Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: flower pots, flowers, garden

Look who decided to pop open & greet the day today! My first re-blooming orchid of the season! Hopefully a few more orchids will start blooming in the weeks to come. Always fun to have an old orchid re-bloom at home… I’m sure it’s the handmade flower pot that makes the difference!

Categories: process, soda-fired, stamped, textures, tiles

And here’s a little preview of how I think these textured tiles are going to lay-out. Trying to mix them all up evenly… “forced random” as I like to call it. There might be some changes along the way… but for now I need to start wiring it all together!

Categories: soda-fired, stamped, textures, tiles

Textured tiles after soda-firing… getting ready to lay them out to create a wall hanging
tapestry for “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS”. Gotta get them all put together so they can hang
on the wall of Space 900 in just three days!!!

Also loving the mix of textures from using my favorite handrollers from MKM Pottery Tools!

Categories: art fair, artists

Well, it’s Monday… and the “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” show opens in just four days!!! Final plans, preparations & projects are all underway! Pulling together lots of great handmade artwork by four talented friends… Sarah Chapman, Darlys Ewoldt, Meghann Sottile & myself. A pop-up gallery show at Space 900 Gallery in Evanston, Illinois. It’s not that far north of the City, and will be well worth the trip! Come see some one-of-a-kind projects that will never travel to art fairs… because you can’t display everything in a flimsy white tent!!! HA!!!

Categories: stamped, textures, tiles

Working on a fun wall piece for “4×4″… lots of textures, lots of tiles. And this is what it looked like BEFORE soda-firing… just a lot of tenmoku glazed inlaid into the textures. More to come…

Categories: glaze, textures, tiles

Sprayed with clear glaze… ready for a firing! Fingers crossed…

Categories: stamped, textures, tiles

Some rectangular textured tiles with tenmoku glaze inlay for “4×4”… looking like this before they were soda-fired. More to come… but here’s a hint… there “might” also be RUSTY METAL involved. I’m kinda excited…

Categories: art fair, artists, collaborations

Mark your calendars… “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” is next weekend! Hard to believe we’re already at the end of the month?! Sarah, Darlys, Meghann & I would love to see you stop by Space 900 Gallery next weekend. I know we’re all still “frantically” working on our collaboration projects, let alone pulling together everything else we need to put on a great gallery show. Fingers crossed…

Friday, February 28 – Saturday, March 1 – Sunday, March 2
Space 900 Gallery – 816 Dempster, Evanston, Illinois

Categories: art fair, collaborations, color, stamped, textures

Coming together in a collaboration project very soon!

Categories: art fair, artists, collaborations, craftsmanship

Looks like Darlys Ewoldt is working hard on her “4×4” collaboration projects too! Darlys is known more for large-scale metal sculptures with beautiful colors & patinas. So it will be interesting to see her size-down her work to fit inside the shadowboxes. I love seeing these collaboration projects all coming together for our “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” pop-up show!!!

Check out more of Darlys’ sculptural work… www.darlysewoldt.com/