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

This platter turned out pretty special… I’m loving this green color & how it works so well with the stamped textures & spiral grooves. There’s only one… and it will be available at the Schaumburg Prairie Arts Festival tomorrow. Who knows… it might go fast?!!!

Categories: glaze, platters, process, stamped

What a difference a kiln firing can make!!!

Categories: bowls, glaze, process, production

All lined up… ready for a quick layer of wax resist on the footrings… then some quick glazing before teaching class tonight. I’d love to get them in the kiln soon… as this coming weekend is the Schaumburg Prairie Arts Festival!!! And I’d really like to have some of these berry bowls ready for this weekend!!! Fingers crossed…

Categories: glaze, kiln firing, mugs, textures

Another TEXTURE TUESDAY with some fun textures & glaze pooling effects on these soda-fired “hybrid” mugs! I’m always enamored with this glaze effect when it comes out of the soda kiln… and the glaze highlights & breaks in all the right places!

Categories: glaze, mugs, process, production, stamped

A little early morning glazing! Flower pots now with a liner glaze & inlaid glaze in the stamps… both with my favorite tenmoku.

Next up for these?… wadding!!!

Categories: glaze, mugs, process, production

This batch of stamped mugs now has inlaid glaze in all the stamped impressions.

Next up?… tenmoku liner glazing! I like to work in an “assembly line” kind of process.
Finish one step, then move onto the next.

Categories: glaze, mugs, process, production

Glaze on… glaze off. Busy putting tenmoku glaze into the stamped impressions on my mugs. I like how the dark inlaid glaze really makes the stamped textures show up so much better!

Categories: glaze

Just a couple more fun glaze combos from Chelsea… on a couple of my class demo pieces from several sessions ago! Like I said, I don’t like glazing. So some of my class demo pots tend to “pile-up” on my teacher shelf after bisque firing. So when Chelsea said she wanted to glaze a few things… I was there and ready to volunteer a few pieces! And if these cool color combos continue… I’m willing to offer up even more!!!

Categories: bowls, glaze

Another beautiful glaze combination done by my fellow Lillstreet teacher Chelsea! I made the bowl, but she made it sing! Several layers, some dipped, some painted, some splattered… all with a plan to optimize the drippy blends, yet to avoid running off the bottom onto a kiln shelf. Another unexpected success!

Categories: bowls, glaze

My favorite kind of collaboration… where I make the bowls and someone else glazes them for me!!! Yes, as I have said before many times… glazing is my least favorite part of the whole pottery process! So here’s one of my “class demo bowls” that Chelsea glazed as a demo for her class. Lots of glazes, lots of layers, lots of colors. Stunning glaze combos Chelsea!!!