Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: bowls, pottery, special events

Apparently today Crain’s Chicago Business listed Lillstreet’s “Empty Bowls” event
as one of the “Top 10 Things To Do This Weekend in Chicago.” And some of my
stamped & soda-fired bowls were used as the “poster child” for their posting as well!!!
Lucky me… yet even luckier if they would have mentioned my name!!! Oh, so close…

Click here for Crain’s Chicago Business “Top Ten” List for this weekend!

And for those of you who don’t feel like clicking on the link above,
here’s a picture of the bowls that made a “surprise guest appearance” today!!!
Not quite famous (yet)… but I’ll take any publicity I can get.

4 Comments

Susan Mast

March 2nd, 2013

Hi Gary:
Wow – I just found your blog and I’m gobsmacked 🙂

I absolutely love the stamp work that you are doing and tomorrow I’m rushing out to the guild to make my own stamps. OK, maybe just one or two to try. I’ve been throwing on the wheel for about a year now and am looking for something just a little different from your plain round bowl.

And yes, people do read your blog!
Thank you for sharing.

March 2nd, 2013

SUSAN – Thank you so much for reading my blog & for checking in. I hope you have fun making stamps tomorrow! Be sure to go back further in my blog for some step-by-step tips on stamp making. And be sure to bisque them before using… sounds obvious, but I just wanted to make sure you knew! And I especially wanted to thank you for using the word GOBSMACKED !!!

Abigail

August 30th, 2013

So here is my question. Beautiful bowls, by the way. Great reduction oranges. And is that salt/soda I see on those rims? One question is about the glaze recipe for those lovely blue/purple bowls. I have a combo that includes a shaner oribe glaze that gets those great colors, but the amount of copper in the glaze makes it a bit un-foodsafe and have been unable to find a good combo without the copper. What do you use (process, or glaze), if you don’t mind me asking?

September 1st, 2013

ABIGAIL – Yes, you are correct… that is soda flashing on the rims of these bowls. I fire a lot of my work in a cone 10 soda reduction kiln. The red/blue/purple bowls are made with a glaze we have at Lillstreet Art Center. It’s called Cohen’s Copper Red. It’s a little unreliable, but at least the copper level is not too high to make it un-food safe. If the glaze is well reduced, it turns a nice shade of red. If the glaze is slightly oxidized it turns a pale blue to clear celadon. If the glaze is applied thickly, it tends to go purple. So it’s quite random… and my fingers are always crossed whenever I use it.

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