Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: art fair, pottery

Count them if you don’t believe me! Even scarier… it’s just TWO FRIDAYS until my HOLIDAY HOME SHOW!!! Yes, my annual pottery sale that is the perfect chance to kick-off your holiday gift shopping! I’ve got a lot to do in the studio before then, let alone setting it all up in my condo! Mark your calendars now… Saturday, November 18th & Sunday, November 19th from 10:00am-6:00pm. Start making your gift list, check it twice.. and bring a friend!!!

Categories: nature, seasons

After last week’s sudden snowfall, we’ve lost a LOT of colorful Fall leaves. However… I did find this colorful “hanger-on-er” this morning… a splash of beautiful Fall color lingering as long as it can. And I’m here for it.

Categories: bike, sunrise

After a long stretch of gray, damp, cold & sometimes snowy mornings… it was great to start today with a beautiful sunrise. And I’m probably one of the few who actually look forward to the Fall time change… as it gives me an “extra” hour of morning to play on my bike with the sunrise!

Categories: stamped, stamps

Same clay, same day, much like many other days…
doing a bit of decorative stamping with my handmade clay stamps!

Categories: flowers, soda-fired, stamped, vases

Yes, the snow did them in… the plants are completely frozen, sagging, mushy & dead! However, I did “save” two flowers for a quick ikebana vase! The last two for this season… and hoping to “up my game” for next year with even more & bigger dahlias!

Categories: food, holiday

Last night I brought some good ol’ Halloween goodie bags to class for my beginning pottery students. Each one was different with assortments of candies, OREOs, pottery tools, Halloween toys, my clay fortune cookies… and one lucky bag even had one of my soda-fired pumpkins in it! Fun times for everyone who made it to class… trudging through the snow & foregoing trick-or-treating!!!

Categories: flowers, nature, seasons

So I was scrolling through Instagram earlier today and ran across this post.
And I thought to myself… “Wow, that flower looks a LOT like the dahlias I have blooming at home right now. And I wonder if mine will survive yesterday’s snow at all?!”

And then I looked closer… it also looks like my condo… also looks like my bricks… like my basement window frame… my dahlia plant… my tomato cage… wait a minute… THAT IS MY DAHLIA!!! Blooming but struggling under the snow!!!

Turns out Sarah walks her dog Sheryl past my place regularly, and has been enjoying my dahlias all Fall. Who knew???… That the “runner-up-in-my-eyes” on THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKING SHOW would be posting pictures of my dahlias on her Instagram?! Small world!

And just for the record… the snow did them in!!! Got home tonight and the plants are frozen, wilted & DEAD!!! Hope I can still save the tubers…

Categories: holiday

Maybe a little too much Halloween yesterday?… too much candy?… too much fun?

Categories: nature, seasons

So we got a good bit of snow yesterday & freezing “rain” overnight… not sure if it was a trick or a treat? Sure, it was pretty enough, but I definitely wasn’t ready to chip all the ice off my car this morning just to get in!!! Loving the Fall colors… I just want them to last longer!!!

Categories: holiday, platters, stamped

Here’s the TRICK… have a great day, play in your costume, collect a lot of candy & fill your plate with some wonderful TREATS!!!