Deck the Halls with Mugs and Bowls
While others were making pies and stuffing on Thursday, we were moving furniture in our house, getting ready for the annual fall studio tour of the Sixteen Hands artisan collective, of which my son Josh is a member. All the living room and kitchen furniture, including the kitchen table (but excluding the kitchen sink) got moved down in the basement to make room for the three day show.
One hour into the first day of the three day country studio tour: hugs had been exchanged, stories had been told, pots had been sold, a Scrabble game date had been made and Joe maybe sold our lawn mower.
Josh’s girlfriend Christy arrived on Thursday in time to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with us at Zephyr Farm. I joked that she was the Vanna White of the studio show, looking especially festive in her seasonal colored dress.
Josh’s guest artist this year is wood/salt fire potter Bryce Brisco, currently the clay artist in residence at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Tennessee. I’ve already picked out my favorite piece.
By the second hour of the first day the tour-goers were spilling out onto the porch and the yard. The sun is shining, the beer is on tap, come on out and say hello.
I call this shot “Sun/son in the right place.” I think it’s cool that I can see my reflection in the middle pot.
Post notes: Read more about Josh, the founder of the Clayspace Coop in Asheville, and his pottery and past Sixteen Hands tours HERE. A story I wrote for Clay Times in 2010 about 16 Hands and the mentoring a new generation of potters is HERE. More fall 2012 tour photos HERE and HERE.
November 23rd, 2012 6:44 pm
Do you send out a notice of some kind to let people know when this wonderful event is? And it goes on for three days! WOW! A lot of work to get ready, I know….But, from what you showed us, it looks Beautiful!
November 23rd, 2012 7:57 pm
Well Sixteen Hands promotes it and it’s been going on for more than a decade and has a good following. Besides the pottery (and woodwork) it is a nice chance to drive in the country, visit working studios and see how people in this rural county live.
November 24th, 2012 7:16 pm
[...] Sixteen Hands is a twice-yearly artisan studio tour that takes place throughout the countryside of Floyd, Virginia. My home along the Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the four tour locations and features the pottery of my son Josh Copus and his guest artist, which was potter Bryce Brisco year. More about the tour, which runs through Sunday, and shots of pots is HERE. [...]
November 26th, 2012 12:59 pm
[...] our house, where my son Josh Copus and his guest artist Bryce Brisco were hosting their part of the annual tour, was like extracting ourselves from a vortex of energy with hundreds of people coming in and out of [...]
December 5th, 2012 10:34 pm
[...] At my son Josh’s recent 16 Hands home pottery studio tour, I met a pottery collector named [...]