After 34 years in business, the iconic Cannon Beach pottery shop, House of the Potter Inc., closed in December, nearly three years after its owner and primary potter, Jay Stewart, died.

Stewarts work survives, however, in countless kitchens, restaurants and dining rooms in mugs, bowls, vases and honey pots owned by people who cherish his handcrafted stoneware.

Stewarts influence also survives in the work of his son-in-law and former apprentice, Chris Johnson, who is selling his own pottery at Found, a midtown shop at 1287 Hemlock St.

Its a great place. Its a natural fit, Johnson said, noting that his new venue, like House of the Potter Inc., is a family-owned business.

Ann-Marie Radich, who co-owns Found with her mother, Ann Radich, said, Truthfully, we were quite flattered because (Chris) approached us and asked us if wed carry (his pottery). I cant tell you how much that meant to us.

Found carries the work of more than 20 different local artists, but until Chris came along, the Radiches didnt have a local potter. Now they have the local potter whose work is selling like hotcakes, Ann-Marie Radich said.

In House of the Potter Inc.s final years, Stewarts wife, Laura Cobb Stewart, kept the business alive with Johnsons output and pottery from Blue Spruce Pottery from Bend.

But Cannon Beach has changed. The economy has changed, said her daughter and Chris Johnsons wife, Rebecca Stewart-Johnson.

People dont spend money like they used to. They dont have the money like they used to.

Ultimately its better to leave on top, Johnson said. She left on her terms.

Johnsons work, like Stewarts, is functional ceramic art, enjoyed daily by locals eating soup from one of his bowls at the Irish Table, and bleary-eyed office-bound journalists on caffeine binges sipping coffee from one of his Haystack Rock mugs.

The forms and glazes are the same, so people … can walk in there and see the pots theyve been buying for 34 years, and find pieces that still complement their sets, said Stewart-Johnson, the marketing manager of Chris Johnson Pottery. Chris still continues the tradition that my dad started.

A lost art

House of the Potter Inc. began as All This and Heaven Too, a Christian bookstore and gift shop founded in 1979 by Stewart-Johnsons grandparents, Edward and Catherine Stewart.

When they retired in 1997, Jay and Laura Stewart who were high school sweethearts and married in 1977 bought the place, expanded its gifts and cards, retained its faith-based undertones and renamed it House of the Potter Inc.

Jays pottery was just flying off the shelves, and he couldnt keep up with it, Chris Johnson said.

To accommodate the growing demand for his product, Stewart established a private studio, Otter Woods Pottery, in Hamlet, where he and Laura homesteaded. It is also where he passed on his pottery skills to Johnson.

Until I met Jay, I didnt realize you could make a living at doing this, Johnson said. So he worked with me and said, Well, Im not going to take on a greenhorn, so you have to go to school and learn the basics.

So Johnson studied pottery at Portland Community Colleges Sylvania Campus. After he outgrew the college studio, Stewart took him on as a full-time apprentice for almost a year in 2006.

At the time, Johnson wasnt fully ready to fly on his own yet, but he still wanted to get a little bit more knowledge and experience.

Thats where upstate New Yorks Rochester Folk Art Guild came in, where he worked as a resident artisan for seven months.

Johnson, who married Rebecca Stewart-Johnson in 2009, discovered that hand-thrown pottery which involves no molds or presses and relies exclusively on calipers and muscle memory is increasingly a lost art.

When Stewart a lifelong potter who raised his family on the art and worked until two weeks before his death of cancer in 2011 was getting started, professors would line up apprenticeships for rising artisans. By Johnsons time, this was no longer the case.

There was just nobody doing this anymore, Johnson said, adding that homemade glass and sculpture seem to be among the most popular sellers nowadays.

As Johnsons career took off, Stewart-Johnson, the designer in the family, partnered with him, taking his product on the craft fair circuit, ensuring that his retail outlets were set up correctly, managing the shipping and packing, and building the website for Chris Johnson Pottery.

For it being February, we are super busy, Johnson said. Most artists … on the coast, were like fishermen, where we have a short window in the summertime to make our hopefully livelihood.

Changing of the tides

The couple knows that House of the Potter Inc.s closure saddens much of the community; they know that the store, like the potter who made it famous, is deeply missed.

Its the changing of the tides, Stewart-Johnson said. At the same time, for my family and knowing whats best for my mom, its also really good … Its OK to change your course and choose your new journey.

Laura Cobb Stewart, who always envisioned herself working with children in the school district, is now employed as a teaching assistant at Seaside Heights Elementary School.

The stars aligned … and its perfect. It was meant to be, Stewart-Johnson said of her mothers new calling. Its a huge change for all of us, but the potterys still carrying on.

Stewart-Johnson and her husband now live on the Otter Woods Studio grounds, where Johnson got his start. By spring, they hope to have the Chris Johnson Pottery online store ready to take orders.

And at Found, his work sits on the very display that he used at House of the Potter Inc.

I make my living one day at a time, said Johnson, who throws anywhere from 500 to 800 pieces in a given week. You come in, bang it out, do good work.