Woodfired ceramics specializing in wild clay and glaze materials

Josh Copus specializes in woodfired ceramics with an emphasis on using local and non-industrially processed wild clays and glaze materials.  Working in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina, Josh has developed a personally significant approach to making that exhibits a strong sense of place through his use of the materials, patterns, and textures of his environment.  

Josh received an associate degree from Haywood Community College in 2002 and graduated with a BFA in ceramics from University of North Carolina Asheville in 2006. He received a Windgate Fellowship from the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design in 2006 and a WindgateProject Grant in 2017. He has been an invited presenter at numerous international woodfire conferences around the world and his work is in the permanent collections of the Kennedy Museum of Art, the Mint Museum, and many private collections. He currently works at the Clayspace Co-op, a cooperative ceramics studio and gallery he founded in Asheville and at the woodfired pottery compound he established in Marshall, North Carolina.

When he is not building and making things, Josh spends most of his time on his land stacking rocks, working on the old jail he owns, operating the tractor, and constantly searching for interesting materials to build and make things with.

"My current body of work in ceramics is built on a place based making philosophy that emphasizes the use of local and non-industrially process materials to create a connection to place and establishes the materials, the experiences surrounding them, and the people of those communities as a valuable source of influence.  I use the natural world around me as source of inspiration for shapes and surfaces, interpreting the visual language of place to make personally significant work that comes from somewhere deeper than just my hands or my head."

joshcopus.com