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

So it’s another week of Wheelthrowing Summer Camp… and another week of “covered” CUTENESS!!! I mean, really… pretty darn cute even with hands covered with a gloppy-goopey mess & half of her face covered with her yellow mask!!!

Categories: bike, sunrise

A little sunrise drama hanging out over a BIG skyline sunrise photo!
Big sky needs big photos!

Categories: bike, sunrise

We had a dramatic start this morning with one large ominous cloud hanging low on the horizon. The clouds may have dissipated a bit, but we never got a real sunrise to speak of… just some pretty sky, pretty clouds & even more pretty reflections!

Categories: collaborations, process, production

Did a little throwing on the wheel this evening after a full day of Wheelthrowing Camp with the kids! Had to get my parts & pieces started for some upcoming collaborations… I’ve got some major catching up to do! Been a little busy with the kids…

Categories: bike, sunrise

Early this morning, we had just a single line of clouds flying low along the horizon. My sunrise bike ride was hot & steamy again… a precursor to this evening’s storms?! I had no idea they were headed our way… as I left all of my windows wide open at home all day!!!

Whoops… had a bit of mopping up to do when I got home after teaching class tonight.

Categories: tiles

And while we’ve been focused on my back porch today… I also have this tile installation back there. A bunch of glazed tiles hanging on a bunch of single nails. Always fun to swipe a hand across to make them all swing & swivel.

Categories: garden, nature, textures

Sure, my purple hyacinth bean vines have nice flowers & seed pods. But the also have great leaves with some very striking veining. Perfect for another “natural” Texture Tuesday!

Categories: garden, nature

You’ve seen snippets of my little back porch from the other side… but here’s the “front” side as seen from my kitchen window. Sure, I might have a bit of a rusty metal addiction… but the climbing purple hyacinth bean vine sure seems to be happy with it. Loving the colors & textures of the coleus plants… and a little bit of a gourd plant working its way through!

Categories: artists, collaborations, handbuilding, studio, textures

I always love a good studio process shot… like these sweet cups coming along in Cory McCrory’s studio! Looks like they now have bottoms… moving along nicely for our collaboration project!

Categories: bike

So then THIS happened.

For some reason, it has been overly difficult biking for the past few months. Just harder to pedal than normal. Kind of a dragging feeling. I just wrote it off to covid weight gain, laying on my sofa for the past year, or maybe just a bit of apathy?! But as we got further into our biking season, I was still dragging behind everyone else?! Finally on a recent ride, my friend Chris noticed that my back wheel was out of true. Wobbling as I ride. I took my bike into the shop to get a cleaning & a simple wheel alignment… and the shop mechanic found THIS!!! I had actually broken a spoke out through the wheel. Ouch!!! Nothing fix-able… so I had to buy a whole new wheel!

Luckily, my bike is rolling along much smoother & faster these days!!! WHEW!!! Glad it wasn’t just me…