Kiln and Kin

Trio of family potters shine in highly different styles

“My family goes back six generations, right here in Graham and Jackson counties,” says ceramics artist Brant Barnes. Riverwood Pottery has long been a family enterprise operated by Brant, his wife Karen, and their daughter Zan — who earned an MFA in ceramics at the University of North Texas, where she served as president of the UNT Clay Guild. All three potters are members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, and Zan is also in the Piedmont Craftsmen Guild.

Brant tracks their history as clay collaborators: “I was the first potter in our family, and Karen married into it. At first she made pieces for me in my patterns, until she settled into her own style. Our daughter Zan has been around clay her whole life, traveling to craft fairs with me and Karen.”

However, he adds, “[Zan] has always created her own products — so we’ve had a sales contract with her since she was in 8th grade. Now she runs her own studio and business.” 

Karen’s mother was a fiber artist, so she grew up around folks whose hands stayed busy. “It really paid off in my teens, when you couldn’t buy bell bottoms yet — so I made my own.” She attended NC School of the Arts, where she made the costumes she wore on stage as well as the stage sets for performances. “I picked up a small role in a movie being filmed in Highlands, and that’s when I met Brant and became aware that there was a community of crafters in the region. I wanted to be a part of it, and when I married him and started falling in love with clay, it made sense for me to join him in his craft. I apprenticed, and there’s so much more science to it than I’d expected — but pottery made science make sense.”

While they were teaching ceramic science at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, students inquired about the local folk tradition of face jugs. After some research, Karen and Brant made some, and involved young Zan, too. But Karen was permanently hooked. “I never stopped. I love giving them different expressions and moods, and I never imagined folks would drink out of them, but they do.”

While the trio doesn’t work together in the same studio these days, they still collaborate on creative concepts, share ideas, and offer critiques of each other’s work. They also support one another by troubleshooting the medium’s unpredictable external variables, which are many. Working with clay, Brant emphasizes, “definitely teaches patience.”

He started as a visual artist and went to Western Carolina University as a painter before discovering clay, which is why he’s attracted to working with surface design. “Rather than draw on paper, I sketch new ideas on my pots.” Using techniques and tools like brushes, handmade stamps, wax resist, and spraying, he creates a variety of visual and textural effects. He calls his process “painting with fire” because he makes stoneware fired at temperatures as high as 2,400 degrees.

“He made every dish I ate off of growing up,” says Zan. The surfaces of her own vessels focus on nature imagery including gingko leaves, bats, and bugs — but the artist’s pitchers, culinary-oil bottles, and flower domes are notably polished and sophisticated, featuring lots of contrast and vibrant color. She says in her artist’s statement that she wants her wares to be “handled or interacted with every day of the owner’s life.”

The Barnes family wares will be featured at the WNC Pottery Festival at Sylva Bridge Park — a juried event Brant and Karen co-founded — on Saturday, Nov. 2, 10am-4pm. $5 admission. See wncpotteryfestival.com. Karen and Zan’s work is also exhibited at the Folk Art Center, Milemarker 382 on the Blue Ridge Parkway (southernhighlandguild.org) and at the gallery of John C. Campbell Folk School (folkschool.org). See riverwoodpottery.com and zanbarnes.com for more information.