Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: kiln firing, pottery, process, production, stamped, vases

Plenty of bisque piling up waiting to be glazed & wadded. First-up… inlaying a tenmoku glaze into the stamped impressions for high tener contrast after the soda-firing. Here we go… giddy-up!

Categories: kiln firing, process, production
Categories: flowers, lillstreet

Early morning forsythia fun at Lillstreet… Spring is here & it’s time to start glazing!!!

Categories: kiln firing, process, production

Loaded a bisque kiln getting ready for next weekend’s soda kiln firing. Lots of mugs. Lots of flower pots. Lots of vases. This kiln filled up a LOT faster than I expected. Looking forward to unloading so I can start glazing & wadding. I’ve got a lot of work to get done before I’m scheduled to load the soda kiln on Friday.

Kiln Layer #1 –

Kiln Layer #2 –

Kiln Layer #3 –

Kiln Layer #3-1/2 –

Categories: lillstreet, mosaic

Well, the Spring session of classes begin today at Lillstreet Art Center. Always fun to start a new session full of new ideas, new demos & so many possibilities. Tonight I’ll meet my Intermediate Wheel students… to find out how I can challenge them & how they will challenge me! And as they come to class tonight, they’ll also pass this wonderful “mandala” installation on the exterior of Lillstreet. Look closely… a little flashback… and you might just find one of my pieces immortalized in the bricolage mandala!

Categories: flowers, mugs

Looks like Leigh is doing a little Monday-caffeinating on another MUGSHOT MONDAY. Kicking off her day with some Spring flowers along with a stamped & soda-fired mug by you know who!

Categories: bike, sunrise

A cloudy start to the day… with one large cloud moving in from the north. I was hoping we might squeeze in a sunrise moment, but the cloud took over too soon! And it looks like the clouds may have won for the rest of the day?!

Categories: process, production, stamped

Okay, so my lidded oval casseroles now have some accents & details painted with colored flashing slips. I’m hoping to get these done & glazed in time for next weekend’s soda firing. Sure, I’m running a bit late… and trying to dry them quicker by raising them on a plastic grid to get air circulation on all sides… but I seem to work best under pressure. Fingers crossed.

Categories: process, production, stamped

Okay, so today I finally got around to making lids… oval lids for oval casseroles! Sure, the bottoms have been under plastic for awhile… spraying here, spraying there. I think they’re fitting pretty well… just a little more refinement before I add some colored slip accents.

Categories: pottery, soda-fired

Another entry for Spoon-Rest Sunday!!! Another Lisa sharing her soda-fired blue spoon rest. I love seeing all of the spoon-rest-luvin’ today!!! Plus, I’m also impressed on how clean everyone’s stoves are?! I mean, I know the spoon rests are dishwasher-safe… but I must admit MY stove isn’t usually this clean! HA!!