Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: creativity, friends, inspiration, pottery, vases

Who knew that one little piece of pottery could draw out such creative wackiness?! Whether it’s a horn-holder on top of a watermelon?… or a kitten spittle-catcher?… or a zucchini bread holder???

Looks like he might be going a little “covid-quarantine-crazy”… but I LOVE It… and I can’t wait to see what he’ll do with larger pieces of pottery?!!! Bring it on Matthew!!!

Categories: family, flowers

My globe thistle is finally blooming… sure, maybe smaller than I had hoped for, and only TWO globe blooms. But this is my first season with them… thanks to my cousin Kimberley Sue who shared a cutting from her HUGE mother plant. So I know what to expected… in a few years!!!

Categories: bowls, classes, lillstreet

Another entry in the “post-pandemic-shutdown” glazing of Lillstreet Throwdown projects… Christine finally got her colorful bowls back with some mixed results! For many of her projects in my Throwdown class, Christine was experimenting with some colorful underglazes, and slips made with Mason Stains. A bold move without testing the results first. Well, we finally have some of her pieces back to compare before & after firing.

Some of the colors worked well, some of them not-so-much. Orange looks like the big winner… turquoise good… green fired darker than expected but still nice… as well as the purple which actually turned out to be more of a deep blue?! Pretty, but blue. And the yellow?… GONE!

Here’s her set of four matching bowls… with colorful flowers!

And her set of matching dessert bowls…

And her tie-dyed bowls with swirled slip… again, orange is the WINNER!

Categories: collaborations, porcelain, process, production, stamped

YEAH!!! The lids all fit… as you can now hear me exhale!

Throwing lidded jars in porcelain with lids that fit is not an easy task. A lot of caliper measuring & hoping for the best. My biggest piece of advice?… throw a lot of extra lids. Because inevitably a “few” of them are not going to fit the way you want them too!

Categories: art fair, artists, collaborations, soda-fired

Packing up some of my handmade beads to send off to Kristin & Lynda! They’re both going to work their “magic” by somehow incorporating them into their work. It’s always so much fun to see how these collaborations come together for ART IN THE GARDENI can’t wait to see what they do!!!

Categories: food, pottery

Now we’re talking… fudge-covered mint OREO’s in a perfectly coordinated “mint green” bowl. Thanks for the photo Rosene… although MINE never make to a bowl??? Straight from package to mouth! No need to “dirty” the pottery!!!

Categories: bike, Chicago, sunrise

We all knew that the incredible run of sunrises had to come to an end at some point… and well, today was apparently that day! Clouds, clouds, clouds! Waves, waves, waves!!! Beautiful in its own right… except when you see how much the waves were overflowing onto the bike trail. Not too safe… but very cool. And a little smidge of sunrise beauty towards the end as we got a shimmer of brightness streaming through the clouds!

Categories: bowls, food, friends

Looks like a yummy stick-to-your-ribs kinda country breakfast over in Pittsburgh with my friends “celebrating” Monochromatic Monday in some handmade ceramic bowls!!!

Categories: collaborations, porcelain, pottery, process, production, stamped

Part two of my production today… the bottom jars to go with the new lids!!! The jar bottoms are a little further ahead as I just finished stamping them! Just hope the lids fit?… always said with fingers crossed.

Categories: artists, classes, sgraffito, vases

Pre-pandemic we were just finishing up our Great Lillstreet Throwdown class… just a couple days later the world shutdown! So now, several months later, some of my students are just now getting around to glazing their pieces. These are two pieces by Jacob… a sgraffito carved bowl and his Volkswagon VW flower brick!!!

A far cry from Jacob’s penchant for dipping all of his pots in a plain lavender glaze like he did for the first couple years!