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

So then THIS happened!!!
I was in the middle of a ZOOM chat with my sister & niece Taylor. They were waiting forever in line waiting for carry-out food while brainstorming for Taylor’s homework assignment. I was doing some trimming and then moved on to adding a pedestal to the bottom. I had even turned the camera around so that they could watch. A little pottery demo for them while they waited!

So I had explained trimming, scored & slipped & added a lump of clay to the bottom and was throwing a pedestal foot on the bottom. We even talked about my Giffin Grip and how well it held everything in place. We were chatting. Talking… and I couldn’t find my small red rib to smooth it out?! So I stood up to reach across my table to grab a new rib from the tool wall. You can see it coming, right?…

Well, the wheel was still spinning. I stood up. My shorts got caught on the wet & sticky freshly-thrown pedestal, stuck on and spun around a few times… effectively yanking the whole piece right out of the Giffin Grip… hurling it to the floor!!! With Jen & Taylor still on the ZOOM!!! ugh.

Luckily, the piece is part of a commission and I had made an extra one!!! But I didn’t feel quite safe “giving up” on the extra one so soon in the process… so I threw another one just in case. Just gotta stamp it, trim it, add a pedestal… and hope that the original lid might possibly still fit?!!! Fingers crossed… and another great ZOOM story!!! Eventually I’ll figure it out…

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