By Sydney Franklin, WRAL multiplatform producer

 — About an hour-and-a-half drive from Raleigh is an oasis for North Carolina's potters.

Within a 20-mile radius are over 50 pottery shops for people to visit, according to Seagrove Area Potters' website, which claims it's the "largest concentration of working potters in the United States."

"These folks are truly craftsmen and artisans, and they're working to make a really beautiful product [and] a really useful product. They're, quite often, making it out of local materials -- whether it be wild clays or minerals that they use to make their glazes," said Lindsey Lambert, the executive director of the North Carolina Pottery Center.

The original residents of the area came because of the great farming soil, according to Lambert.