Jill Warila

Cloud Cap Pottery

Member of Made in THE GORGE Artists' Cooperative

108 Oak Street

Hood River, Oregon 97031

"I don't consider a piece finished until it's in someone else's hands and has become a pleasent addition to their daily life."

-- Jill Warila, Potter

Jill's studio is a busy space where she works on quiet forms with glazes and a firing method that produces warm, earthy hues. She often creates work in a series of like forms, producing functional pots that favor everyday use. Working with high-fire stoneware and porcelains allow her to use the firing processes of wood or gas/soda to achieve the warm earth tones and enhanced green hues that are prevalent in her work.

The majority of Jill's work is done on a potter's wheel. Her altered vases and bakers are made with a combination of wheel thrown and slab work. Food, drink, and flower related pots are 99% of what she makes.

Jill's firing schedule is a busy one. In addition to firing her 40-cubic-foot hard brick soda kiln once or twice a month, she also fires a large anagama (hill climbing) kiln with a group of potters in Hockinson, Washington. She seldom glazes more than the interior of the pot and lets flame and ash caress the clay and lay where it will to create the designs. After 70 hours of firing with only wood as fuel, the results can be spectacular...or destined for the shard pile! Not only are the surviving pots beautiful but the community of potters spending a week together, 24/7--eating, sleeping, and stoking the fire--can be a very soulful experience.

Cloud Cap Pottery is located in the Upper Hood River Valley town of Mt. Hood.

Jill's work can also be seen at The Columbia Art Gallery; Mt. Hood Country Store in Mt. Hood, Oregon; and Bloomsbury in Stevenson, Washington.