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

This past Tuesday in my Beginning Wheel class, we tackled making “bowls on purpose, instead of cylinders gone bad.” So I showed them the basics of how to get a nice smooth curve inside their bowls. And then while they practiced, I made “a few” more! Just one bag of clay… getting ready for Part Two of the night’s “not-so-basic-bowl” demo!!!

Categories: classes, mugs

Last night in class, my Beginning Wheel students tackled trimming & pulling handles… making their first MUGS of the new session! Not too shabby for their second class, right???!

Categories: classes, food

Tonight in pottery class…
does this mean summer is officially over?! I kinda think so…

Categories: classes, pumpkins

Last night in my Intermediate Wheel pottery class, we started a new session and I had no planned demo for the first night. So I left it open for a fun “demo-on-demand” night… and they asked for PUMPKINS!!! Easy for me… I’ve made “a few”!! But we did have to speed it along a bit to “pumpkintize” them in class when the thrown spheres were wetter than I usually do. It worked… but they’re a bit frumpier, glumpier & I’m kinda diggin’ it!!! We might be onto something here?!

Categories: bowls, classes, glaze

Last night in my Beginning Wheel class, we did another “trading-exchanging-stealing game” to celebrate our last class of the session… with a category of “Not-So-Basic Bowls.” After several rounds, I came away with this cutie by Allison. Underglaze dots… and a beautiful crazy-crazed clear glaze! Lillstreet has been reformulating some of their glazes… and I think this was made with one of the test batches!

Categories: classes, mugs

It was a REAL Mugshot Monday in my Intermediate Wheel class this week. It was our final class of the session, and we ended with a great “trading-exchanging-stealing-white elephant” kind of game! With a category of four MATCHING MUGS!!! Almost everyone played along… even one student who didn’t quite get them glazed in time! And that is the set I got in the trade… with a promise from Kathy that she will glaze them for me soon!!! But she likes glazing almost as much as I do… NOT!!!

Christine’s Mugs

Darcy’s Mugs

Stephanie’s Mugs

Abena’s Mugs … which also STACK!!!

Maryana’s Mugs

D’s Mugs

Kathy’s UNGLAZED Mugs

And MY stamped mugs… and a brand new reveal “chambray blue” glaze!

Categories: classes, clay, summer camp

I came into my summer camp room to find that some adult student from last night left us a little “present” in the splash pan of one of the wheels! And yet somehow the kids always get blamed for leaving a mess? They don’t even use that kind of clay!!!

Plus, I have confidence… and I would easily bank on my summer campers cleaning better than most!!! They’re great when it comes to clean-up. I just wish everyone followed Gary’s Summer Camp Rule #3… “Whatever mess you make, you WILL be cleaning up!” Adults included…

Categories: classes, wheelthrowing

Last night with my Beginning Wheel class, we did some glazing… as well as a demo on how to throw taller & get evenly thin walls. I did my demo & explained how to do it… but there’s really only one way to really see how well you did. So I cut it in half!!!

Categories: classes

So apparently… & inadvertently… one of my class demos tonight was to show my Intermediate Wheel students how to throw on a plastic bat with only ONE corner actually on the bat pin!!! Wait, what?!!!

Yes, I put the bat down on the chamois bat-grabber & proceeded to throw a well-centered little cylinder. Only after throwing did one of my students realize that only one corner was affixed on a bat pin!!! It was OFF the entire time! HA!!!

Yeah, great demo, huh???

Categories: bowls, classes, surface decoration

So this week was “bowls on purpose, instead of cylinders gone bad” demonstration night for my Tuesday night Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing class. So we started by discussing what makes a good bowl… a nicely rounded interior, no beginner’s ledge, intentional rim, and all of the other things to watch out for!

So then I did a throwing demo for my students, and showed them how to make a nice bowl INTENTIONALLY, instead of a cylinder gone bad! After the demo session, my students all went back to their wheels to start practicing & making bowls of their own.

Meanwhile, I threw a bunch of bowls so that we could “play” with them later in class!!!

After my class had some time to throw their bowls, and I finished with mine…
we re-grouped at my demo wheel so that I could show them a few quick tricks & techniques to make their bowls “not-so-basic.” My feeling is pretty much that the wheel kinda makes a round bowl for you… but it’s up to each person to make it their own!!! So I just wanted to add a few “possibilities” to their arsenal of tricks to play with. So here they are…

Bowl #1 – Four fluted edges… and a nice spiral.

Bowl #2 – and if four fluted edges are good, maybe EIGHT are even better?!

Bowl #3 – A flared out flange… bent out over the edge to create a “wider” rim.

Bowl #4 – And if a one-inch flared flange is nice, maybe a larger one is even better?

Bowl #5 – Then I combined the flared flange with some fluted accents.

Bowl #6 – A split-rim pinched back together in eight places!

Bowl #7 – Another split-rim pressed-in on two sides. There’s “a very good chance” that there might be a handle up & over from pinched part to pinched part to make it a “basket” bowl.

Bowl #8 – Another split rim – pressed in on four sides to create a kind of quatrefoil effect.

Bowl #9 – Another split rim pressed in at four points, and pressed out at four points! Kind of a lotus pattern.

So after doing a bunch of altered rims, I introduced them to colored slip. And how they can use some “thick” slip to add some details & textures to their bowls.

Bowl #10 – A layer of thick white slip with a spiral dragged through from the center up & out.

Bowl #11 – Another layer of thick white slip with banded drag-throughs… and a good chance that there “might be” some carving to be done through the thicker bands.

Bowl #12 – Thick white slip with some finger painting… just some squiggles from my index finger.

Bowl #13 – Thick white slip with some fun chattered texture & patterns… rhythmic tapping with a rubber rib… up & down, round & round, from center to rim.

Bowl #14 – An ombre’ blend of white slip to black slip… and again, a “good chance” there might be some carving coming soon!

Bowl #15 – And ombre’ blend of thick white & black slips… and a finger squiggled through.

Bowl #16 – Thick black & white ombre’ blend– and then chattered through the slip.

And for now they’re all “resting” safely in my studio under a bunch of plastic. Like I said, there might still some additional work don on these to make them EVEN MORE “not-so-basic”!!! Maybe a little stamping, carving & detailing… possibly?… allegedly?…