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

Last night in my pottery class, we had the new “Post Malone” OREOs. Tasty & caramelly… if that’s even a word?! However… as a lover of a good spiral… I will say there was never a spiral of filling to be found inside a cookie as shown on the packaging?! Maybe it was a bad batch… we might need to try another package???

Categories: stamped, textures, tiles

Textured tiles now accented with colored slips & drying in a plastic grid to avoid warping! Can’t wait to fire these to see the colors pop… and quick… “4×4” is just two weeks away! Yikes!!!

Categories: production, stamped, textures, tiles, tools

Some early morning textured tiles in the works… getting ready for “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” which is just about two weeks away! A mix of textures using my own handmade stamps & some using my favorite MKM Pottery Tools handrollers!

Categories: food, holiday, platters, stamped

You know how I love a good holiday… and today is NATIONAL PIZZA DAY!!!
And I woulda been remiss if I didn’t celebrate with a couple slices!!!

Categories: color, textures, tiles
Categories: bowls, food

So here’s MY idea of a Super Bowl… a lot more fun than any game!!!
Where the half-time show is me going to refill my glass of milk!!!

Categories: textures, tiles, tools

Playing with some of my MKM Pottery Tools handrollers… making mini textured tiles with a master plan?! I’ve got a themed project in the making… and this is the start of the first of four pieces!

Categories: classes, platters, surface decoration

So the “real” challenge this week for my LILLSTREET THROWDOWNers was to throw the largest platter they could with 6-pounds of clay… and then decorate it to “match” or coordinate with their perfect dinner plate! We were looking for well-thrown plates & platters, as well as well-applied surface decoration that pulls them both together. Yep, they didn’t see that one coming! And yet they all did FANTASTIC… quite impressive!

Categories: classes, platters, wheelthrowing

After throwing their “perfect” dinner plate… my LILLSTREET THROWDOWNER’s were then challenged to make the largest platter they could with 6-pounds of clay! Remember, some of them had never made a plate… let alone a huge platter… let alone handling six pounds on a wheel!!! I did a quick demo for them… which they fully appreciated… and then I let them loose!!! And they all did AMAZING!!! Even surprising themselves with their newly-found platter-making skills!

Categories: classes, platters, surface decoration

This past Thursday in my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, I challenged my students to make that one “perfect” dinner plate. Well-thrown & decorated in just 45 minutes. Several of them had never even thrown a plate before. Let alone decorating a freshly-thrown plate that is already wet & squishy!

Little did they know that there was still another “twist” to come…