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

A pretty little purple platter fresh out of last night’s kiln… before & after. It’s amazing what a little kiln magic can do to some powdered glaze chemicals!!!

Categories: glaze, holiday, kiln firing, process, production

Glazed, loaded & ready to go! Just need to shut the lid, cross my fingers & turn the kiln on! A big batch of glazed Christmas Trees coming soon for this weekend’s Second Holiday Home Show!!!

Categories: glaze, holiday, process, production

Glazing is going well… just a few more trees to glaze before loading the kiln tonight! If everything goes well, these will all be out of the kiln & ready for this weekend’s MUD & METAL SHOW… My Second Holiday Home Show!

Categories: glaze, process, production

With my second Holiday Home Show coming quickly this weekend… I’m pretty sure I can squeeze in one more glaze kiln before then! Got some bottoms to wax… and then some glazing to do!!! Quick…

Categories: art fair, glaze, platters, pottery, stamped

Fresh from the kiln… one beautiful purple platter for this weekend’ HOLIDAY HOME SHOW! Full stamped with a beautiful aubergine purple glaze. There’s only one… and it might go fast?! No dibs… just first come, first served!!! Good luck…

Categories: bowls, glaze, surface decoration

My carved green bowl fresh out of the kiln…
just in time for this weekend’s HOLIDAY HOME SHOW!!!

Categories: glaze, kiln firing, process, production

A great combination… an empty soda kiln & my studio cart FULL of glazed & wadded pots. Late Friday night I loaded the kiln with a LOT of pots to be soda-fired on Saturday. My rolling cart has to travel from my second floor studio down to the first floor kiln room… on a very rickety freight elevator. So I always add some “seat belt” straps of masking tape to help keep pots in their place on the trip down!

Categories: glaze, mugs, process, production

So now the stamps have their inlaid glazed… and a liner glaze too! The outside stays basically unglazed as the soda-firing process will finish & “glaze” the outsides for me! Now to start wadding all of them…

Categories: glaze, mugs, process, production

Filling all of my stamped impressions with a dark tenmoku glaze. And then wiping away the top surface leaving glaze only in the indentations. Sure, it’s a lot of work, but he darker inlaid glaze always seems to make my stamped patterns “pop” more!

Categories: glaze, mugs, process, production, stamped

Lots of mugs… looks like I’ve got a LOT of glazing to get done tonight!!! ugh… definitely not my favorite part of the process!