Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: mugs, process, production, stamped, stamps, textures

Getting back to basics… throwing cylinders…
making textured impressions one-by-one, stamp-by-stamp!
You know how I love making mugs… always a good place to start up again!

Mug 1

Mug 2

Mug 3

Mug 4

Mug 5

Mug 6

Mug 7

Mug 8

Mug 9

Mug 10

Mug 11

Mug 12

And for now they’re back under wraps drying a bit to leatherhard… at which point I’ll be able to trim the bottoms and then add handles! Back to making mugs again!

Categories: process, production, studio, tools

More trimming, more fun.
You know how I love trimming…
especially with my DiamondCore Tools & Giffin Grip!
Two of my favorite tools working well together to get the job done.
Spinning fast, gripping tight & trimming sharp!
Especially on these pieces still left over from last session… before the holidays!!!

Categories: classes, mugs, process, production

I’ve had these photos for awhile… but never to late for a little flashback to my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class last Fall when we focused on making mug handles for the night! I showed them how I pull my handles separately… starting with a little carrot-shaped nugget of clay. Smoothy & evenly pulled, then looped over on themselves so they can stiffen-up with a nice curved loop. So many people avoid making mugs because they HATE making handles… but it was my goal to get this group over that hurdle through simple repetition.

Categories: process, production, stamped, stamps, vases

Feels great to be getting back into “production mode”…
starting off with some smaller vases with some smaller stamps!
Gotta start somewhere, right???

Categories: process, production, studio

Just spending a little “quality time” with my diamond grinding disc from DiamondCore Tools !!! Cleaning off a few drippy soda-fired. bottoms. Notice the mug bottom before & after… plus a few more to come!

Just put the grinding bat on the wheel, wet the disc, wet the pot, press… spin… grind… CLEAN!!! Thank you DiamondCore Tools for making this ugly task so much easier & smoother!!!

Categories: kiln firing, process, production

After a couple hours of loading the kiln last night, it’s always great to get to the end & brick up the door. One by one, brick by brick. Hiding the pots… knowing that we won’t see them again until after the soda-firing process works its “magic”… fingers crossed.

Categories: glaze, process, production

It was pretty late last night when I finally finished glazing in my studio… lots of pots, lots of wadding! So I packed both sides of my studio cart and put some masking tape “seat belts” on it so none of the pots would jump off as I rolled everything downstairs on the rickety freight elevator!

Categories: kiln firing, process, production

As though I didn’t already have plenty still to glaze for tonight’s soda kiln loading… let’s just toss in a few MORE from this last minute bisque kiln full. More is more, right?!

Categories: glaze, process, production

Trying to stay productive… stamps are “filled” with tenmoku glaze… and just added a liner glaze too! Still needing a little clean-up around the rims… and then a lot of wadding for the soda kiln. I’m scheduled to load Friday night… and I still have a LOT of glazing to do. Eyes on the prize!!!

Categories: glaze, mugs, process, production, stamped

Doing a little glaze inlay into the stamped impressions on a bunch of mugs! I’m filling the stamps with a tenmoku glaze, and then wiping off the “top” surface so the glaze only stays in the texture impressions.