The Story of Mangum Pottery

The Mangum Pottery Story

Bet and Rob Jr. working in the first studio in the basement of the house on Highway 21 outside Sparta, NC in1976.

Robin's instrument building wood shop in the same basement. A dulcimer is being made on the workbench. Banjo hoop laminates dry, hanging from the ceiling.

Frank assembling a planter in the first studio. The business at that time was called Peach Bottom Family Company, named after the mountains nearest by.

Bet at the kick wheel. In the foreground is Rob's first slab pot. The collar and lid were thrown by Robin.

Playing music for Charles Counts at a workshop in Rising Fawn, Georgia.

At a Dave Robinson workshop. Dave had a big influence in helping Robin learn to throw big pots.

The Family Band.

Bet worked in the summer on the back patio of the house on Highway 21.

Building the house at Turkey Knob, circa 1978. Robin learned how from a book and the whole family participated in the construction.

Bet enjoying the "foxfire" lifestyle at Turkey Knob by using the woodstove.

The studio in the basement at Turkey Knob. Glaze Day.

Robin pulling a cylinder.

The instrument shop in the Turkey Knob basement studio. Robin's first banjo sits to the right.

Doing a craft show in Greensboro, circa 1980.

The new studio at Turkey Knob, featuring a passive solar design.

Robin slip banding for sgraffito carving.

Robin and Bet collapsing a pot.

The wood kiln at Turkey Knob, constructed in 1984. It fired for several years and then was destroyed by a thermocouple malfunction during the process of converting the kiln to a computer controlled gas kiln. It was supposed to still be able to fire as a wood kiln as well.

Jr's Pots, a.k.a. Mangum Pottery of Raleigh. Rob Jr's first studio (on the left) opened in January of 1989 on the corner of Lenoir and McCullough Street in Raleigh. He and several freinds from the Design School at N.C. State started Boylan Arts, a collective named after the neghborhood, Boylan Heights. Beth worked at Marble Sac, upstairs, and with Rob.

Rob at an art opening at Boylan Arts, inside the Mangum Pottery of Raliegh studio.

In 1990 Rob and Beth moved to Orange, Virginia. The studio was in the basement at first . Ben, the dog, strolls across the front yard.

Rob and Beth exhibiting at Bele Chere in Asheville in 1990.

Rob unloading ceramic tables from the kiln in the basement studio.

Beth learning to make pots in the basement studio in Orange, Va.

Beth working in the Bloomington, Indiana studio.

Rob working on a chimney cap in Bloomington. It never made it through the drying process.

In 1993, Rob went to Graduate School to receive a MFA at Indiana University in Bloomington, where he continued his artistic pursuit and taught design fundamentals as a TA. Rob and Beth moved their studio in to an old corner store building in Bloomington. From there, they did the midwest craft show circuit and developed a regional market.