There is nothing Sexier than a Working Studio and Gallery

MAGNUM POTTERY(click)

A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE

There is nothing more sexy than the actual gritty down to Earth experience of clay....Remember the Scene from the movie  GHOSTS with Patrick Sweyze and Demi Moore?! Oh My!!!

The Absolute openness of this gallery and studio is its most special quality.  I have never met anyone who does not want to visit the artists studio!  It is like something magic happens there, and of course as artists, it does.  The very act of creativity is magic.  Rob and Beth are the owners and a husband and wife team. There is a third artists that works with them as well, and very often as on this day, an apprentice is at work learning the craft.  As you walk into the gallery you are immediately drawn back to the studio where the action is going on.  I have never been to Magnum that someone is not working away in the pottery area.  And what is even better you are invited to walk around, look. learn and ask questions! This is one friendly place, the studio dog even comes up and greets you. (and the studio dog is a rescue, what great people)

Magnum Pottery Studio, Weaverville, North Carolina  

 How to Make a 3D Heron

 First Step
Roll out slab of clay, draw image and cut






Second Step
Wet areas to be shaped

Rob wetting areas to be curved   

Step 3

Shape dampened edges

Rob demonstrating how to form the heron           photo by Elizabeth Gordon

Close up shots of shaping  head

STEP 4
Join the two sections, glaze and fire

Finished Product, Wonderful Shiny and New Herons Ready to Buy

Studio Dog on a Lazy Summer Day!O

Once a rescue boy he found a home in a potters studio.  Magnum Pottery in Weaverville, North Carolina is a wonderful working studio and gallery.  A husband and wife, a family pottery that turns out wonderful beautiful pottery. I highly recommend a visit, you will find a true friendly greeting and warm hospitality. And you will also meet the studio dog.

photo by Elizabeth Gordon

A Potters World

MATT JONES(click)

A WORLD OF CLAY

Matt's potters wheel        photo by elizabeth gordon

To meet Matt is a wonderful experience.  He is a warm open man, who is interested in everything.  He is down to Earth and non assuming.  He is not an aloof conceited artist, but the opposite. If there is ego in Matt, it all goes into the creation process.  He is the kind of man you don't expect to find hold up alone spending hours and hours in the studio, but instead in a crowd smiling and laughing away.  He likes challenge and wants to keep his craft as pure and locally as he can.  He buys local clay dug from the surrounding mountains and stores behind the studio in large mounds.  He screens it and makes up his own blend. He also crushes beer bottles and uses them in his glazes!

Pottery Studio in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Bisque Wear Glazed and Ready for Firing

local clay stored behind the studio

 Before firing it has a whitish grey look which made me think it might fire white, but Matt looked at me as if I was crazy when I said that...no it fires a darker brown he said.  He is a tall lean lanky man with a crooked grin, who can throw huge pots. When I say huge I mean really really big.  Most of his work has mostly the color of the glazes he mixes and the marks of the wood firing, but he does love drawing.  He adds graphics when he can for his own soul and not the monetary bottom line.  He has a sense of humor when he does ad the graphics that is a bit edgy and delightful  I told my other Mississippi artist buddy, Sean Starwars, they must connect with each other, they would find a common ground. 

portrait of tools

Matt's large wood firings go a week, firing all day and night.  It is a large undertaking he only does a couple of times of year.  Otherwise he does smaller firings, not loading the whole outdoor kiln.  

For me I love wood firings.  The glazes are earthy and warm...they show marks that say I am hand made, I am crafted, I an ancient craft and don't you forget it with your new fangled electric kilns and low fire glazes!
I had hopped to find one of my favorite mugs and glazes Matt does, but he was sold out after an article had appeared the magazine Garden and Gun, Southern Made.

Glazing brushes on the ready

mixing barrel where Matt mixes his own clay

mark of the potter

drying and screening bin

display in sales room...almost sold out

Matt's Ceramic Monthly Cover

 Mark is quite a surprising guy.  As we are talking he says, "Do you know who Sheppard Fairey is?"  I said yes, he is the artist who did the Obama poster.  Then Matt proceeds to tell me that Shepard Fairey is a childhood friend and they have gotten in contact again after years of going their own ways.  Sheppard recently bought a bunch of Matt's pottery that had a nod to Sheppard's own art work!

Outdoor wood kiln with wood stacks

Detail shot of Matt's wood fire kiln