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

We’re just one month away from my next art fair… and there’s a LOT of pottery to be made before then! I’ve got a whole soda kiln to fill in two weeks. Perfect timing to bring a lot of new pots to Glenview. Mark your calendars now!!!

Categories: bike, sunrise

Rippled reflections on another quiet morning along the lake. With a heavy layer of “clouds” along the horizon, the sunrise was delayed a bit… but well worth the wait!

Categories: surface decoration

Kinda forgot about these demo plates from our SURFACE DECORATION class?! Finally getting around to trimming these plates… with some thick slip chattering for surface decoration & texture!

Categories: flowers, nature

Sunshine yellow with early morning shadows.

Categories: Uncategorized

And speaking of “smoke”… looks like the smoke bush in my front garden is getting ready to bloom. Tons of tiny little flowers that fill out the bush with a very cool “smoky” illusion… hence the name.

Categories: sunrise

Today is the official first day of Summer! And we kicked it off with an uneventful sunrise. I couldn’t tell if it was just morning haze, marine layer fog or the smoke from the Canadian wildfires still? Either way, I was underwhelmed… but welcome to SUMMER!!!

Categories: process, production, stamped, surface decoration

Just adding a few accents of colored flashing slip to a quick batch of oval vases. They may look white now… but after a soda-firing, these slip accents should turn orange… my favorite color!!!

Categories: classes, food

We started a new session of my beginning wheelthrowing class tonight! New session, new students… new flavor… same “yellow towel situation”!!!

Categories: classes, platters, surface decoration

While the new class session starts this week, I found these pictures from last session… when one of my Intermediate Wheel students was working on decorating this large platter. Maya has been working on making a collection of large platters to install on her wall at home. They all have a “leaf motif”… like this one with fresh oak leaves pressed onto her platter, painted with thick white slip… and then the leaves removed to leave natural impressions & patterns. Beautifully done Maya!!!

Categories: clay, mugs, process, production, stamped

After playing outside all day, I just had to get into the studio tonight to get a bit of work done. So I’m tackling a new batch of mugs… shocker, I know… but this time I’m trying out a new clay body!!! Sure, I coulda done a test tile or something first. But that just not how I roll. I’m all in!!!

I typically use a lot of B-Clay… but the last time I bought clay from Continental Clay they suggested “B-Clay with Grog.” It threw beautifully, seems to be drying a bit faster… and I can’t wait to see how it reacts in the soda kiln!!!