Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: artists, friends, gallery, mugs

The first stop on our afternoon adventure was a trip to Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. Much like Lillstreet, they’ve got a gallery of ceramics, classrooms, artist studios and a lot of fun for everyone. Sarah, Pam and I were excited to get our shopping on!

Inside, we got our shopping on. Not only were there a lot of great ceramic artists represented in their retail sales area, bit there was also a great show in their Main Gallery. It was a collaboration show where one artist made the pieces, and then had other artists do the glazing in their own styles. Very cool. Makes me think that I need to some more collaboration projects in the near future. After the Gallery show, we toured the studios and the classroom facilities. It was Pam’s first time to Northern Clay Center so she was excited to see it all.

Anyway, we ended back in the retail space and we started getting down to business. After looking at all of the pottery, the sales associate told us we could open all of the cabinets and “shop” from there too. And then he said there were still some pots left from the American Pottery Festival in the back room… so we shopped in there too! So much fun! So many pots!!!

After looking at all of the pots, I had to start narrowing it down. I finally landed on three different mugs that caught my attention. The latest additions to my ever-expanding “Mug Collection.” The first one was made by Kenyon Hansen… who seems to be the latest “golden child” of the pottery world. He’s been all over Ceramics Monthly and creating quite a stir with his wonderful forms, surface treatments and glazed textures.

My second choice was a stunningly refined cup by Kyla Toomey. I’m been coveting these for about a year now every time I see them in the Lillstreet Gallery. This time, I found this sweet one glazed in a very light green celadon glaze. I love how these are created, cut, popped and refined… I’m not quite sure how she makes them. But I;m very glad that she does!!!

This last one is actually the first one that caught my attention! At first glaze it’s just a pretty normal, functional mug by Birdie Boone. Nice shape. Nice glaze. Nothing too extravagant. But then when you touch it… watch out!!! The bottom of the mug is rounded off with no foot ring… so it rocks! Literally!!! It rocks back & forth… and I fell in love instantly!

Please take a second to check out their work on their websites. Simply click on their names above the photos, or go to the “Links” section and click on their names there. You’ll go right to their websites to see more of their incredible work!

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