“Sometimes I almost have to hide my new work so that people don’t buy it,” admits potter Julie Calhoun-Ropnak, who is a member of the famous Southern Highland Craft Association, whose initials is JCR . "Otherwise, galleries or collectors may want more, but I don't know how I did it." Experience taught her to persist for a long enough time to make similar works for her archives so she won't forget.

"Of course, all my works are unique," she said. "But for commercial success—for example, a lady ordered 24 of my bee cups—consistency is important."

She is a deliberately arduous process, but she embraces the process with firm enthusiasm to achieve the results she wants. "I do round polishing and hand-built. My tiles are individually hand-cut, hand-carved, hand-glazed and fired twice."

For her unique and popular wreaths — assembled from hundreds of small painted ceramic shapes, usually flora and fauna — JCR needs her assistant. "We cut out the shapes by hand, and each piece was hand-painted with glaze and underglaze. Then we used copper wires to put them together to form a beautiful patina. This is a difficult job, and I'm not sure if I can Justify it. But I think you need to balance production and work that really brings you happiness."

She also derives happiness from the black bears and bees that appear in many of her works. The bear was inspired by real life—"the actual experience of the black bear situation"—because they often appear in her driveway. She also created some commissioned works, painting portraits of customers' pets on cups. The artist added to the complexity of her craft by firing her work at "Cone Six" or approximately 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit.

The temperature is high enough for the windows of the house to melt immediately-at that temperature, the glaze and clay form a glass-like bond, making the pottery extraordinarily strong and durable. This elevates pottery from relatively fragile pottery to stoneware that is hard as stone. 

The potter admits that her difficult method is not for everyone. "More [ceramic artists] do not do this kind of work because it is painful to get compatible glazes at the six cones." (Glaze with incompatible chemical compositions will bubble and blisters at the six cones. And cracking, thereby destroying the debris.)

"The matte and satin finishes sadden me the most," she said. "But in some of my palettes, I like to mix matte, satin and shimmer to create a feast of texture." She is currently experimenting with gradient patterns: for example, the color gradient may range from red to orange To yellow, or from blue to green to gray.

"It's very labor intensive-but it's nice to have a style method that stands out."

Julie Calhoun-Roepnack, JCR Designs, North Asheville. Roepnack is represented by the Mountains Gallery of the Omni Grove Park Inn (galleryofthemountains.com) in Asheville; Woolworth Walk (25 Haywood Street, woolworthwalk.com) in downtown Asheville; and the Branch and Leaf Gallery of Waynesville (North 98 Main Street, twigsandleaves.com); the Firefly Craft Gallery at Flat Rock (2689 Greenville Highway, fireflycraftgallery.com); and the Southern Highland Craft Association in Biltmore Village, Moses Cone Manor and online store (southernhighlandguild.org) . For more information about artists, see jcrdesigns.net, JCR Designs on Facebook and @calhounroepnack on Instagram.

Your email address will not be published. Required places have been marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time you comment.