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

Look who made another visit to my Tuesday night pottery class!!! Student “Nick the Vet” brought this little cutie back into class… and when the puppy pops out, all pottery kinda stops! I mean, how can my pottery demos compete with this little nugget??? Three weeks in a row… and you can tell he’s growing fast!!! Sadly, rumor has it we “may not” see him next week as Nick will be out-of-town!

Categories: animals, classes

So look who came to join us again for another week of my Tuesday night Beginning Wheel class! Yep… our little “abandoned-puppy-friend” was back for another week with our student & vet Nick who is caring for this little 5-week old cutie!

Also, my fellow teacher Chelsea had been having a tough week…
so he also supplied some much-needed PUPPY THERAPY!

Categories: animals, classes

We had a surprise guest in my beginning pottery class Tuesday night! Nick came into class with a black duffel bag asking where he could stash it somewhere quite & clean. We put it under the wedging table… only after finding out that there was a four-week old puppy inside!!! My student Nick is a veterinarian and was at the vet clinic when someone found this cutie abandoned on the side of the road and brought him in. We all loved it… and told Nick that we now expect a different puppy in class each week!!! HA!!!

Categories: animals, sculpture

Another beautiful blue sky day… perfect for pedaling along the lakefront. Getting the miles in & finding new sculptures along the way. I’ve seen the “darker” one several times on the north side during my sunrise rides… but never quite stopped to check it out. And who knew there was a “companion piece” down on the south side too?!


Crazy cool compilations of cast metal animals – stacked, bound, tethered and otherwise defying gravity. Take a moment to try and figure out which animals are in each!!! Both sculptures are by artist Nancy Rubins… thanks for sharing your work on the lakefront!

Categories: animals, artists, sculpture

A few years ago, I went to Colfax with friends to meet sculptor Robert Cumpston at his home & tour his workshop. That was when I was “introduced” to his work… basically building life-sized animals out of rusty farm machinery parts & pieces… and you know how I LOVE rusty metal. \

While I now have quite a Cumpston collection at home, I thought I would pedal through “downtown” Colfax (one street, maybe a dozen buildings?) to see more of his work as I had heard that after his passing, a few of his pieces were donated to the town of Colfax to honor one of their most talented residents. I was hoping for more… as I only found a giraffe and a greyhound!

Categories: animals, bowls, soda-fired, stamped

And sometimes the bird seed just becomes a BUFFET?!!!

Categories: animals, bowls

Sometimes even the birds need some fun pottery to eat out of…
stamped, soda-fired & seeded…

Categories: animals

So have you seen the new breed of Zebras they just got at the Zoo???…
I wonder if this is how Lions visualize the Zebras?!

Categories: animals, mugs, soda-fired, stamped

Looks like another mug has found a comfy home… with a comfy cat!

From Darlene… “Ooo-eee! I love this mug! Thank you Lauren for your kind gift and Thank You Fire When Ready Pottery for making such a great mug! Love the shape, the color, the imprint… ❤❤”

From Lauren… “Cat not included with purchase 😂”

Categories: animals

So great to have a little visitor to my porch as the snow was coming down today! I usually get pigeons, doves & sparrows… but today I saw this little Downy Woodpecker having a bite of lunch at the suet feeder on my front porch!