STUDIO

All of my work is ceramic: thrown, hand-built, or slip-cast porcelain and stoneware; all high-fired in a Phoenix fast-fire style wood kiln.

  • My husband and I refurbished my father-in-law’s old shop into a ceramic studio. In the first half of the 20thcentury, the building was storage for the N.C. Company in downtown Fort Yukon. It has been through one fire, two floods, and several make-overs.

  • In 2007 we added a small gallery to the front of the building.

  • In 2015 we replaced the roof and doubled the square footage with a second addition.

  • As Fort Yukon is in rural Alaska, unconnected to any road system, I import dry clay, equipment, and other materials via barge from Tacoma, WA every summer.

KILN

I fire to cone 10 (2345 degrees F) in a Phoenix fast-fire wood kiln.  I built this kiln partly for aesthetic reasons - for the surface a wood kiln can yield, but primarily for practical reasons.  Aside from wood, all other fuels with which I could fire--electricity, diesel, or propane - are prohibitively expensive in Fort Yukon--8 miles above the Arctic Circle and unconnected to any road system.

I started with an entirely soft brick kiln, but in 2015 re-built the kiln, lining the chamber with hard-brick so that I can soda fire. In 2018 I modified it again, changing the chamber arch curve.

  • We had to tug the kiln inland because of erosion at the bank of the Yukon.

  • Rebuilding the chimney after the move.

  • Re-building from the floor up with hard brick.

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Fort Yukon