Loose Leaf Notes

For the past 18 years, art lovers have been touring the countryside of Floyd County two weekends a year, visiting the studios of the 16 Hands potters and artists.

My son Josh Copus has been a member of the collective for the past six years, showing his new work from his childhood home off the Blue Ridge Parkway, where my husband and I live. HERE is a blog post of his first year as a 16 Hands member.

Every 1^st weekend in May and 4^th weekend in November, our porch is filled with pots, our house is emptied of furniture and transformed into an art gallery. Hundreds of people file in and out over the weekend to meet the artists, enjoy refreshments, conversation and personalized shopping.

Every tour Josh hosts a guest artist.  This year’s guest artist is Catherine White who, like Josh, wood-fires wild clay.

Catherine is also a multi-media artist who paints and does collage. Check out her webpage HERE.

Catherine’s pots reflect surprising forms and the shapes of nature. Some pieces look like wood.  This one (center) reminds me of a shell.

One of the first sales of the day on Friday came from North Carolina Museum of Art docent (guide) and art collector Rhonda Wilkerson. Rhonda already has several of Josh’s pieces.  She bought this piece (the one I called sexy when Josh put it up) for her son Brian (pictured to the left).

The tour is an Old Home Week for Josh because many of the Floyd family and friends he grew up with come around.

Day one of the three day tour saw a steady stream of visitors.  I don’t remember it ever being quite as warm as it was today for a fall studio tour.

I like to say that Josh paints with fire because the surface effects on his pots are created while they’re firing in the kiln, but Josh describes it better when he says, “The pots record the firing.”

Come check us out, Saturday 10 – 5 or Sunday 12-5.  Look for the pot along the side of the road in- between milepost 163 and 164. You can search “16 Hands” in my sidebar search box for more past 16 Hands Tours, or click on Asheville Potter Son. Josh’s webpage is HERE.  That’s the sexy pot before it got sold on the far left. / Sunday Shadow Shot