Mangums reach a broad audience with their pottery By ROBBY LUCKE Staff When they first came to Alleghany County in the 1970s, Robin and Bet Garrison Mangum appeared to be just a small part of the hippie movement — long-haired nonconformists fleeing the big city, heading to the mountains to become potters. "We thought there were going to be a whole bunch of potters crawling all over," said Robin Mangum. But unlike most hippies who ascended on the area then, the Mangums stuck with pottery and with this area. "We feel very privileged to be part of Alleghany County. The people have been wonderful to us," he said. Their craftsmanship has proved successful. The Mangums have been featured in national and regional publications, and their work has been purchased by people from all over the world. They are also widely known as pottery instructors. "A boy from Los Angeles came and took our workshop," said Bet Mangum. Not content with "comfortable" success, they enjoy finding new challenges as artists. They don't even mind being labeled as former "hippies." They still hear the term occasionally, usually said now in a light-hearted, good-natured way. "We were miserable failures as hippies, because we ended up working 14- and 16-hour days," said Robin Mangum.

Bet Mangum works on a piece of pottery at Mangum Pottery in Turkey Knob.

Bet was originally from Alabama. Robin was born in North Carolina but later moved to Alabama, and the two met when they were teenagers. "We had loved clay and collected pottery since we were in school together," said Robin. "We never thought we could make a living at it. We didn't know how to get into it."

They came to Charlotte in 1968. He was with an insurance company, and she was an English teacher. Then they went to graduate school at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and got their masters' degrees in counseling.

Robin jests that "It was through counseling" that they decided to attempt to live the life to which they aspired. "We were telling other people to follow their dreams. Our dream was to make a living as self-employed artists."

They also had a good idea where they wanted to go for it. "Our first weekend in Charlotte, we packed our two little boys in the car and drove up to the mountains," he said. They knew then they wanted to live in the mountains. So they came to Alleghany in 1974. "We decided this is where we wanted to raise our family and live....

"We started from scratch, not knowing what we were getting into," Mangum said.

In 1975 they started making pottery on their back porch, with a turning pot on a kickwheel. They trace their artistic influence back to English potter Bernard Leach. The Mangums studied with Charles Counts in Georgia in the mid-70s. Counts was a student of Michael Cardew, who was Leach's apprentice.

In 1977, the couple bought their property on Turkey Knob in the Piney Creek area, where they still live. They worked in their basement from 1978 until 1981, when they built their shop. They traveled extensively during the 80s, working from Florida to New York, but since 1990 they have focused their attention on their work here.

Their place now includes a sculpture and painting room and a gift shop.
 
 

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