Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: flowers, hybrid mugs, mugs, soda-fired, vases

Celebrating another Mugshot Monday with a splash of color! As someone who does not drink coffee or tea, I don’t use many mugs. Ironically, the mug is my all-time favorite thing to make… and I make a LOT of them! So for those non-caffeine drinkers… mugs make great vases too!

Categories: glaze, mugs, stamped

Fresh from the kiln… for another Mugshot Monday! For tonight’s final night of the session for my Intermediate Wheel class, our “white elephant trading stealing exchanging game” was a set of four matching mugs! Of course I had to play along… and I made two sets! Giving myself options to pick out my favorite set of four… with a few “extras” to choose from.

And wait… what is that? A new glaze color??? Yes!!! The very first pieces out of the kiln in the new chambray blue color. I’m not quite sure yet. I like the green so much better… but the blue might grow on me?!

You tell me… Do we like it or not???

Categories: mugs, production, stamped

So here they are for now… lots of new mugs with some of them “destined” to be part of our class trading & exchanging game for the final night of my Intermediate Wheel class. Still gotta lot to do… drying, bisque firing, glazing & firing again… with the deadline quickly approaching… giddy-up!

Categories: mugs, process, production

Pulling handles… getting ready to turn my “stamped cylinders” into stamped MUGS!!! Yes, I’m a firm believer that a “mug” must have a handle. If not, it’s just a cup!

Categories: mugs, process, production, stamped

Today I stamped the cylinders that are going to become my “matching” mugs for class. I decided to turn them into two different sets… with two different “sets” of thrown cylinders that were closer to matching than the others. And then I stamped each “set” with a different stamp. Hoping that as I trim them & add handles, they will continue to get even more matchy-matchy!!!

Categories: challenge, mugs, wheelthrowing

Making mugs again… but this time they’re part of the class challenge I gave my Intermediate Wheel students. They’re all working on sets of four MATCHING MUGS for our final class of the session! So I’ve got to step it up and make mine too! As I told them, I would never “stress out” over making just four that match perfectly… measuring, refining, stressing. Instead I’m making a lot of cylinders that are very similar, and then I’ll pick out the closest “matching” ones later!

Categories: mugs, summer camp

HAPPY MUGSHOT MONDAY… celebrating with this sweet little Summer Camper mug!!! Sure, a little rough around the edges, but it shows promise… and they were only 9-years old!!!

Categories: mugs, textures, tools

Quick THANKS to the folks at MKM Pottery Tools for the shout-out on their social media platforms! Fun to be featured for the “hybrid mugs” I’ve been making… using their textured handrollers for the patterns! Be sure to check them out. And what a great reminder… I’ve got to make MORE of these “hybrid mugs”!!!

Categories: handbuilding, mugs, summer camp

Summer Camp with a younger group : 8-10 year olds… wheelthrowing on Monday & Tuesday, trimming & handles on Wednesday, handbilding (sp) on Thursday… and then slip painting on Friday! This group was a lot of fun… especially on Thursday when we tackled textured mugs. They threw their own slabs by hand with no rolling pins or slab rollers! Then they pressed in a texture & constructed their own mugs all by themselves! Amazing work!

Categories: art fair, mugs, soda-fired, stamped

This just in… and perfect for another MUGSHOT MONDAY!

“Gary, Just bought my mug in Glenview yesterday and today I shared some tea with my giraffe collection. I love my new mug. Thanks for making it!” – Marcia