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

Is it still a lidded jar if it doesn’t have a lid on???

Just a quick question as I’m busy painting on some details & accents of colored flashing slips on my newest batch of smaller lidded jars!

For the record, it does have a lid… it’s just not on the jar while I’m painting them!

Categories: flowers, garden, soda-fired, stamped, vases

Sometimes a single flower can be enough.
Big impact from a homegrown dahlia in a handmade ikebana vase.

Categories: bike, sunrise

Overnight, the temperatures dropped over twenty degrees, the clouds moved in & the wind came with it!!! It was a WONDERFUL TAILWIND… for the first half riding south towards the City. The ride back… a bit more of a challenge.

On a separate note… it doesn’t look so good for Friday Morning Swim Club. As I pedaled past Montrose Harbor this morning on my way home, there were several police cars at the harbor with their blue lights flashing. This comes a week after there was an article in the Chicago SunTimes expressing safety concerns & park district restrictions. Hopefully things will get all worked out & the splashin’ Friday fun will continue!

Click here to read the Chicago SunTimes article.

Categories: classes, food, platters, stamped

Pretty plates for a tasty potluck… Monday night we celebrated our last class of the session with a yummy potluck. I brought the chocolate mousse cake, while Kristen made chocolate chip cookies! Food always tastes better on handmade pottery!!!

Categories: art fair, collaborations, mosaic, stamped

About a year ago during ART IN THE GARDEN 2022, I gave our mosaic artist Kristin Conneely a few “parts & pieces” with a challenge for her to work her “mosaic magic” as some collaboration projects for ART IN THE GARDEN 2023. She’s had plenty of time to work on them… so I can’t wait to see what she’s done & to share some pictures with you! I’m sure they’re going to be STUNNING… because she’s pretty amazing herself!!!

Categories: lidded jars, production, stamped

Here’s the latest batch of lidded jars on my wedging table. Kinda cute with their little finial knobs… actually wheelthrown onto the lid after trimming it dome-smooth!

Categories: bike, nature, sunrise

You know it’s gonna be another hot day when it doesn’t cool down at all overnight! This morning was still just as hot & humid as it was last night… quite the sweaty ride this morning!!! But if you look closely, the huge dragonflies are loving it along the lakefront… hopefully taking out & eating some of those nasty black sand flies!!!

Categories: sunrise

Sparkly glittery clouds flying low along the horizon.
Not a sunrise spectacle… but pretty impressive nonetheless.

Categories: classes, food

Can’t say that I’m all that into Super Mario Bros. …
but I am really into OREO’S!!!

So… more sweet treats to share with my wheelthrowing class tonight!

Categories: collaborations, platters, porcelain, process, production, rusty, sgraffito

A quick layer of black underglaze makes stark contrast with the white porcelain clay. Just making a few more pieces for Amy Taylor to play with… she’s doing some fun sgraffito sketches on the black areas specifically for ART IN THE GARDEN. It’s my next art fair in Glenview where many of the artists work together on special one-of-a-kind collaborations! This is just one… I have a few more collaborations “under wraps” to share soon… but first, time to go teach my Beginner’s class!!!

For more information, click here – https://www.grassrootsartfair.com/