About Us

Josh Copus is a ceramic artist and creative entrepreneur from Marshall, North Carolina. 

Josh is originally from Floyd County, Virginia, where he was raised in a close-knit community of farmers and artisans in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  The local traditions of crafts and agriculture in Appalachia blended with the new ideas and outlook of the alternative community to form the basis of Josh’s life philosophy and instill an appreciation for art and nature that strongly influences his current work in ceramics.

Since moving to North Carolina in 1998 to attend Warren Wilson College, Josh has continued to study ceramics at a variety of schools and through countless hours of working with other artists throughout the world.

He received an associates degree in professional crafts from the Haywood Community College in 2003 and a bachelor of fine arts degree from University of North Carolina Asheville in 2007, where he started the Building Community Project.

After receiving the Windgate Fellowship, Josh Copus bought 2 acres of land in Madison county, burned a house down, built an outhouse and began establishing a woodfired pottery compound. He has since built 3 large wood burning kilns, a studio and a whole compound of barns and gardens on the property. 

In 2016, Josh bought the Old Marshall Jail with a group of friends. He spent 5 years renovating the building into the Old Marshall Jail Hotel and a restaurant called Zadies. 

Josh’s hobbies include welding, building rock walls, cutting firewood, doing historical research on the Old Marshall Jail and constantly searching for interesting materials to build and make things with. He recently bought a trailer park and has started a whole new community project there. Camille Shafer is his personal hero and Josh loves everything about Azule.