Randolph County in 1965, one of six children, and grew up around Seagrove. His parents worked in textiles rather than pottery, and his first artistic interest was drawing. After high school, he joined the Army, later returned to North Carolina, earned an associate degree in commercial art from Randolph Community College, and in 1993 began working with fifth-generation potter Sid Luck. Stacy started with more traditional forms, but drawing, figures, humor, and storytelling quickly became the center of his work.Matt explains how his own Stacy Lambert collection started at the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival and eventually grew into hundreds of miniatures, face jugs, figures, and custom pieces. Kyle and Matt also look through photographs from Stacy’s early years, including work from the 1990s, pictures with other potters, and a high school newspaper clipping from 1982 with the headline, “He creates a world of fantasy with pencil and paper.”The photographs lead into stories about Stacy’s Tattoo Man figures, James Earl Jones owning one, and what may be one of Stacy’s earliest face jugs. Kyle also previews footage from a video he and Sullivan filmed with Stacy in Asheboro, where Stacy explains why he moved away from traditional production pottery and toward work built around drawing, characters, and jokes.The second half of the episode turns into a tour through Matt’s collection. They open a box of Stacy miniatures, compare standard face jugs with more elaborate applied pieces, and look at everything from lions and tigers to custom Predator and Alien jugs. Along the way, Matt calls Billy Ray Hussey, tells the story behind a corn-and-snake jug inspired by something happening in his own life, and discovers what appears to be an actual snakeskin sitting on the pottery.The episode ends with a damaged Walter Fleming jug that Stacy turned into something completely new after its spout broke during firing. Matt calls it a “mystical collab,” and it sums up much of what makes Stacy’s work interesting: give him a traditional form, a broken pot, a movie character, a joke, or a story, and he finds a way to turn it into something unmistakably his own.Chapters00:00 | Stacy Lambert and Medusa03:13 | How Matt Started Collecting Stacy07:28 | Stacy Lambert Bio11:15 | Early Photos from the 1990s14:23 | A World of Fantasy with Pencil and Paper23:47 | Tattoo Man and James Earl Jones26:06 | Previewing the Stacy Lambert Video34:28 | Inside Matt’s Stacy Lambert Collection40:45 | The Snakeskin Discovery57:38 | Stacy’s Lions and Underpainting01:03:34 | Collaborations with Other Potters01:17:41 | Matt Auctions Stacy Miniatures01:24:52 | The “Mystical” Walter Fleming CollaborationDo you have a Stacy Lambert piece, an early photograph, an old pottery collection, or something tucked away that deserves a closer look? Reach out and tell us what you have:[email protected](919) 410-8002Leave your name, where you are from, and any information you have about the item, artist, or collection. You might hear from us or see your story featured in a future episode.Follow @houseoffolkart for more folk art stories, artist visits, collection deep dives, and new episodes, and find upcoming auction dates at LedbetterAuctions.com.