Dina Leigh Wilde-Ramsing

Dina passed away peacefully at home on Wednesday, October 18th, 2023 with her loved ones by her side and holding her hands. Art was her life, and she lives on through her art, which continues to warm the homes and hearts of her family, friends, and many others. She was a tremendously caring and creative spirit, a beloved partner, mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, daughter, and friend to many. She’ll be missed dearly. The family would like to express their gratitude to Lower Cape Fear LifeCare for the many years of assistance they provided to Dina and her caregivers. A memorial celebration of Dina’s life will be held in summer 2024.

Dina was born in Asheville, N.C., where she spent her early years, often under the care of her grandmother, whom she remembers fondly, as her parents were both public school teachers. From there, she moved with her family to Chapel Hill, N.C., then further east to Rocky Mount in her sophomore year of high school. Dina’s collegiate career took a similar path, west to east across North Carolina, beginning with studies at Wake Forest University. The summer after her sophomore year, while enrolled in an archaeology course involving the excavation of a pueblo ruin in New Mexico, Dina was introduced to both the fascinating world of the Southwest and its native culture and her future husband, Mark. Both have continued to influence her through her life and artistic career. The following fall, Dina transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she graduated with a degree in anthropology and art history. After a year working at Jill Flink’s Gallery in Raleigh, N.C., and another year waitressing tables at the Salem Tavern in Winston-Salem, N.C., Dina headed to Greenville, N.C., where she sought a teaching degree from East Carolina University’s Department of Art and Design. In the course of her studies, Dina took courses in clay-making with instructors, Chuck Chamberlain and Art Haney, and in that medium she found the ideal way to express herself. This discovery subsequently enabled her to make a living through selling her creations and teaching, both of which gave her the opportunity to bring people into her world.

From Greenville, Dina moved into a dry-docked tugboat near Belhaven, N.C., where she labored with clay partner, Gigi Tease, to make a go of their fledgling business, Pier Pottery. Soon after, in the fall of 1977, opportunities arose to the south and she moved to Wilmington, N.C. Living on Jackson Street in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Wilmington, Dina first worked as an archaeologist documenting Native American sites throughout New Hanover County. Here she also made and fired her early pottery in a backyard gas-fired kiln, and brought son, Joseph, into the family. After a couple of years, Dina and her family went to live with Mark’s parents in Alexandria, VA., while he undertook graduate studies, and it was here that daughter, Kee, joined the Wilde-Ramsing clan. In 1981, Dina and family returned to Wilmington, first living a winter in Carolina Beach before settling in a bungalow on Cherry Avenue, in the Audubon neighborhood, where she established her studio and began teaching at Cape Fear Community College.

The early classroom for adult education pottery classes, where Dina first taught with Hiroshi Sueyoshi, beginning in 1982, was located on a surplus dredge barge moored along Water Street in downtown Wilmington, where fumes from the welding class below often wafted up into their space. After a year, classes were moved to the partially finished basement of the old World War II, USO building, which in the beginning was well-suited for growing mushrooms, in addition to making clay. Due to success of the classes, a lot has changed since then, and the space is now home to today’s Community Art Center and Orange Street Pottery. Over the course of 16 years, Dina taught scores of pottery students from Wilmington and around the world, from beginners to advanced experts seeking to learn about Dina’s unique techniques. Many of Dina’s students became lifelong friends. The highlight of each semester’s class was the raku firing, which was often held in Dina’s backyard at Cherry Avenue. The day-long affair featured brilliant successes and wrenching heartbreak as red-hot pieces were pulled from the kiln, which was fashioned out of an old barbeque grill, and plunged into smoking barrels of straw to quickly cool, crackle, and smoke the glaze. All the while, children and pets (even an iguana!) ran about in the party atmosphere, and good food and wine were enjoyed by the adults.

In addition to teaching, Dina actively pursued her art career, which was bolstered by being accepted into the guild of Carolina Designer Craftsmen (CDC) and Piedmont Craftsmen Inc., where she displayed and sold her work for over 20 years. Her first show, however, was Piney Woods at Hugh McRae Park in Wilmington, which Dina remembers fondly as her favorite outdoor venue. At that show and others, Dina won various awards for her work including Best in Show at the Ghent Festival, the Craftsman’s Choice (1999), and Dino Reed Award of Excellence (2008), both from CDC. She was also commissioned by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources to make unique ceramic awards that were presented by Governor James Hunt in 1998 to business leaders as recognition for their support of the arts. Dina’s designs were sometimes also found in places other than pottery, such as the commemorative shirts for CDC and Piney Woods, and the occasional painting she put to canvas.

In the year 2000, Dina moved and set up her studio in Morehead City, NC, as Mark directed the explorations Blackbeard’s shipwreck. Here she industriously created hundreds upon hundreds of unique pieces that were exhibited and sold up and down the East Coast. Moving back to Wilmington in 2007 to the Lincoln Forest neighborhood, Dina continued her work until 2016 when she retired from clay. Up until the end she enjoyed hosting her Clay Buddies, friends, and family in her studio and home.

Dina is survived by her husband Mark; children Joseph (Birka) and Kee (Dale); sisters Dixie, Kim, and Jackie; grandchildren Jade, Sylvia, Mayla, and Louis; lots of cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.CobleGreenlawn.com for the Wilde-Ramsing family.