Loose Leaf Notes

~ More journeys on the Yellow Brick Road as traveled by “He Gets a Kick Out of Bricks” Josh Copus

3 kilns, 2 sheds, 1 studio, and a woodfire pizza oven (pictured) just for fun; that’s some of the latest structural inventory on my Asheville potter son Josh’s property in Madison County and doesn’t take into account the Airstream porch, composting outhouse, outdoor bath, and garden on the other side of the creek.

10 potters, 3 weeks, 2 woodfire teachers, and 1 neighbor’s guesthouse; that’s some of the stats from the Carolina Kiln Build, a residential immersion woodfire kiln building workshop held on Josh’s property last summer and led by Josh and another Clayspace potter.

Two kilns, The Land Shark and The Burrow, were built for different purposes and added to the compound’s large Noborigama chambered climbing kiln that Josh built in 2007.

Towards the end of the 3 week kiln building workshop, one of the potters was having a hard time, so Josh came up with the idea of staging an awards ceremony for her. By the end of the build Josh had presented each potter with a signed Community Brick, along with a short tribute speech, citing their unique (funny and serious) contributions to the team. (Learn more about the Community Bricks HERE.

One kiln build potter wrote an article about the build that was published in The Log, an international publication for woodfirers that’s produced in Ireland and the same publication that printed Josh’s “Building Community” story a couple of years before.

The article in The Log led to Josh being invited to be a guest panelist at a groundbreaking international Wood-firing Conference in Germany next year, where he’ll be telling his story and presenting a paper. While in Europe, Josh will be traveling to La Born France, famous for its wild clay and pottery communities. He’ll be traveling with another Asheville potter named Alex Matisse, who just happens to be the great grandson of artist Henri Matisse (and the step-grandson of dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp).
Note: Scroll HERE for more Asheville Potter Son news.