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

Just adding some last-minute slip accents to the latest batch of stamped vases. I’ve painted the top “smooth” area with a colored flashing slip… and then a tiny touch of slip in the center, raised area of each stamp. During the soda firing, the color of the flashing slip will become more apparent.

Categories: process, production, stamped, stamps, vases

Tonight I tackled my newest batch of vases. I threw them on Sunday and they’ve been wrapped up since then. Tonight I stamped them for some great surface decoration. Some with “banded” patterns on the shoulder of the vase. Others with a full texture all the way down to the bottom.

Vase #1 

Vase #2

Vase #3

Vase #4

Vase #5

Vase #6

Vase #7

Vase #8

So for now they’re stamped and wrapped.
Tomorrow I’ll do some trimming and adding of colored slip accents.

Categories: bowls, classes, process, production, stamped, stamps

Tonight I continued working some decorative “details” onto the bowls that I threw for my class Tuesday night. As a quick reminder, we started the class demo with a tutorial on how to make a nice bowl “on purpose” instead of a cylinder gone bad. I then threw fourteen more bowls and then had the students rejoin the demo for some quick altering & decorating tricks. What started out as 15 very basic round bowls quickly gets transformed into 15 unique bowls with just a few alterations.

So you know I sometimes have ‘trouble” deciding when something is done. You may have noticed that I have a slight tendency to continue embellishing well beyond the norm. With that said, I continued decorating tonight in my studio. The blog post prior to this will show you what the bowls looked like before this evening’s festivities!!! While this post shows you the bowls after stamping, as well as the stamp that did the “magic” impressions!

Bowl #1 –

Bowl #2 –

Bowl #3 –

Bowl #4 –

Bowl #5 –

Bowl #6 –

Bowl #7 –

Bowl #9 –

Bowl #10 –

Bowl #10 –

And now they’re “done”… at least for tonight. Under wraps…
hoping to trim them and do a bit of final detailing tomorrow night.

Categories: production, stamped, tiles

A quick batch of square textured tiles…
gotta dry them fast, keep them flat and try to get them into tonight’s bisque kiln.
Fingers crossed… and drying on plastic grid so they can get air exposure on both sides to minimize warping! And I’m hoping that I have “guessed” at my clay shrinkage rate correctly, as I’m shooting for 4-1/4″ squares when fired.

Categories: mugs, porcelain, production, stamped

Like pinstripes on a new hot rod, I’ve been adding some colorful flashing slip accents to the latest batch of mugs & yunomis. The colors will “hopefully’ be more vibrant & exciting after the soda firing… if all goes as planned.

And for now they’re done. Mugs made with B-Clay. Yunomis made with porcelain.
Both headed towards the soda kiln… after a trip through the bisque kiln first.

Categories: pottery, production, stamped

Tonight I stamped a few flower pots. Gotta make the water dishes tomorrow.
Sure, you could get one of those plain, old terra cotta pots from Home Depot… but why?!

Your plants would love SO MUCH BETTER in a little bit fancier flower pot.
I can guarantee it.

Flower Pot #1 –

Flower Pot #2 –

Flower Pot #3 –

Flower Pot #4 –

Flower Pot #5 –

Flower Pot #6 –

Flower Pot #7 –

Flower Pot #8 –

Flower Pot #9 –

Categories: mugs, production, stamped, stamps

Another night. Another batch.
Stamped and waiting to be trimmed & “handled.”

And some of the stamps that did the “magic”…

Categories: production, stamped, studio

Tonight I finally got around to finishing up some wall pocket vases.
Trimmed, stamped and accented with some colored slip.

Categories: production, stamped

It was a productive day in the studio today. A large batch of tumblers thrown & stamped. Some in soda clay, some with B-Clay. All waiting to be trimmed & painted with accents of colored slip.

Categories: mugs, production, stamped

Tonight I did a lot of stamping on a lot of cylinders that will become my latest batch of mugs. This batch was made with soda clay… destined for my next soda kiln firing.

So for now they’re all wrapped up for the night. Tomorrow I’ll do a lot of trimming… and hopefully add handles too!