Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: bowls, food, holiday

Melts in your mouth, not in your hands! And one of my favorite holidays…
celebrating NATIONAL M&Ms DAY!!!

Categories: Chicago, sunrise

Does it get any better than this???

Categories: Chicago, sunrise

Bigger skyshows need bigger pictures!!!

Categories: bike, sunrise

This morning started out nice… changed to good… then great… then AMAZING!!!
The colors, the clouds… all sweeping across the sky!!! It was tough to pedal & appreciate the sunrise at the same time. So I didn’t… I stopped, relaxed & marveled in the glorious sunrise!

And let me just be so bold…
and say that I think this might be my favorite sunrise of the entire year!!!
Yep, top THIS Mother Nature!!! Bring it on!!!

Categories: family, The Ghouls Collection

So here’s my sister Jen’s GHOULS COLLECTION. She might have one of the largest collections out there… although she is missing a couple. Can anyone spot the missing Ghouls??? It’s a shame they’re all Limited Editions!!!

And more importantly… does ANYONE out there have all of them???
If so, send me a photo of them on display!!! – gary@firewhenreadypottery.com

Categories: bowls, surface decoration

So the bowls that I made with my class this week have been “living under plastic” in my studio… and I finally got around to doing a little sumthin’-sumthin’ with them. Sure, I coulda left them as they were with their simple altered rims… but you know I’m a MORE IS MORE kinda guy! So I added a little more…

Categories: bowls, classes

Just a quick flashback… to last week’s demo fr my Beginning Wheelthrowing class. Where we worked on making “bowls on purpose and not cylinders gone bad”. Towards the end of class, we spent some time altering some of the bowls & adding some surface decoration. So this is where we left them last week… ready for just a bit MORE!!!

Categories: bowls, food

Kristy’s version of a Sundae-Sunday! Sure most of us would think ice cream… but Kristy went with yogurt & some toppings with great colors & textures! Food always tastes better in handmade pottery… thanks for sharing Kristy!

Categories: bike, friends, sunrise

Yesterday was full of clouds & crashing waves. Today… not so much. Just clear skies with a gentle breeze along the lakefront. Nothing too surprising…. just another beautiful sunrise!

The surprising part was when I was out on the Montrose “hook” shooting my photos, when a guy rode past on his bike. He looked familiar, but I had no clue. It wasn’t until he rode back the other way… stopped… got off his bike… and walked over. Turns it was my friend Rebecca’s husband Ryan… who I haven’t seen for a couple years! So strange running into a friend way out there on the lake at that time of the morning… with basically no one else out there?! Turns out Ryan has started biking more in the mornings after being “inspired” by my own sunrise biking addiction! So good to see you Ryan… keep on pedaling!!!

Categories: artists, bowls, hybrid mugs, mugs

At the end of the workshop, AL and I did a little pottery trade!!! I came home with a great lidded bowl. Where the rim is hollow & perforated so it doesn’t get hot… and a lid that flips over to become a bowl. Again, with hollow & perforated knob so it too does not get hot!!! AL went home with two of my hybrid mugs… not so matchy-matchy… but clearly close enough that they just couldn’t be separated from each other!