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

Just a little more stamping going on! This class demo platter has been under wraps for awhile… sprayed it a couple times… and finally did a little stamping & texturing. It’s always amazing to me to see what just ONE stamp can do to plain platter!!!

Categories: classes, glaze, pottery, stamped

Last night I helped one of my students load her very FIRST KILN!

Christine has been testing every underglaze & clear glaze in class… and has been wanting to test the commercial celadons in cone six. So she saved some of her stamped work from class, spray-glazed them up with commercial glazes… and soon enough we should have some beautiful pots to show off! Can’t wait to see your results Christine!!!

Categories: platters, stamped, textures

Another pretty green platter fresh out of the kiln. A beautiful green glaze that highlights the stamped patterns & textures, as well as the concentric circles in the center… an ever-so-slight diversion from my typical spiral-addiction!!!

Categories: flowers, garden, patterns, pottery, soda-fired, textures, vases

So I’ve been trying to grow some of my own bittersweet over the past few years. First on a trellis in my back yard…. err, cement courtyard in a large pot. A few years later I moved it to my front yard garden to grow up a street lamp. I’ve always gotten pretty good leaves… but this year was the first time I’ve ever found the flowers & berries on my plant! Very exciting… as it’s completely growing up & taking over the lamp post!!!

Categories: bike, sunrise

Another colorful bike ride along the lakefront this morning.
Low-flying clouds splashed with morning colors.

Categories: friends, mugs

Looks like Christmas came early for these two… with Kristy & Matt spreading a little pottery love & Christmas magic with their friends! While at the same time showing off their own ever-growing pottery collection on those cool floating shelves in the background of their kitchen!

Categories: bowls, color, stamped, textures

You gotta love it when the sun comes streaming through your window catching a Christmas crystal and making mini-rainbows appear in all the right places!

Categories: creativity, food, television

So funny… watching a cake decorating contest show on The Food Network… and they just used a Brent Potter’s Wheel as the turntable for a piece of their cake showpiece! Brilliant… apparently not just for clay any more!

Categories: television

Well, last night was the big finale of SURVIVOR 41…
so much fun & congrats to the Big Winner… no spoilers here!

And now it appears as though I can try to do a “tribal merge” of my love for SURVIVOR with my never-ending quest for the perfect Ugly Christmas Sweater!!!

Categories: friends, holiday, ornaments

The latest addition to my handmade Christmas ornament collection! An adorable little polar bear lovingly crocheted by my friend & Holiday Elf Rachel.