Category Archives: ceramics

Olla Hand Building Class Spring 2013!

Posted on January 13, 2013 by jkmcintyre

Yes! I will be teaching an olla hand-building class this spring at South Seattle Community College. The class will take place over two Saturdays; March 23 and March 30 from 10am-1pm. We will briefly go over the history and how-to … Continue reading →

Posted in ceramics, homemade, olla irrigation, spring, Sustainability, vegetable garden | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Olla lids finally come home!

Posted on April 30, 2010 by jkmcintyre

Clear, low-fire glaze over oxide stains and underglazes. Now the water in my ollas won’t evaporate. Not sure I’ll get this involved for my next ollas, but they sure are cute!





Continue reading →

Posted in ceramics, olla irrigation | 10 Comments

Hand building an olla

Posted on April 29, 2010 by jkmcintyre


Trying something new. I’m using low-fire clay bodies that mature at cone 04-1. RedArt Terra Cotta, RedArt with sand, and Terra Cotta (which has grog). I will fire them at our bisque temperature, cone 06 (~1000C), where I hope they will remain porous Continue reading →

Posted in ceramics, DIY, olla irrigation, vegetable garden | 4 Comments

Garden Ollas (O-Yahz)

Posted on April 18, 2010 by jkmcintyre


I first read about using ollas in the garden from the DeVraies family, full-time urban homesteaders in Sacramento. They also made a good video of olla installation here.

I was immediately intrigued. “It rains a lot in Seattle”, but what few people know is that it doesn’t rain much, sometimes at all, during summer Continue reading →

Posted in ceramics, olla irrigation | 3 Comments