Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery

06.05.2025

Northern Illinois Pottery Tour 2025

Categories: art fair, artists, My Talented Friends, pottery

This weekend is the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR. A great chance for a fun roadtrip to see 40 potters at six different studio locations. I will be at Stop #5 in Sandwich… along with rest of these great potters!!! Special thanks to my pal Cory McCrory for hosting all of us at her place!!!

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06.02.2025

Coming Soon : A Pottery Road Trip!!!

Categories: art fair, artists, pottery

It’s almost here!!! The NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR is this coming weekend!!! I will once again be a Guest Potter at the Sandwich location… home studio of my buddy Cory McCrory. So mark your calendar… grab your pottery-loving friends, rent a party bus, do whatever you gotta do!!! There’s going to be a lot of beautiful pottery to see this weekend. ROAD TRIP!!!

For more information…. www.northernilpotterytour.com

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02.15.2025

4×4 : Two Weeks Away…

Categories: art fair, artists

Hard to believe we’re just two weeks away from “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS”… the last Friday of February & two days into March! I’ve got a lot to finish, glaze & fire before then. Luckily it’s dry & warm in the studio today… good reason to stay inside to keep working!!!

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03.26.2022

LILLSTREET THROWDOWN : The Big Build

Categories: artists, challenge, classes

For the BIG BUILD project of the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN, I challenged my students to make a creamer & sugar set based on the work of a famous artist… assigned by Tracy! Including creamer with handle, sugar with lid, tray and a spoon! They all did an amazing job… most of them getting all of their pieces “done” for class. We did have a few kiln issues, so not all of the pieces were at the same place… some were bisqued, some glazed, some stuck waiting on a cart, and some missing? I felt sorry for Helen who was struggling to find her pieces on the bisque carts! Regardless, they did an amazing job embracing their inner Mondrian, Dali, Lichtenstein & Koons.

Claire : PIET MONDRIAN

Clara : SALVADOR DALI

Melanie : ROY LICHTENSTEIN

Tracy : JEFF KOONS

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09.11.2021

This Weekend : Art In The Garden

Categories: art fair, artists, bowls

Just in case you somehow “missed” hearing about this…
ART IN THE GARDEN is this weekend! A wonderful grassroots art fair pulled together by a group of talented friends! This year we have twelve artists showing off their work, sharing their skills and putting out some fun collaboration projects along the way! It’s one of the most special art fairs of the entire summer! All of the fun kicks off in about an hour… hope you can join us!

Saturday 9/11 & Sunday 9/12 from 10:00am-5:00pm
For more info – www.grassrootsartfair.com

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09.05.2021

Art In The Garden : Tour Of Artists

Categories: art fair, artists

The ART IN THE GARDEN artists are all in the final stretch… getting ready for a fun art fair in Glenview next weekend. Here’s a quick “tour” of the artists that will be playing together and showing off their artistry & craftsmanship. Many of these artists are also working together on some very special one-of-a-kind collaborations just for this show! Be sure to stop by early to see all of the collaborations… before they’re gone!

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06.09.2021

Northern Illinois Pottery Tour : Gardner

Categories: art fair, artists, pottery

Another stop along the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR will be in Gardner, Illinois. Hosted by Anne Maraviglia with invited guest artists Roberta Polfus & Hironobu Nishitateno.

Be sure to add this to your calendar for the online kick-off next Friday morning, June 18th with sales & virtual demos all weekend long!

For more details, artist links & demo schedules, visit www.northernilpotterytour.com

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06.09.2021

Northern Illinois Pottery Tour : Sandwich

Categories: art fair, artists

For the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR, I am one of the Invited Guest Artists at the Sandwich, Illinois location! I will be joining my pal & uber-talented paperclay artist Cory McCrory, along with Nancy Gardner & Linda Kiepke. Unfortunately, this year the tour will be “virtual” with online sales by all of the ceramic artists! I can’t wait for next year when I get to play in-person with these three talented women!

For more information : www.northernilpotterytour.com

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05.18.2021

The Potters : Northern Illinois Pottery Tour

Categories: art fair, artists, pottery, special events

Well lookie here… there’s a lot of great potters getting together to put on a brand new NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR! Many of them I already know as “My Talented Friends”… the others I can’t wait to add to that list! So many potters, so many pots, so much talent all in one Pottery Tour. Going virtual this year June 18-20th… but looking forward to a full on-location Pottery Tour in 2022. More details to come… and check us out at www.northernilpotterytour.com

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10.02.2020

Summer Camp : Famous Artists

Categories: artists, lillstreet, summer camp

As part of my time at Summer Camp, I find it important to teach the kids more than just how to make a projects or two. There are so many opportunities to share life lessons & more. So I find it a great chance & challenge to teach the kids about some famous artists & art history along the way… making it a “game” so they frequently don’t even realize it’s happening!!!

In fact, at the end of the week… we did a “socially-distant” game of MEMORY with the kids flipping over the cards to match up the artists… not the images… as most of the artists had two different artworks that they memorized. So they had to match the artist by name… with a lot of hand sanitizer in between turns flipping cards!!!! Good thing my flash cards are laminated!!!

So here’s a quick overview “POP QUIZ” of some of the artists & sculptors that my Summer Campers learned this summer.

HOW MANY OF THEM CAN YOU NAME??? First & last names please…