Category: Artisan

A Family of Potters

Art, Artisan, Artist, Ceramics, North Carolina, Portraits, Pottery

Jacques and Juliana Busbee created Jugtown in 1917. The tradition they began has been continued and developed by the Owens family, Vernon and Pam, their son Travis and daughter Bayle. I visited on a beautiful November morning as they were finishing the firing of a wood fired groundhog kiln at their pottery in Northern Moore County near Seagrove, North Carolina.

(Photographs copyright 2022 by Dan Routh)

Stone Cutter

Artisan, People, Portraits, South Carolina, Stone Carver

On Tuesday I made a visit to the shop of talented artisan J. David Gillespie near Pickens, South Carolina. David hand carves tomb stones in slate and is one the few artisans in the country that does so. It was a bittersweet trip because I was there to pick up the stone he was carving for my late wife Dedra. He produced a simple stone that was a reproduction of the headstone of one of Dedra’s ancestors, Benjamin Hopkins, who died in 1796. I think she would approve.

(Photographs copyright 2022 by Dan Routh)