Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: platters, surface decoration, textures, tools

After last week’s demo on “thick slip” with my SURFACE DECORATION class, I’ve continued working on this platter in my studio. Now that it’s leatherhard, I decided to start carving a texture all around the flange of the platter. So much nicer with my favorite DiamondCore Tools carving tool. Crisp, clean edges every time!

Categories: glaze, platters, stamped, textures

Another large stamped platter fresh from the kiln. Loving how this glaze pools & puddles in all the right places… totally accentuating all of the stamped textures along the way!

Categories: platters, process, stamped, stamps, textures

A cold & rainy Sunday perfect for some repetitive stamping. Decorating another platter with one handmade stamp pressed in one by one… by one… by one…

Categories: classes, platters

This week was our final Intermediate Wheelthrowing class… so we celebrated with a “trading-stealing-white-elephant” kinda game. Category being two dinner plates! We had a lot of fun trading plates… some came in as matching sets & others in singles. Including one matching set that came with an added BONUS… two matching mini’s!!!

Categories: platters, stamped, stamps

Just a little “quick stamping” in my studio before heading downstairs to teach again tonight!!!

Categories: classes, platters, wheelthrowing

We’re nearing the end of the Winter Session at Lillstreet, and I love when it all starts to “click” with my beginners, the proverbial “light bulb” goes off… and they start making some really great pots with intention. Like last night when Nick made this great platter… his biggest piece EVER!!!

Categories: food, holiday, platters

You know how I love a good holiday… well, today was NATIONAL OREO COOKIE DAY!!! What better way to celebrate a Thursday???… well, that and playing with my Lillstreet Throwdown students in class… followed by a late night watching THE TRAITORS finale!!! So sad it’s over… but always better with OREO’s!!!

Categories: food, platters

Yummy start to the day… a fresh bakery scone on a Cory McCrory plate!!!
So bright, so fun, so Sunday!!!

Categories: food, holiday, platters, stamped

You know how I love a good holiday… and today is NATIONAL PIZZA DAY!!!
And I woulda been remiss if I didn’t celebrate with a couple slices!!!

Categories: classes, platters, surface decoration

So the “real” challenge this week for my LILLSTREET THROWDOWNers was to throw the largest platter they could with 6-pounds of clay… and then decorate it to “match” or coordinate with their perfect dinner plate! We were looking for well-thrown plates & platters, as well as well-applied surface decoration that pulls them both together. Yep, they didn’t see that one coming! And yet they all did FANTASTIC… quite impressive!