Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
08.29.2013
mugs to be glazed 1
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2 Comments

Scott Marshall

 December 8th, 2013 10:57 pm

Gary – I notice 1 to 3 “dots” on the bottom rim of your mugs, what is their purpose?

Also, curious about the process you have developed to trim. It must be very efficient. Tools, centering, etc. Just point me to the link if you cover trimming methods somewhere on your blog.

Thanks! -SM
December 9th, 2013 12:19 am

SCOTT – Good catch on the small details. I mark the bottom of my pieces with small dots… and no one ever seems to notice them. Except for you! The issue stems from me using different clay bodies in my studio. And when they are bisque fired, they all kind of look the same. A whitish pink color. But with the dots on the foot, I can still tell which clay body it was made out of. It helps when I’m glazing, as well as where it will be located in the final soda kiln. No dot means it’s regular stoneware. One dot means that it is made from soda clay. Two dots means B-clay (two dots – B second letter). Three dots means Amy’s reclaim (three dots – A-M-Y). And five dots means stoneware with ochre (five dotes – O-C-H-R-E). So I hope that helps clear up the mystery. Thanks for checking… good eyes!!!

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