~ 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 […]
Besides eating Thanksgiving turkey at a Zephyr Farm potluck, we played a rousing game of Taboo. We lined up in the kitchen at Amy, Rowan, and Zeph’s house for Vietnamese pho soup. One beautiful bowl of pho begged to be photographed. We visited six hands of the Sixteen Hands Studio Tour at Donna Polseno and […]
1. Bedrock 2. A Goatee? 3. Sun ripe 4. The Potter is in 5. Walking off into the sunset Post Notes: Taken from last weekend’s visit to my son Josh’s Carolina Kiln Build. Pictures and video clips of that are HERE.
This is the Carolina Kiln Build team twelve days into the build, taken five days ago. It consists of ten potters from all over the country and two facilitators (Josh Copus, center, and Eric Knoche, far left), living and working together in a three week intensive workshop, building two woodfire kilns on my son Josh […]
A month with a trackhoe on two acres of land in rural Madison County brings a whole new meaning to the term “rock and roll.” My son Josh (pictured on the left below) said he started feeling that the industrial strength excavating machine was an extension of his body and admitted to feeling god-like moving […]
The Wedge Microbrewery in Asheville reminds me of an ice cream parlor. At the soda fountain-like bar people sit and sample flavors before deciding on a favorite, before bartenders pour glass tumblers of amber gold and cocoa brown with frothy cream-like tops. Light and dark beers, like vanilla and chocolate, have names like Iron Rail, […]
This morning I woke up to a rooster going off like a Big Ben clock tower. Will it crow 6 times for 6 a.m. and then 7 for 7 a.m. and 8 for 8 a.m.? On the top of a mountain in a dormitory room in a guest house full of pottery and art, overlooking […]
My Son is a Potter My Cupboard Runneth Over My Heart and My Tea Cups are Full
The kiln was our language and we all came to speak it fluently. ~ Josh Copus Recently when talking on the phone to my Asheville potter son Josh, he spoke enthusiastically about watching blades of new grass grow. I thought it was a reference to his stopping to take time to smell the roses and […]
Sometimes on weekends my Asheville potter son Josh buses tables at a restaurant named Table. As a working artist with school loans, he’s learned to make a living in a variety of ways and has become what I call a “Josh of all trades.” In one recent week he transported a load of brick seconds […]
My Asheville potter son, Josh Copus, is a self-confessed brick geek. He collects found bricks, recycles old bricks, makes his own bricks, and builds wood fire kilns with bricks. It’s been more than three years since he harvested a lifetime supply of clay from a tobacco farmer’s field, and more than two years since his […]
1. I’m working on a story about Floyd’s 16 Hands Studio Tour for the next issue of The Compass, a local visitor’s guide. This year was the 10th anniversary of the event and my Asheville potter son Josh was a visiting guest artist. It was an honor for him to be invited to participate and […]
