Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: bike, nature, special events

It was a beautiful day in Chicago today… and I just “had to” go out & play again!
So I hopped on my bike and rode down to Promontory Point and back along the lake.
While pedaling… I passed another mileage milestone! 1,000 miles so far this summer!
Note the hidden decimal point… otherwise, that’s a LOT of miles!!!

Luckily, when I stopped to capture the moment… I was at a beautiful garden known as
The Chicago Fire Department Fallen Firefighter and Paramedic Memorial Park.
Right along the lake, kind of hidden behind McCormick Place. Wonderful colors, textures
& patterns ablaze within the bright flowers! Quite beautiful. Quite fragrant.

Categories: nature

While folding laundry, I just looked out my living room window
and found two baby mourning doves sitting outside on the window ledge.
I hope that their fledgling flying skills are good enough to get them off the ledge safely?!

Categories: nature

My front porch doesn’t get a lot of sun… so the plant options are limited.
Not surprisingly, I went more for texture & color than flowers! And to give it
a little height, a little animation and a little whimsy… I made squiggly plant stakes!
Very simple… I just cut “ribbons” of slab, corkscrew twisted them, then curved them
again in loose curly-ques! I then soda-fired them for that natural finish. I love how
they give fit right in… and I can’t wait to see what happens over the summer
as the coleus grows taller, the potato vine grows longer, and the spikes become
even more “incorporated” into my front porch garden.

Categories: nature, rusty

Another cold & rainy day here in Chicago. At least the plants like it.
As does the rusty metal installation on my back porch! Last year I received these rusty
metal pieces of farm equipment from Rosene & Gerry, my very first art fair friends!
They’ve know of my “rust addiction” and have fed into it many times. So I took these
rusty gear-wheels and hung them on my back porch almost like a curtain. Along with
some blown glass orbs for color. This summer, I’m trying something new…
not only did I start seedlings early on which are now planted in flower pots, but I’m
also trying to get the Cardinal Climber Vines to grow up into the rust!!! So far so good…

Categories: nature, textures
Categories: inspiration, nature

So beautiful. And the aroma even more intoxicating…

Categories: bike, nature, seasons

My afternoon bike ride with Chris was wonderful once again.
The weather was great and riding even better. Spring has sprung… and I was happy
to be able to get out of the studio and go play outside. It’s always more fun to play!

With an early start to our biking season, it’s been fun watching the woods surrounding
the bike path evolve from dead, brown Winter woods to the vibrant, Spring green forest
it is quickly becoming. It’s like seeing the seasons change right before your eyes!
With flowers & textures everywhere you look!

We also continued our weekly, favorite riding game of “deer hunting.”
As we pedal the 35-mile route, we keep an eye out for deer along the way.
And today was our highest count ever… 53 deer!

Categories: nature, textures
Categories: nature

I’ve pedaled the Chicago River North Branch Trails hundreds of times.
But I think since we’ve started earlier in the season than usual, and we’re seeing
things we typically don’t see along the way. This afternoon we noticed these…

It may be hard to see, but there are well over 500 of these cement cylinders
sticking out of the ground? Not sure why? They’re very definitely placed…
all the same height, all in nice lines – a large “pasture” with hundreds of crazy cement pugs?!

Anyone have an idea of what these may be?! I’d love to hear your suggestions…

Categories: bike, nature, textures

To celebrate my taxes… Chris and I rode up to the Botanic Garden this afternoon…
where we like to turn around, refill the water bottles, chat, stretch, relax, etc.
And this time as we rode in, we were “greeted” by these really cool flower spikes.
Apparently, the Canary Islands have all the cool plants?!!!

I love the texture, the pattern, the swirling spiral, the spikes, the whole thing!
And the best part?… they will grow to be well over 8-feet tall! But apparently they take
two years of growing before they get to show off their intended, summer-long beauty.
Where else would you expect these stunners other than the Botanic Garden?

Who knew???… the come in purple too!
Not quite as tall, not quite as stunning, but still quite beautiful.

On the way back, the sun was setting… and the deer were out in abundance.
We like to call it “deer hunting” – basically just keeping an eye out for the deer
as we are pedaling past… hoping that none of them dash out in front of us.
Tonight we saw well over 30 deer along the bike trail… not bad for Chicago, huh?