Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: art fair, artists, collaborations

Gallery Opening tomorrow!!! Hard to believe it’s finally here!

“4×4″ : FOUR MAKERS” is this weekend. Three show days in Space 900 Gallery in Evanston. Not only will each of the four artists be displaying their own individual work… but we’ll also have a special group collaboration project on display. We’ve all worked on our own interpretation of “blue” inside the beautiful wooden frames handmade by Meghann. Sixteen frames of blue. I can’t wait to see them all together this weekend!

Categories: art fair, artists, collaborations

Mark your calendars… “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” is next weekend! Hard to believe we’re already at the end of the month?! Sarah, Darlys, Meghann & I would love to see you stop by Space 900 Gallery next weekend. I know we’re all still “frantically” working on our collaboration projects, let alone pulling together everything else we need to put on a great gallery show. Fingers crossed…

Friday, February 28 – Saturday, March 1 – Sunday, March 2
Space 900 Gallery – 816 Dempster, Evanston, Illinois

Categories: art fair, collaborations, color, stamped, textures

Coming together in a collaboration project very soon!

Categories: art fair, artists, collaborations, craftsmanship

Looks like Darlys Ewoldt is working hard on her “4×4” collaboration projects too! Darlys is known more for large-scale metal sculptures with beautiful colors & patinas. So it will be interesting to see her size-down her work to fit inside the shadowboxes. I love seeing these collaboration projects all coming together for our “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” pop-up show!!!

Check out more of Darlys’ sculptural work… www.darlysewoldt.com/

Categories: art fair, artists, collaborations

Okay, so the blue painter’s tape might not be part of Sarah’s project… HA!… because now she’s moved onto larger metal pieces! Just a preview glimpse at what Sarah Chapman is working on for our “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” collaboration project. In her own words… she’s WORKING BIG!”

Check out more of Sarah’s work on her beautiful website… www.chapmanmetals.com

Categories: art fair, artists, collaborations

Looks like metalsmith Sarah Chapman is first to dive into her shadowboxes! Known more for making fantastic, wearable jewelry, it will be fun to see Sarah work on a bit larger scale to “fill” the frame. Looks like she’s off to a good start… with a great hint as to the collaboration theme we’re all working with!!! HA!!!

Be sure to check out Sarah’s amazing work – www.chapmanmetals.com

Categories: art fair, artists, collaborations, craftsmanship

Inside the “care-package” were shadowbox picture frames for our upcoming “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” pop-up show in a little over a week! These beautiful frames were HANDMADE by one of our four artists… Meghann Sottile! Such beautiful design & craftsmanship… with some crazy-cool corner joinery going on! So now each of the four artists needs to put something equally cool inside… worthy of these beautiful frames… that goes along with our thematic collaboration project. “4×4″… four artists, four frames each… sixteen in the collaboration!

Coming soon to Space 900 Gallery in Evanston – 816 Dempster, Evanston, Illinois
Friday, February 28. Saturday, March 1. Sunday, March 2

Categories: collaborations, food

Just a quick sandwich before teaching class tonight. And you know I love a good “holiday.” So I’m celebrating NATIONAL FLUFFERNUTTER DAY!!! A whimsical sandwich on a whimsical plate made by my pottery pal Cory McCrory! My favorite “collaborator” unknowingly collaborating on my tasty celebration!!!

Categories: collaborations, food

Just when you thought they couldn’t top themselves…
the crazy folks at OREO’s have done it!!!

A crazy cross-collaboration with Coca-Cola! Yep, this week we tried the Coca-Cola flavored OREOs in my pottery classes!!! Much better than I expected… with two-color cookies… so “on-brand”… and just a little dash of carbonation!!! No, seriously…

We also had a can of OREO-flavored Coca-Cola! I didn’t try it… since I swore off caffeinated sodas over 30 years ago as a New Years Resolution! Don’t want to break it now… and trust me, no one needs to see me all hopped up on caffeine! I’m a bit too much already!!! Ha!!!

Categories: art fair, artists, collaborations, flower pots, glaze, terra cotta

Looks like Cory McCrory is in the final stages here… with some clear glaze in all the right places! Yes, that mint green color is actually a low-fire CLEAR glaze! So it will make all of Cory’s underglaze colors a lot more vibrant. And it will make the terra cotta areas darker & shinier than the “raw” terra cotta areas. Can’t believe ART IN THE GARDEN is this weekend already… but it is good to know that these are already in the final kiln firing. So I think Cory has timed it perfect… although they might just be “a little warm” when they come out of the kiln just in time for this weekend’s art fair!