Part of our Day Two excursion took us to The Rogue Potters.
You’ve got to love a group of fun-loving potters who are tacking onto the “official” Pottery Tour. With a few signs on the side of the road, they’re pulling a few pottery-loving shoppers into their stop… including me!!!

We started out at the studio of Robert Briscoe. Always our first destination. So many great artists all in one location. It’s also the furthest north… and then we work our way down from there. There are seven studio locations on the St. Croix River Valley Pottery Tour… showing 51 artists along the way. It’s a wonderful day of pottery fun with friends, artists & pots!!!

So many great potters… so much great pottery… which only makes me dream…
“Wouldn’t it be GREAT to be one of the invited guest artists of the Minnesota Pottery Tour?”
Of all the locations, Bob Briscoe’s would be my dream location to join the group!!!
The array of work there is wonderful. Closest to my style and yet completely different.
Plus the artists there are all so nice… I would love to “play” with them for a full weekend!
Some day… dare to dream… maybe we need to start a grassroots, write-in campaign???

Bob Briscoe pots… so many everywhere… so many that I would love to take home with me!

Fun to see so many pots… and so many people admiring them. Like this pair admiring the work of Suze Lindsay. It’s a great weekend for potters everywhere… promoting the “culture” of handmade wares by ceramic artists from around the country.

And a welcome “surprise” from Matt Metz with a slight change in his signature style… dark clay with a quick slip-dip before his trademark sgraffito technique.

One of my favorites at the first stop… ceramic banana salt & pepper shakers
by Kent McLaughlin!!!

So many pots… so many textures… so many great ceramic artists in such close proximity.

Fun to get a glimpse behind the tent of my friend & potter Steven Hill… and his box of overstock mugs!!! Especially good to see that there are so many “holes” in the box from those that have already sold!!!

Throughout the day, it was so nice to see so many of the vase hosting beautiful flowers – fulfilling the “destiny” of the vase and its ultimate purpose!

One of the most “shocking & amusing” sights during Day One of the Pottery Tour?… discuss.

Stop #2 on the Minnesota Pottery Tour.
Already did some damage $$$ with Bob Briscoe & Matt Metz.
Now we’re moving on to Steven Young Lee… one of my former teachers!!!

I’m headed up to Minnesota for a fun weekend with friends, family and a LOT of pottery!!! It’s the annual St. Croix River Valley Pottery Tour. Seven studio locations with 51 incredible potters… with TONS of pots for me to see, fondle, covet and possibly add to my collection?! This could be dangerous $$$ ?!

It’s been a crazy busy week… glazing, wadding, loading, firing, cooling, Dover, flying home yesterday… and teaching class last night!!! Tonight I’ll be scraping shelves, cleaning the kiln & sweeping up. Here’s a couple quick shots of my recent soda kiln. More photos & stories to come… but right now, I’ve got to get my act together before I head out on the road!!!

Time to make more oval casseroles!!! So I started by throwing the side walls on the wheel. I let them sit-up so that they’re not squishy & sticky.

Once they get to a good “wet” leatherhardness, I carefully wire them off the bats, and curve them into the oval shapes I like. Then I go around and stamp the patterns… one stamp at a time!!! Then I wrapped them up and let them stiffen up even more.

When I came back the next day, I made some nice slabs of clay and attached them to the thrown oval sides. A lot of scoring & slipping, a little paddling to make a tight connection, and a lot of good smoothing & blending to make it appear as though it was all one piece.

I also added handles and then set them aside… trying to keep them out of my way. It’s getting more than a little crowded in my studio these days!. “Real estate” and shelving are getting very important.

Once I had them all constructed & handled, I did a little bit of slip decorating before I set them off to dry. I’m always concerned with warping as these larger, handbuilt pieces start to dry. So I’ve placed them on elevated plastic grids with a sheet of paper on between. My thought is that the paper will help draw the moisture out, and the elevated grid will allow air circulation around all sides of the pots.

Once these are dry, they’re going to go into the bisque kiln.
Okay, who am I fooling… I need these to be dry FAST so they can get into Wednesday night’s kiln loading. Let’s hope they dry quick… and flat… and crack-free!!!

I just posted my SECOND pottery video on YouTube!!! Whoo-hoo!!!
And let me just say for the record, this one went a LOT faster in iMovie… and I remembered to shoot the footage in landscape mode so it fills the screen this time!

Click here for the YouTube video : Bowl Stamping by Gary Jackson.

Today I continued working on my latest batch of flower pots. I trimmed all of the bottoms on the flower pots… AND threw all of the drip plates to go with them! And again, by the time I finished throwing the last one, the first ones were ready for fluting, stamping & detailing. I love when a plan comes together.

If all goes well, I hope to finish up the flower pots by drilling drainage holes and then letting them dry. As for these drip plates, they all need to be trimmed with a good “deep” foot. When this batch is done, I’m hoping to make another batch… a little shorter & wider! Similar, yet different. Might be cute as a twosome of flower pots?!!!

I think it might have been the hint of Spring yesterday that “inspired” me to make flower pots. So I spent the day in the studio throwing tall flower pots. I decided to make them in two pieces, instead of the attached water drip plate version. Today I focused on the flower pots… the drip plates will be another day.

It was an extra productive day today… as I not only threw all of the pots, but I also had the time to stamped them all as well. It was great how quickly they were drying. When I finished throwing the last one, the first ones were getting stiff along the top edge – perfect for stamping. Talk about a pottery assemble line!!!

Twelve Tumblers. Made of Mud. Not that I had to explain…