Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: pottery, process, stamps

Over the years, I have made hundreds of stamps.
Each of them making a different impression.

I make my stamps out of a little piece of clay, rolled into a coil, then carved with a design on both ends. The stamps are then bisque fired before using. With hundreds of stamps in my studio, it always surprises me how a handful of them have become the favorites that I always reach for.

To make the textured surface of my pots, I typically take one of the stamps and press it into the leather-hard clay to make the impression one… by one… by one. Sometimes well over a hundred impressions on a single vase! Each one pressed in by hand. It is this repetition, and the textural pattern it creates, that intrigues me.

3 Comments

Daina Taylor

July 25th, 2010

I like your blog so much. I am into texturing my pots. Your blog helps me a lot.

July 25th, 2010

Thanks for checking in Daina. As you can tell, I like textures too! Who wants a smooth pot anyways?!!!

Rosita Pino

May 28th, 2013

My name is Rosita. I am from Chile in Latin America, and searching for some tips for my pottery making I found this page with all this information on texturing and making pots. Thanks for such a beautiful work and help sharing all your knowledge. Let me tell you that now I am much more willing to continue working in pottery. Thanks again and congratulations for such a beautiful work. Regards from far away. Rosita.

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