About Us

Barb’s Cottage Artists

Barbara Trepagnier is the founder and driving force behind Barb’s Cottage. Her passion for creating beautiful porcelain objects of art is evident in her eye for color and attention to detail. Each of Barb’s creations has a look that is uniquely hers.

Barb“I’ve lived in Texas almost all my life, and raised four Texas daughters in Houston during the 1960s and ‘70s. After the girls left, I attended graduate school in Santa Barbara for six years. I now live in a small bungalow in the Historic District of San Marcos, Texas—the foothills of the Texas Hill Country – where I came to teach in the Sociology Department at Texas State University. I retired in 2011, and at that time began doing mosaics, and eventually ceramics.

My small bungalow is located on 1/3 acre, and since I love digging in the dirt, my gardens are the centerpiece of my home. In addition to gardening and working in the mosaic / ceramic studio, I also have four hens - Hattie, Winnie, Queenie & Prissy – who supply me, my friends and neighbors with plenty of eggs.

I am grateful that my friend and neighbor, Christy Ferrara, has joined me in this effort, as our work is now carried throughout the Texas Hill Country.”

Charmed by the art of ceramics when first introduced to it at the age of thirteen, Christy Ferrara has embraced wholeheartedly the opportunity to create at Barb’s Cottage.  Surrounded by the natural beauty of Central Texas, its rivers, and its people, she draws inspiration for her art from the colors and textures around her.

christy“I was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and I think my preference for blues and greens and browns originated from having spent so much of my childhood playing on the beaches of South Padre Island.  My parents were both very creative, my father as a photographer and painter and my mother as a jewelry artist.  They loved the outdoors and they instilled in me an appreciation for the beauty of nature and of art in all of its forms.

During my teen years, I enjoyed working with my mother to create ornate Southwest style planters shaped like adobe pueblos that we would sell at local bazaars and to galleries and shops in New Mexico.  When I was eighteen I moved to San Marcos to attend Southwest Texas State University where I pursued a degree in Early Childhood Education. I enjoyed painting during my free time and especially liked art classes while in college.   The natural beauty of Central Texas, especially it’s Cypress-shaded, pristine rivers captivated me and when I met and married my husband, we decided to stay here to raise our family.

Although I taught kindergarten for five years, I am currently enjoying raising three daughters and spending time on my creative endeavors.  Charmed by the art of ceramics when first introduced to it, I have embraced wholeheartedly the opportunity to create at Barb’s Cottage.”

WELCOME TO BARB’S COTTAGE! … from Hattie, Winnie, Queenie & Prissy

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Elegant Themes