Michael Crocker grew up in Lula, Georgia, surrounded by an active group of potters working in the Georgia folk tradition. As a child, Crocker would watch potters working on the wheel, and began working as an apprentice with the various families who had been creating pottery in the area for generations. Michael was an expert on the wheel and worked in collaboration with his younger brother Melvin, who would decorate Michael’s pots with faces, snakes, and other scenes. Michael became dedicated to preserving the Georgia pottery style and in 1984 converted an abandoned chicken house into a pottery studio. He now works on his own, creating undecorated pots as well as some with sculptural reliefs.