Royal Potter The ‘Bean Queen’ Finds Time For Creations In Clay

Anyone familiar with stories that begin “Once upon a time” knows how they end … the cinder-covered girl grows up to become queen, admired by her subjects and rich beyond her dreams.

What most people don’t realize is that the queen’s real name is Jill Smith, and she lives just north of Spokane on the banks of meandering Peone Creek.

If you doubt Smith is bona fide royalty, just ask for her business card. It says right there: “Bean Queen.”

Both her title and prosperity derive from Smith’s status as founder and co-owner of Buckeye Beans and Herbs, a local specialty food manufacturer nationally recognized as one of America’s fastest-growing companies.

But unlike traditional Cinderellas, this queen’s idea of living happily ever after includes rising before dawn to muck about among the cinders of her pottery studio, creating one-of-a-kind raku plates, bowls and vases. The raku process - developed in 16th century Japan and later Americanized - involves firing metallic-glazed clay at “low” temperatures (1,800 degrees), then placing the pottery in a garbage can filled with newspaper, which ignites, “scorching the hair off your arms,” Smith says, as it coaxes colors out of the glaze. Sooty carbon turns the white clay permanently black.

Smith will gladly discuss the raku process, Buckeye Beans or any other topic - “I love talking to people,” she says - during this weekend’s 13th annual Inland Craft Warnings exhibit and sale.

Having outgrown five other venues, this year’s show moves to the Crescent Court at Main and Wall in downtown Spokane. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Forty-six artists from throughout the Northwest will display their textiles, jewelry, photographs, leather, glass, wood, pottery and mixed-media creations. Admission is $3.50. (Early birds get in for $2 Friday before 1 p.m.)

“Inland Craft Warnings is a wonderful show,” says Smith, who used to travel throughout the Northwest selling her pottery. “All the participants are true artists. They’re there because they have to do what they do - it’s in their blood.”

The same with Smith.

Back in college, she had her sights set on becoming “a famous print maker.” But that changed when she took a required pottery class.

“What I liked most about clay was that it’s one of the few art mediums in which your hands are right on what you’re making,” Smith explains. “There’s no tool or brush to get in your way. You and the clay have a relationship.”

For the next 20 years, Smith kept her family solvent as a full-time potter while her husband, Doug, “tried to find his niche in life.”

Her specialty was “production pottery” - usable, everyday items. At her peak, Smith earned $30,000 a year turning out mountains of teacups, bowls and pitchers.

“I used to take 100 apple boxes full of pottery to the Northwest Arts and Crafts Fair in Bellevue,” Smith recalls.

Yet even then, she didn’t consider pottery her job.

“There are a lot easier ways I could have made money,” she says. “If I had to give every piece away, I would still make pottery. I must have my hands in clay.”

Meanwhile, 13 years ago the Smiths launched Buckeye Beans and Herbs with $1,000 and a rather unusual attitude toward business. “Our mission statement is really simple,” Jill says. “‘To make people smile’ … that’s it.”

Apparently that’s enough. Buckeye Beans’ 27 novelty-shaped pastas and assorted legume products will generate $7 million in international sales this year, keeping the company’s 50 employees busy.

Smith credits her pottery background, along with Doug’s management skills, for much of the company’s success. She calls her hard-earned wisdom “lessons of the clay.”

“As an artist,” says Smith, “I learned to represent myself in my work. I learned to appreciate my customer and encourage the seller-buyer relationship. I learned creativity. And I learned the importance of patience - clay teaches you patience.”

Predictably, Buckeye’s growth has forced Smith to cut back on her pottery. “But I still consider myself an artist first,” she says.

Switching to raku several years ago has allowed Smith to emphasize quality over quantity. “I used to turn out pottery like crazy,” she says. “Now I do more one-of-a-kind gallery pieces. And instead of taking 100 boxes of work to a show, I take six.” Her items sell for $30 to $300.

Smith says most raku artists go in for rougher, heavier, more textured pots, “but I like real smooth, polished forms. I want my pots to look as good without a glaze as with one.”

She also decorates her pots with ornamental “doodads” collected during her international travels for Buckeye Beans. “It relates what I do for Buckeye back to my pottery,” she says.

Now 47, Smith hopes to gradually spend more time at her potter’s wheel, “because that’s really who I am.” But she’s also the Bean Queen, and what she brings to her company could be tough to replace.

“One of the reasons we’ve gotten so much publicity” on television and in national magazines, Smith admits, “is that people in New York consider me so weird. I’m an artist, I raise horses and play soccer, have a family and I’m still married to the same husband after 27 years.”

And she co-authors “far-fetched food fables,” whimsical stories for Buckeye Beans catalogs and product labels that, among other things, purport to explain the origins of items such as Chick-a-doodle Soup and Rip Roar’n Lentil Chili.

Naturally, some of those stories begin “Once upon a time …”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 5 Color Photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Art Show The 13th annual Inland Craft Warnings featuring 46 regional artists will be at the Crescent Court at Main and Wall in downtown Spokane. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.