• What to know if you go

SCOTT FOUST/Special (ENLARGE)

Bybee Pottery has been producing stoneware since 1809. The pottery was started by Webster Cornelison on land granted to Conrad Cornelison Jr. for service during the Revolutionary War.

SCOTT FOUST/Special (ENLARGE)

Jimmy Cornelison wraps purchases for Wayne and Jan Zimmerman of Glencoe, Ky., who use their Bybee dinnerware daily.

SCOTT FOUST/Special (ENLARGE)

Bybee Pottery fans can mix or match place settings. Bybee blue, the original glaze, is still a customer favorite.

"It really makes you want one of [Bybee's] pieces when you get out of there. You appreciate the art itself by being able to see the hands-on work." BEAU HADDOCK, Kentucky Craft Marketing media specialist

Waco, Ky. – Mustard-yellow clay dust covers the walls, the low walnut beams and the dirt floor at Bybee Pottery, where six generations of the Cornelison family have been turning, glazing and firing stoneware since the early 1800s.

Despite the constant motion of production, visitors are welcome to walk around the oldest continually run pottery operation west of the Allegheny Mountains.

It could be a living history museum if it weren't dedicated to the pottery business. And the time to see it is now: Though nothing is set in stoneware, the pottery's long run may be coming to an end. The family's younger generations aren't interested in taking over the operation.

Bybee's eight workers do everything from mixing local clay to shaping and molding it into vessels, then glazing and marking them before firing. Bybee makes about 3,000 or more pieces each week in this building that dates to 1809, and it's a fascinating process to watch.

Visitors are encouraged to take their time and learn about the work from Cornelison family members and longtime employees who are constantly turning clay into cash.

Buzz Cornelison, unofficial historian for the Kentucky branch of the family, explains the operation that makes colorful crude stoneware in more than 100 shapes and sizes: "It's something my grandfather used to say, 'Buzz, we've got to sell it. Unlike a farmer, we can't eat our product.'"

That yellow clay also covers the hands, hair and eyeglasses of patriarch Walter Cornelison, Buzz's father, as he bends over the pottery wheel, where he has spent nearly 60 years shaping lumps of clay into Bybee ware.

Like all family members and employees, he learned the craft on the job.

"Nobody teaches you — my father offered constructive criticism," joked Walter Cornelison. "If they didn't like the piece, they tore it off the wheel. It takes patience and dexterity."

At 78, Walter Cornelison makes the largest stoneware pieces with ease and enjoys his craft. Is he ready to retire? "I see no reason to quit now," he said.

Buyers who appreciate hand-thrown pottery and reasonable prices may consider the multihued Bybee pottery everyday art. Many use it on their dinner tables. They know they can mix pie dough in a purple-speckled bowl, roll out the crust, and bake it in a green pie plate before serving it on Bybee blue plates sitting beside burgundy cups and saucers.

Collectors can pick up chip-and-dip sets or a large bowl and pitcher at one of several dozen retail stores, or they can place an order on the Internet through a retailer.

But there's no replacing the chance to be here and buy the pottery in person, and to marvel as Walter forms a mug or canister in just minutes, to watch employee Rick Hall slap a wet palm on a plate back and drench it in a washtub filled with glaze and to see employee Harvey Conner inscribe the simple BB mark on the bottom of each piece.

"It's part of the romance of Kentucky," said Fran Redmon, director of the Kentucky Arts Council's craft marketing program. "It's what people imagine and it's there."

The elder Cornelison is caretaker of the pottery started by Webster Cornelison on land granted to Conrad Cornelison Jr. for service during the Revolutionary War. The land was farmed until the early 1800s, Buzz Cornelison said, when Webster and dozens of other area businessmen began to take advantage of the abundant clay and coal there — and their proximity to shipping on the nearby Kentucky River — to set up kilns for making and selling stoneware. It was a booming business until most of those potteries were destroyed during the Civil War, Buzz Cornelison said.

