Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: artists, My Talented Friends, tiles

Here’s a couple cuties from Cory McCrory. C’mon, could they be any cuter?!
Can’t wait to see them all come together!!!

And yes… you guessed it… some of them do indeed go together!!!
That was tough to put together, right???

Categories: My Talented Friends, tiles

Let the assembly begin. Placing Cory’s tiles and then adding mine into the mix.
Got a lot of pieces… a lot of tiles… and not a lot of time!
Methinks it’s going to be another late night of adhesive fun!!! Great fumes to sleep by.

Categories: artists, My Talented Friends, tiles

Each bag I pull out of the box is better than the one before!
It’s like a Cory McCrory Christmas in the ceramic collaboration world. So much fun!!!

Categories: artists, My Talented Friends, tiles

I’ve got a severe case of the Cory’s!!!
No really… I’ve got a full case of Cory McCrory’s tiles for our ART IN THE GARDEN collaboration project. Can’t wait to dig in and see what we sort of brilliant genius we have here!!!

Now I’ve got to start putting it all together. The “Big Reveal” will be this
weekend at ART IN THE GARDEN in Glenview. Gotta love a good collaboration!

Categories: art fair, artists, glaze, kiln firing, My Talented Friends, tiles

My glaze kiln is finished, cooled & unpacked… LOTS of tiles!!!
693 to be exact… I dropped one!

Now I just need to start assembling my pieces with Cory McCrory’s wonderfully whimsical works to create our special collaboration pieces for this weekend’s ART IN THE GARDEN in Glenview!!!

Categories: glaze, kiln firing, tiles

Spent much of yesterday “laboring” in my studio. Finished glazing & loading 694 tiles!!! Many of which will become part of the collaboration fun I’m doing with Cory McCrory for next weekend’s ART IN THE GARDEN.

And sure, I probably could have gotten ONE more tile squeezed in there… if it weren’t for that glaze splotch that somebody left on the kiln shelf from a previous firing. Usually I’m okay with chipping them off. But this one’s a deep one best saved for another day! And what’s ONE more tile really in the big scheme of things?!

I better NOT be one tile short when it comes to assembling our collaboration pieces!

Categories: My Talented Friends, tiles

Yep, that about sums it up.

A little pre-glazing fun from my partner-in-collaboration Cory McCrory!
Can’t wait to see these fired, glazed, shaded and fired again!!!

 

Categories: kiln firing, production, tiles

With an art fair next weekend, and a collaboration project in the works, I’ve really got to get these tiles bisqued. And I might as well fill the whole kiln with a “few” other things too, right?

Bisque Kiln Layer #1 – mugs, mugs and more mugs!!!

Bisque Kiln Layer #2 – assorted bowls, spoon rests, soap dishes and some tiles.

Bisque Kiln Layer #3 – mugs, soap dispensers, a teapot, and two large platters.

Bisque Kiln Layer #4 – more mugs, tumblers and a lot of tiles.

And here’s the BULK of my textured tiles for the collaboration pieces I’m doing with Cory McCrory. Packed tight, piled high with a bit of air space between the rows. Fingers crossed that the heat makes it into that dense pack of tiles okay?

 

Categories: art fair, artists, friends, My Talented Friends, tiles

Luckily, Cory has been busy working on “our” collaboration too.
So far it looks like a lot of squares that are now popping in fun colors!!!

I love when a plan comes together! We’ve got just a week to pull it all together before the Big Reveal at ART IN THE GARDEN next weekend in Glenview!

Categories: artists, clay, My Talented Friends, tiles

Layers of clay… and layers of fun are coming out of Cory McCrory’s studio…
More teaser photos of the collaboration we’re working on for ART IN THE GARDEN.