Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: food

As if a normal package wasn’t enough fun… now it’s a PARTY!!!
Looks like we had 33% more fun last night in class. WHOO-HOO!!!

But who are we kidding… didn’t we all really want the cookies to actually be “party sized”
and HUGE like the one on the front of the package??? Who’s with me???

Categories: bowls, classes, production

If you recall the bowl demo from last week… you may remember one of the bowl & rim alterations when we did a split rim, pinched it together and then pulled it out to an oval. Just a refresher… there was an audible gasp when I pulled the edges out making it UN-round!!! Heaven forbid that I make a round bowl UN-round on purpose!!!

But the plan was to make it into a basket…. which I think makes it make a lot more sense!
Maybe my students will re-gasp when they see the basket version of the UN-round bowl?!

Categories: clay, process, studio

My latest batch of goopey reclaim clay has finally settled up after about a week on the plaster bat. So today I pounded it up a bit with just a smidge of wedging. Full wedging will take place when I’m actually ready to use the clay. Until then it will be bagged up for storage. Storage of FREE CLAY that is!!!

But it seems to never fail, that as soon as I finish up with one batch of reclaimed clay…
it’s already time to start the next batch! So here are some dried scraps ready to go.

And I pulverize them as fine as possible with a rolling pin before putting them into my reclaim bin. Once the clay is in the bin, I add enough water to cover the clay scraps. I let it sit for a few weeks with some occasional stirring & mixing up. Eventually the clay slakes down, the water evaporates and I’m ready to pull out the reconstituted clay onto my large plaster bat… and another cycle begins…

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Categories: stamped, vases

What started as a class demo on how to throw clay a “bit taller” has now turned into a vase. A little stamping and some color slip detailing… soon enough ready for my next soda-firing!

Categories: classes, lillstreet

So we’re almost halfway into The Great Lillstreet Throwdown!
We’ve been working hard & playing harder… with great challenges, fun races and a little friendly “trash-talking” along the way. Every class has been a lot of fun. Laughter. Screaming. Giggling. Causing a bit of a ruckus around the studio every Thursday night. Each challenge has been awarded points and we’re working our way to an eventual WINNER!!!

So here’s the game…
PICK THE WINNER
of The Great Lillstreet Throwdown!!!
Who will win the challenges? Who will garner the most points?

Purely superficial fun based on their photos below… like a good Reality TV show…
just like how we choose our players in the Survivor Pool, right?
Making these crazy assumptions & predictions based on a gut feeling.

So here we go… my own cast of reality characters for your perusal… and voting.
Please add your guess in the Comments section!
And then as the class continues we can start showing you some Winners along the way!

Actual names have been altered for fun & confusion. Ha!!!

AW : ANNA WHEELIEbelow on the left
CW : CLAYTINA WATERGIRL below on the right… she’s really NOT a bucket…

CE : CLAY EAGERMAN below on the left
DJ :  DEBBIE JIGGER below on the right

IM : IZZY MUDMAKERbelow on the left
JB :  JOE BOWL-A below on the right

KB : KELLY BISQUEbelow on the left
PB :  PEGGY BURNISH-SHINE below on the right

PN : POTTERY NURTERER below on the left
RB :  RICHY BENTONITE below on the right

RJ : RY-RY JOSHBLUEbelow on the left
SG :  SUSIE GREENWARE below on the right

SL : SALLY LUSTERbelow on the left
TCW :  TAY-TAY CLAY-WEDGER below on the right

So again, here’s the game…
PICK THE WINNER of The Great Lillstreet Throwdown!!!
Just place your “votes” in the Comments section… and we’ll see how good your intuition was in a few more weeks when we “crown” the winner of the Great Lillstreet Throwdown!!!

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Categories: clay, pottery, process, production, wheelthrowing

Wedged balls of clay…

So much potential in each one. Especially when starting up studio production again.
I’ve been looking at my calendar trying to schedule art fairs, summer camps, bike rides, races and more!!! And a slight wave of panic washed over me… so it’s back in the studio! Full steam ahead!!!

Categories: food

This week in class we also enjoyed the newest OREO treats! Sure, they made “Thins” so they would have fewer calories. Sure, they made them “Mini’s” for a smaller treat. But then they counteract all of that good by dipping them in FUDGE!!! Yes, please! Do it again… and again… and again!!!

Categories: classes

Going further with our handbuilding after the coils…
We also did a slab making challenge this Thursday in our Lillstreet Throwdown class.
They did so goo don the coil challenge with one pound of clay… so now we were going to see who could make the biggest slab out of their 5-pound ball of clay! For this challenge I gave them three minutes with the opportunity to stop earlier if they thought they were done. Pull it too far and you risk ripping, tearing and crumpling all over the place!

