Miracle in the Woods

Potter is still shocked by the success of her stoneware

She blossomed in sgraffito: Lin Barber in her home studio.
Portrait by Paul Stebner

Lin Barber’s vision is led by faith — but potters are practical, too, and she makes sure not to waste her scenic view. The home she shares with Sherrill, her husband of 44 years, sits at the end of a narrow lane that winds up the ridgeline above Beaverdam Road. Barber’s on-site studio and kiln are situated to make the most of the lovely North Asheville location.

“My wheel is in front of the door of the shed so I can look out at the beautiful trees,” she says.

It’s an idyllic setting for her spiritual approach. “I pray over all my pots — it’s just a blessing to do this.” And the extra assurance doesn’t hurt. “When you’re making pottery, you put a lump of clay on a wheel, and when you open it up, it’s like a miracle happens every time. A ball of mud turns into something.” 

Barber began turning balls of mud into glazed mugs, bowls, vases, platters, and other functional pieces when she was in college, majoring in philosophy, minoring in art, and taking pottery classes for her electives, falling in love with the process and the craft. Before she graduated, she married. Then she had two children — and little time left to devote to what she called “a hobby.” 

Photo by Paul Stebner

The hobby continued — in the basement of the family’s West Asheville home before the move to the north end of town — and through almost three decades teaching kindergarten through third grade. “My family was inundated with pottery for Christmas and birthdays,” Barber says with a laugh. A holiday bazaar put on by the school’s PTO about ten years ago was the first place she sold her vessels. 

Photo by Paul Stebner

“I was shocked people would pay money for my things,” she remembers. “When people buy something from me, it’s like they’re inviting me into their home, it’s such an honor.”

Barber began doing small craft shows, and when she retired five years ago, she made it official, naming her fledgling business Dogwood Pottery after the Biblical legend of the dogwood (the four petals of the tree’s flowers form a cross shape). She also began exploring unfamiliar techniques. “I took a class at AB Tech a couple years ago where the teacher demonstrated sgraffito [etching through layers of slip to create patterns and texture]. I tried it and loved it. Like anything, you have to keep doing something to get better at it. I started with dogwood and oak, and I’m thinking of violets and maybe Rose of Sharon.”

Dogwood Pottery crafts home furnishings as well as vessels.
Photo by Paul Stebner

She still does traditional glazed pottery, but as she prepares for the third annual Beaverdam Studio Tour, nearly every surface in her sunroom is covered in sgraffito stoneware bowls, urns, mugs, vases, and lamp bases — even a communion wafer plate. “I always said I was a functional potter, not a person that makes big artsy things. But when I started doing sgraffito, it turned out to be pretty artsy.”

She makes all her designs freehand. “I never know what it will look like until I finish carving. I like it when they kind of fall off the edge. I want the images to look like they’re in the woods.” 

The 3rd Annual Beaverdam Studio Tour, a self-guided driving tour, happens Saturday, Oct. 26 and Sunday, Oct. 27. Lin Barber’s Studio is located at 89 Sonnet Lane. For a full list of locations, see beaverdamstudiotour.com. Barber also sells at Mountain Made Gallery (1 Page Ave. #123, in the Grove Arcade) and at The Barn Door in Antler Hill Village, Biltmore House. For more information, see “Dogwood Pottery, Asheville” on Facebook.

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