7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2018
Kiln: Brings contingent of artists
from national clay working collective
Continued from Page 1A
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
From left, Don Bacon, owner of Atlantis Auto Glass, has populated his building on Marlin
Avenue with several businesses, including Gladys and Susana Deniz of Guadalajara
Combo; Ed Jones of Bike Envy; and Jeremy Gilhousen of Bohdan’s cafe.
Building: End game for Bohdan’s
is place where people can hang out
Continued from Page 1A
One of Bacon’s first ten-
ants was Ed Jones, a mechanic
who four years ago began Bike
Envy in a rear suite. Jones has
worked in Astoria and Portland
as a bicycle mechanic. Notic-
ing people lining up bikes
at his house in Astoria seek-
ing repair, Jones decided four
years ago to go into business
for himself. His shop focuses
first on repair, then bike sales,
parts and accessories. It has
relied primarily on online mar-
keting, building a reputation
among mountain bikers and
gearheads, he said.
Several years ago, Bacon
offered to build out a space for
Paige Simpson if she would
move her drive-thru coffee
shop, The Coffee Addiction,
indoors. Her father, Tracy
Simpson, later took over,
building out a growler fill sta-
tion and tap house. He recently
reopened the restaurant and
tap house in the former Jeffers
Garden Inn on U.S. Highway
101 Business, leaving Bacon
with a vacant space to fill.
Bacon offered again to
build out the space for a restau-
rateur — this time Jeremy Gil-
housen, who recently opened
Bohdan’s, named after his
Czech grandfather. Gilhousen
trends toward higher-end food
and drink, serving up Sleepy
Monk Coffee Roasters from
Cannon Beach, bagels from
Blue Scorcher Bakery & Cafe
and sausage in his sandwiches
and charcuterie from Gulley’s
Butcher Shop. After obtaining
a liquor license from the city of
Warrenton, Gilhousen plans to
offer Fort George Brewery on
tap, along with a selection of
other beers, wines and ciders.
The end game for Bohdan’s
is not a dinner spot or bar, but
a place where people can come
hang out in the afternoon or
after work for a beer, a glass
of wine and some light fare or
Mexican food, Gilhousen said.
Bacon, whose mother is
from Guadalajara, Mexico,
knew the owners of Tacos La
Providencia, a popular collec-
tion of food trucks in Tilla-
mook County. He reached out
to the family behind the com-
pany, who sent mother-daugh-
ter Susana and Gladys Deniz
north with a truck they are
naming Guadalajara Combo,
offering a collection of tacos,
burritos and other Mexican
staples.
“We’re trying to bring the
authentic flavor from there
to here,” Susana Deniz said
through her daughter, who acts
as translator while her mother
cooks.
The family was looking
for a change, Susana Deniz
said, and had a friend in Bacon
and a support network around
Building 1140 to help their
food truck.
“I guess we’re just trying
to provide the best option with
everything that we do,” Bacon
said of how he’s gathered the
businesses around his auto
glass shop.
Building 1140 will hold a
grand opening with the Asto-
ria-Warrenton Area Chamber
of Commerce at noon on Oct.
16.
Rushing flames and super-
heated ash from fires inside
the kiln, stoked continuously
for around 100 hours at up
to 2,300 degrees Fahren-
heit, mark and glaze the clay
pieces. Each firing requires
several cords of wood, stacked
in walls under cover around
the kiln.
Rowland
meticulously
arranged the pieces — from
pots, plates and eggs to whis-
tles, faces and the imprints of
clenched fists — from local
artists and the visiting Maori
beforehand to best catch the
updrafts of flame and avoid
damage by wood continuously
fed into the kiln from stoking
holes during the firing.
Rowland’s original kiln,
built in the early 1980s out
of brick salvaged from for-
mer Columbia River canner-
ies, has gone through an esti-
mated 100 to 150 firings. It
has long provided soup bowls
for fundraising feasts support-
ing The Harbor, a local advo-
cacy group for victims of sex-
ual and domestic violence, and
the Tillamook County Wom-
en’s Resource Center. Pieces
fired in the kiln have spread
around the world and through-
out the North Coast, most
notably throughout Columbia
Memorial Hospital in Astoria.
Consulting experts
But over the years, the
Astoria Dragon Kiln has
slowly deteriorated, losing its
ability to retain heat and drop-
ping bits of brick on pieces
being fired. Several years
ago, Rowland began plan-
ning his new, more technically
advanced anagama kiln, visit-
ing Japan, Korea and Australia
to consult experts in the style.
Big River Construction
excavated into the hillside
below his first kiln, creating
a 23-degree incline from the
entrance to the chimney uphill
for the best updraft of flames.
The new kiln lays on a cement
foundation complete with an
underground drainage system.
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The new anagama kiln includes portholes for viewing
and stoking the multiday fires.
The main chamber is lined
with alumina-infused bricks
specially designed to reflect
flames and hold up amid the
high-temperature firings. Sen-
sors allow Rowland to moni-
tor the temperature in different
parts of the chamber. A carbon
scrubber cleans emissions as
they flow from the chamber to
the chimney. Portholes along
the chamber allow the around-
the-clock shifts to view and
feed the fires.
Rowland has had a con-
tinuing exchange with Maori
clay artists from New Zea-
land over the past decade.
Several of the artists visited in
2015 as part of a Pacific Rim
art exhibit at the college. Two
of them, Manos Nathan and
Colleen Waata Urlich, helped
found Nga Kaihanga Uku,
the national Maori clay work-
ers collective in New Zealand.
Both died shortly after their
last visit to the North Coast.
Rowland had thought of
naming his new kiln the sec-
ond-generation Astoria Dragon
Kiln, but thought of his fellow
Polynesians across the Pacific.
The Maori brought a contin-
gent of nine artists, including
the other three surviving found-
ers of the collective — Paerau
Corneal, Baye Riddell and
Wi Taepa — for workshops
and cultural events through-
out October. They brought clay
pieces to fire in Rowland’s kiln,
along with remembrances of
Urlich and Nathan.
“It is quite significant for
us to be here to remember
Colleen and Manos,” Corneal
said.
Maori often take remem-
brances of the family of the
departed as a way to mourn
while also strengthening fam-
ily connections. As a Native
Hawaiian, Rowland is like
a Polynesian cousin to the
Maori, Riddell said.
Naming the kiln
Ahikaaroa refers to the tra-
ditional village fire kept burn-
ing at all times in precolonial
New Zealand, or Aotearoa in
Maori. It was also the name of
Nathan’s kiln in the Waipoua
Forest on the North Island of
New Zealand.
Over the next several days,
six-hour shifts will continu-
ously monitor and stoke the
kiln, slowly building the tem-
perature inside to more than
2,300 degrees. After holding
the maximum temperature for
a day, the kiln will be slowly
cooled until late next week,
when potters will get a chance
to view their pieces.
Carla Ruka, one of the vis-
iting Maori artists, said one of
the joys of firing in an anag-
ama kiln is the surprise of see-
ing how pieces turn out.
“There’s only a certain
degree of control you have
over the colors,” she said. “At
the end of the day, the fire’s
going to make the big choice
itself.”