Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: artists, bowls, hybrid mugs, mugs

At the end of the workshop, AL and I did a little pottery trade!!! I came home with a great lidded bowl. Where the rim is hollow & perforated so it doesn’t get hot… and a lid that flips over to become a bowl. Again, with hollow & perforated knob so it too does not get hot!!! AL went home with two of my hybrid mugs… not so matchy-matchy… but clearly close enough that they just couldn’t be separated from each other!

Categories: artists, My Talented Friends, tools, workshop

After my tour of MKM POTTERY TOOLS… Rick invited me over to his pottery studio… Fired Earth Pottery. It’s a very nice group studio space for resident artists, as well as classes & renters. Lucky for me, ceramic artist AL Holden was going to be doing a workshop at Fired Earth Pottery last night… and Rick invited me to stay… so I did! It was great to meet AL and see her work. I just love watching people throw on the wheel regardless of their skill level… so it was even more fun to see someone at the college professor level “showing-off” and making cool pots! The evening was great with AL doing the show, but all of the participants were great fun too!!! Glad I went to Appleton yesterday…. turns out there was a lot to do!!!

And of course… there were PLENTY of MKM Pottery Tools on hand for AL to use!!!

Check her out… www.alholenceramics.com

Categories: tools

So while I was in Appleton, Wisconsin yesterday, I got the “full tour” of MKM Pottery Tools. Rick was very excited to give me the full tour & show off his business. The smell of wood & oil was amazing!!! I loved it… and found it amusing that the people there don’t even smell it anymore!!! HA!!! And not only did we see tons of amazing textured rollers & stamps… I “might” have also had one of Angie’s pumpkin chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven!!! … burp.

Categories: hybrid mugs, mugs, soda-fired, stamped, textures, tools

So I did a little roadtrip up to Appleton, Wisconsin yesterday to drop-off some hybrid mugs with the fine folks at MKM Pottery Tools. It was great to finally meet Rick, as well as his support staff with Angie, Rachel, Seth & Christopher… as we’ve only known each other “virtually” online. It was great to finally hang-out, get to know each other for real & deliver some of my soda-fired hybrid mugs to them. It was kind of a cool “full-circle moment” as I use the MKM handrollers to create my hybrid mugs. And Appleton is apparently where all the magic comes from!!!

Categories: sunrise

And then… just when the sun came up & the waves were crashing…
I got one good shot of the illuminated waves…

…and then my battery died!!! ugh.

Categories: bike, sunrise

Colorful clouds & crashing waves. Another volatile morning along the lake…
beautiful, but louder than normal!

Categories: flowers, soda-fired, stamped, vases

Celebrating another Floral Friday with some blue hydrangea in a round spherical vase…
stamped & soda-fired with a blush of a teal blue glaze!

Categories: flowers, soda-fired, stamped, vases

Celebrating another Floral Friday with some blue hydrangea in a round spherical vase… stamped & soda-fired with a blush of a teal blue glaze!

Categories: hybrid mugs

Headed north for a fun roadtrip… getting ready to deliver a special “commission” of hybrid mugs!!! It’ll be a fun “full-circle moment” for these mugs… more details to come!!!

Categories: Chicago, sunrise

And sometimes bigger sunrise skyshows simple “require” bigger panoramic photos!!!