Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: pottery, process, production, stamps, studio

Back in the studio… making oval vases again.
First thrown as a bottomless cylinder, then squished into an oval, then
the floor is added… and then ready to be stamped! It’s ovals… before & after!

gary-jackson-ovals-plain2

gary-jackson-ovals-stamped

2 Comments

Rob Lorenz

March 2nd, 2009

The vases look great! What kind of stamps do you use and how soft is the clay when you stamp? I have had some problems with stamping things in the past.

Gary

March 2nd, 2009

Glad you like the stamped vases! I make my own stamps by carving the patterns on both ends of a coil of clay. The stamps are then bisque fired so they are still porous – and therefore release from the wet clay better. I stamp most of my pieces during the wetter-side of leather-hard. If the clay is too wet, the stamps will get wet and stick. If the clay is too dry, you can’t press in far enough to get good clean impressions. I hope this helps… good luck with your stamping adventures!

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