"What I make is good quality," and some of the stoneware is his own design, the 39-year-old Hidalgo, Mexico native proudly assures listeners, adding that making pottery is an art that only a few people have bothered to learn.

At one time, Marshall was an exception to that rule. So many potteries were in business here between 15 and 17 that the city was considered the pottery capital of Texas, if not the United States.