Bybee was one of the few to survive. Part of its success has been smart business decisions through the years, according to Beau Haddock, media and communication specialist for Kentucky Craft Marketing, a Kentucky Arts Council program.

"They have set an example for a lot of arts and crafts businesses in Kentucky," Haddock said. "It's giving as much attention to the business end as they did to the making of the pottery. They are very practical and very savvy in being able to educate their clients.

"It really makes you want one of their pieces when you get out of there. You appreciate the art itself by being able to see the hands-on work."

Shoppers make cash or check purchases — no credit cards — at the pottery, paying wholesale prices as low as $1.50 for a mug or $14 for a half-gallon pitcher.

Bybee ware is sold and shipped from Maine to Alaska through the Internet by A Little Bit of Bybee, a retail shop near Louisville. Cousin Ron Stambaugh, who worked at the pottery during his college years, is its owner. He turns pots at his shop (before loading them in the van for glazing and firing at Bybee) and sells them along with other gift items.

Walter and Dorothy Cornelison's children enjoyed other pursuits, though their sons and daughter and son-in-law help run the pottery. Buzz earned an undergraduate degree in theater and a master's degree in English at Eastern Kentucky University and was a keyboard player for the band Exile, known for its hit "I Want to Kiss You All Over." He studied classical piano and helps groups and schools in the area with theater productions, when he's not working at the pottery. His sister, Paula, a former teacher who works at the pottery when she is needed, is married to Russ Gabbard, who works there, too. Brother Jimmy is coroner and director of Emergency Management Services for Madison County, but he helps out when the pottery is short-handed.

The family's three granddaughters – two teenagers, 14 and 16, and Andrea Gabbard, who is an attorney — don't want to take over the pottery.

"This is the last generation," admits Jimmy Cornelison, anticipating the anniversary coming in 2009. "Two hundred years is a pretty good run."

"We have not set a closing date. A lot of that will be up to my father and mother. Our motivation for continuing is almost nil," said Buzz Cornelison. "The next generation is not interested in continuing at all — [if they were, that] would be incentive for us to continue."

The idea that Bybee might not always be in production is unthinkable for many.

"Bybee Pottery is an irreplaceable part of who we are," said Cheryl Stone, a longtime collector who is director of the Center for Economic Development, Entrepreneurship and Technology at Eastern Kentucky. "I'm not alone in feeling that way. ... Not having that for my grandchildren would break my heart."

IF YOU GO

About the pottery

• Bybee Pottery, 610 Waco Loop, Waco, KY (P.0. Box 555, Waco, KY) 40385. Located on Ky. 52, between Richmond and Irvine, at milepost 21, eight miles east of Richmond. 859-369-5350. Orders for pickup at the pottery can be placed by e-mailing r3456@aol.com.

• To find the Bybee Pottery store well-stocked, plan to visit on a Monday, when the kiln is always unloaded, or on the day of the second kiln unloading: Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, depending on production. Buzz Cornelison recommends calling the week before visiting for the schedule.

• Bybee is open 8 a.m.-noon and 12:30-3:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Fridays.

• Bybee aficionados offer this beloved ritual: On days when the kiln is emptied, get to the pottery early (not many years ago, some folks arrived by 3 or 4 a.m.). Set an object (kitchen towel, coffee cup, lawn chair) to save your place in line and get some sleep in your car until Bybee opens at 8 a.m. Get into the salesroom and stake out some space. Quickly move all the pottery you can to your floor space. Then, begin bargaining with the shoppers around you for the pieces you really want. It's less hectic during the winter months, when people can casually shop.

Also visit

• Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea, 975 Walnut Meadow Road (I-75 at Exit 77). More than 650 artists are represented in this 25,000-square-foot facility that also offers a welcome center and Cafe and Grill. 8 a.m.-8 p.m. The grill is open 8 a.m.-7:30 p.m. 859-985-5448, www.kentuckyartisancenter.ky.gov.

• A Little Bit of Bybee, 11617 Main St., Middletown, Ky. 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays. Credit cards accepted. 502-245-0557, www.bybeepottery.com.