Some kept their slabs contained in a nice rectangle shape, whereas others were doing a pre-emptive strike by folding over the edges to straighten & reinforce them.

Others were a bit timid… not willing to really slap it down with a vengeance!

And some were so enthusiastic… everyone was cheering them on…

Okay, so not all of the slabs were pretty… maybe we should have stopped a little sooner?

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Categories: classes, lillstreet

Also this Thursday night, during our Throwdown Challenge class, we did a quick flip to handbuilding. Now most of my students are wheelthrowers… and NOT handbuilders! So the FLIP was on them!!! So I told them to wedge up two balls of clay… one one-pound ball, and another five pound ball.

So their first challenge was to take the one pound ball of clay to the table when it was their turn. And I gave them each five minutes to roll the longest coil that they could by hand. No tools except their hands. They could use the entire five minutes, or stop sooner if they thought they were done. Because if their coil were to break at any point in the coil rolling, their challenge was done – no re-attaching!!! And we would measure the longest remainder of their coil. Points were awarded for the longest coil.

Love the grimace… a little tough at the start… but it smoothed out later on…

What precipitated this handbuilding challenge was a discussion last week on how none of them really knew how to roll a coil… which flabbergasted me! I thought it was such a basic skill, but they were quick to point out that I have never taught it to them. To which I retorted that it was a wheelthrowing class, and not a handbuilding class. So I gave them a quick tutorial last week as an option for making handles. I even showed them how to resolve a bad coil… you know, one that is a bit rectangular and goes thump, thump, thump when you roll it. Just take the coil and twist it like a corkscrew (as seen below right) and then roll the coil again to smooth it all out.

We were all impressed when one of our few “Porcelain Players” decided to take on the challenge with porcelain. And then proceeded to impress the heck out of us with one of the longest coils of the night!!!

Of course, at the end of the challenge, a couple of my students threw down the gauntlet and challenged me to do the same challenge… rolling the longest coil possible out of one pound of clay! So I did…

And it was going pretty well… until I got a little “greedy” with just a few seconds left…
and a piece of it broke off and didn’t count in my final measurement. All in all,
still a respectable showing in the Coil Rolling Challenge!!!

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Categories: classes, creativity, lillstreet, mugs, seasons

So it’s another week of The Great Lillstreet Throwdown!
And another challenge… turning their four matching mugs into The Four Seasons!

So my students brought their “greenware finished” sets of mugs to class.
They set them out for all to see… and for our special Guest Judge Sam Hostert to come in
and award them points for their efforts. Thanks to Jon for some of these beautiful photos!

It was so much fun to see how everyone approached the challenge. How to depict the Four Seasons on four mugs???… illustrative? narrative? literal? figurative? symbolically?… so many options. And only four mugs!!!

So here are the sets of mugs… in no particular order…

The Four Seasons depicted with a tree through the seasons… and a special surprise on the bottom of each mug.

A seasonally-appropriate bug on the bottom of each mug!!!

Abstract brushwork showing the color palette of the seasons… winter, spring, summer & fall.

Straight forward and quite literally… spelling it out clearly for all to see…

The phases of a lant through the season… carved & inlaid illustrations in black with color-coded interiors to help show the season. Didn’t quite make first place… but “not-so-secretly” this one was my favorite set!!!

High-contrast black & white… porcelain & black slip depicting the sunlight cycle throughout the year… shown in the amount of white “sun” in relation to the black “night”. As an added bonus… a brief explanation carved on the bottom of each mug.

The seasons as seen on a mountain top… and something to do with a “mountain meditation” too.

Sponge-painted underglazes to show the change of colors for the change of seasons.

Another tree changing through the season… snow, flowers, leaves & fall foliage.

An erudite entry… the Four Seasons as seen through alchemical symbols.

Graphic contrast in black & white symbolizing day & night through the year…
and a brilliant surprise on the bottom of each cup.

Graphic symbolism for the moon & sun attached to the sides of this set.

No one specified “which” four seasons were to represented…
so this set went more for the activities of the seasons!

And unfortunately, this entry didn’t quite work. There was a last minute attempt at applying a cut-out stencil on the side, them paingint the darker slip color over the stencil -a nd then pulling it out. Apparently in the rush to make the deadline, the stencils didn’t quite get pulled out cleanly… something stuck… something didn’t… and in the last moment she decided to paint them over and call it done. Valiant effort.

So for now, the mugs are done. They can go off to the bisque firing and then get glazed. No more challenges for these mugs… but I did ask my students to bring them back to class when they’re finished just so we can see them!

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