Well, the trip with Mao and Marinal was very interesting. The village we went to is located not far from Chiang Mai Town. When we first entered the village i was greeted by the sight of a large modern shiny looking gas kiln. I wondered if we had just entered another industrialized village or if we indeed would find any remnants of a more traditional life. We went a ways into the village on what appeared to be the main road and stopped at a house Mao felt she remembered from the last time she was here over six years ago.

There sitting cross legged and hand throwing pots on a wheel constructed from long steel spike stuck in the ground upon which is place a bamboo or PVC pipe with a small wooden wheel head attached at the top. The wheel head pipe configuration is removable and when the piece is finished the entire wheel head is removed and placed on spikes situated around the throwing area. She spins the wheel with one hand and throws with the other frequently using handmade throwing sticks to shape from the inside. The rib she was using to smooth the outer wall was a half a playing card.

Her daily production run is ten pieces a day, making the body one day and the spouts the next. She looked like she could be in her 80's and has been doing this since she was a young girl. She is the last in her family to make pottery in this traditional way. Others in the village are also moving to more industrialized methods. Soon no one will be left to make in the traditional way. She fires her pots in a small square up draft kiln located at her sons house across the road. No high temperatures are reached leaving the vessels porous. The porosity of the vessel helps to encourage evaporation and thus keeps the water inside cool.

She had no information about the tradition of her work -- no stories to tell. She doesn't use motif in her decoration and so has no background in that area. The shapes she makes are just shapes that have always been made and there are no cultural reasons for the forms they take as far as she knows. We stayed and talked a little but i could tell i was not going to get any more information out of her and that she was tiring of us rapidly. I took some photos of her working and of the kiln. On the way out i also took a quick photo of the spirit house located in the front of her house. I think i might be able to find some connection with the spirit houses found here and those found in Bali.