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

Okay, so there “might have been” a bit of streaming & binging this weekend! One of my beginning students recommended “THE TRAITORS” featuring some of my favorite reality TV celebrities! I mean, if you loved Kate Chastain before… you’re going to REALLY love her after her turn on “The Traitors”! Picture a reality game show… part Big Brother living together, part Amazing Race challenges, part Survivor voting people out and part the game CLUE with the whodunit twist. It’s a little “shmarmy” in the best way possible… and I couldn’t take my eyes off it. So much so… that I actually binged the US version… and then the Australian version… and then the UK version!!! So much fun… and I’m already looking forward to when the release Season Two!!!

“The Traitors Australia”…

“The Traitors UK”…

Categories: color, flowers, garden

Bright & colorful asiatic lilies… a cheery addition to the garden blooming this morning!

Categories: bike, sunrise

Clear skies finally prevailed. After yesterday’s storms, it was great to wake this morning to dry roads & lightly clouded skies. A bit breezy, but beautiful nonetheless.

Categories: process, production, sgraffito, tools

Fun little flakes scattered all over my latest sgraffito platter. My DiamondCore Tools make nice crisp carving lines… but this platter is already a little drier than I’m used to, so the flakes are everywhere!!!

Categories: process, production, wheelthrowing

Throwing some enclosed forms today in the studio… working on something new!!! Sure, I coulda done one prototype to see if it works… but no, I’m more of an “all in” kinda guy!!! Fingers crossed…. more to come!

Categories: mugs, process, production

After assembling, I dipped the exterior of my “hybrid mugs” in some thin flashing slip. After soda-firing, these colored slips will change colors & accentuate the stamped textures!

Categories: bike

Looks like someones DIVVY bike went for a swim… and didn’t make it out for awhile?! Always fun when they come around and start fishing out the bikes that have been “deposited” into the Lake… and there are always more than you think!

Categories: bike, Chicago, sunrise

A few moments of pastel sunrise colors… and then back to gray. An other quiet morning pedaling along the lakefront. Happy to have some color back in the sunrise sky… even if it was short-lived.

Categories: mugs, patterns, production, stamped, textures, tools

“Hybrid mugs” assembled, trimmed & handled… and the MKM Pottery Tools that did most of the hard work. Sure, I might have had a tiny-something to do with it too?! But having good tools always makes it more fun!!!

Categories: color, sunrise