
After my sgraffito demo Thursday morning, I also did a quick stamping demo for them as well. One stamped impression at a time… one after another… all the way around!



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

After my sgraffito demo Thursday morning, I also did a quick stamping demo for them as well. One stamped impression at a time… one after another… all the way around!




In my Advanced Wheel class on Thursday, I did a little sgraffito demo for them on the demo platter I had thrown the week before. It’s a little different as I’m used to white clay with a dark slip… whereas this one is a dark clay with a light slip. I used a colored flashing slip, so “the plan” is that this will go into a soda kiln at some point… just to see what happens. I’m not sure the carving is done yet… but this is as far as I got during the class demo with my DiamondCore Carving Tools. I’ll do a bit more carving & cleaning up before I let it start drying.













And here’s the vase I threw last night as part of my marbled clay class demo… now trimmed & skinned to reveal the marbling better. Enamored by the three color combo, the layers & ripples. We decided in class that maybe this one should be soda-fired with no glaze on the outside just to see how the soda effects alter or enhance the marbled surface! That’s the plan!



As part of me “demo-on-demand” teaching philosophy… we also tackled a quick demo in stamp making tonight in class. I’ll try to get them bisqued quickly so my students can start using them next week in class!


After doing my “simple” demo version of marbled clay… one of my students Kelly decided to tackle it with a bit more precision. Cutting, layering, sticking together & making her own version of a Rubik’s Cube!!! I can’t wait to see what she makes with this amazing colored cube next week in class!









Tonight in my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class, we played with some marbled colored clays. We used a light B-clay, a brown clay, and a special “celadon” green clay I made by wedging some Mason stain into it earlier in the week.


A bit of layering, just a little bit of wedging and I got some nice marbled effects in my two demo pieces. When they dry to leather-hard, I’ll trim them and “shave off” the outer skin to reveal even more of the marbled effect.


Last night in my wheel class, Katie one of my Advanced Beginners continued her exploration marbled clay. She started with standard colors like marbling ochre stoneware with lighter B-clay. She loved the finished results… and now has stepped up her game with stained porcelain!!! Looking great… even though there’s still a little bit of cleaning up to do!




Last night in my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class, one of my students wanted to do a bit of sgraffito carving… some creepy & scraggly trees just in time for Halloween! So what better way than to let her borrow my assortment of DiamondCore Tools to get her carving groove on!!!




Huh?… who knew that I would “match” my bowl so well today?! A couple colored slips from last week’s class demo… and an ice-dyed shirt from quarantine… finally get to meet!


Another bisque kiln was unloaded this morning… and it had the sixteen “not-so-basic-bowls” from last week’s class demo in it. So here they are… including the basket I added a handle to. So now it looks like I’ve got a bit of glazing to do?!!!
Ugh. My least favorite part.


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Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
Lillstreet Studios ∙ 4401 North Ravenswood, Chicago, Illinois 60640 ∙ 773-307-8664 gary@firewhenreadypottery.com |