“I spread out a tarp in the backyard and collected the ash,” she said.

As an avid potter, she was always experimenting with glazes. “I knew you could make glaze from wood ash; why not volcanic ash?”

Her first attempt turned out so well, she decided that what she’d gathered from her backyard wouldn’t be enough. “The ash that fell here was a perfect mesh. The ash in Coeur d’Alene was too fine and the ash in Tri-Cities was too coarse.”

She didn’t have to go far to find more. “We went to a grocery store on Garland and asked if we could have some of their ash. They said sure and we collected six garbage cans full.”

Now, Johnson, 83, is down to her last garbage can of ash. But her Mount St. Helens ash-glazed, hand-thrown porcelain can be found in homes throughout the world. Read more. Cindy Hval, SR