Loose Leaf Notes

The Brick Factory is a mobile public art project that was created by my Asheville Potter Son Josh Copus and is currently taking place at the Old Marshall Jail in downtown Marshall NC.  Check times HERE.

The idea is about building community.  Visitors stamp their words and stories on a brick, created from clay dug from a farmer’s field and homemade on site.  Watch HERE.

The bricks will be fired in Josh’s kilns and used as a community monument, a historic record, walls and walkways at the jail, which is being renovated by Josh and his partners.

On this particular Saturday, some of Josh’s partners were his nephews, Bryce (9) and Liam (7).  Joe and I took the boys on a road trip to visit the Brick Factory, and they got right to work as if they were made to do it.

They made and stamped their own bricks. Watch HERE.

When Bryce learned that Josh needed to take down a wall, he got into the demolition part of the jail renovation job (and Liam swept). Watch the make-over video HERE.

Liam gave one of the tours of the old jail.

They both made signs inviting visitors to make bricks.

Liam wanted to make sure everyone knew it was free.

Of course, there was plenty of play that went on too, playing hide and seek and “lock them up” jail games.

We met lots of people and new friends and learned a lot about the history of the jail, which will be renovated into a Big House themed bar, restaurant, rooms to rent, a museum and more.

Josh’s partner Emily Patrick, who was a Citizen Times journalist and is now a flower farmer, has been blogging about the history of the jail, which was built from 1903 to 1905 and sits in the center of historic Marshall beside the railroad tracks and the French Broad River.

Everyone’s voice is welcome.  Visit the Community Brick Project’s webpage HERE. Check out the Old Marshall Jail webpage and blog HERE and  Emily’s Carolina Flowers on Facebook. / Our World Tuesday