Tomorrow is the big kick-off of the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR! Check-out the website for information, artist links & to register for FREE POTTERY DEMOS!!!

We have twenty-one potters on The Tour, many of which will be doing free demos. I will be in my studio tomorrow night doing a demo on how I uses handmade stamps to add texture to my pottery. If you would like to join me in my studio, you just need to register online to get the ZOOM link for all of the demos… plus, you’ll also be registered in a drawing for some free pottery by our Tour Hosts!!!

GARY JACKSON : STAMPED POTTERY DEMO
FRIDAY, JUNE 18th, 2021 @ 8:00pm CSTMore info at www.northernilpotterytour.com

So the process has finally begun…
Picking out the pieces that will make it into the inventory for my very first ETSY SHOP launch!!! Yes, it’s true… I’m finally putting together an ETSY page just in time for the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR! The tour kicks-off next Friday morning, so I’ve got just less than a week to get my act together… which is tough as my bike is already calling my name to go play outside today!

There’s currently nothing in my ETSY SHOP…
but here’s the link for when it goes live Friday at 8:00am – https://www.etsy.com/shop/FireWhenReadyPottery

And then be sure to check-out the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR website for updates, demo schedules & more!!! www.northernilpotterytour

Front stack loaded… two shelves deep with a lot more pots. Quite a few mugs. You know they’re my favorite thing to make! I love loading the soda kiln… pot by pot, shelf by shelf until it’s full.

Now time to brick up the door… ugh.

Once my slip & plate were on the drier-side of leatherhard, it was ready for my class demo last Thursday night. I had already trimmed the bottom of the piece… but now I needed to shave off the top layer of white slip.

The “plan” for sanggam is to shave off the top layer of slip and leave it filled in the stamped impressions! Like I said… this is my first time really trying this technique. And what better place to do it than in class as demo for all of my Thursday night students?!

Turns out that my T2 Arc Trimming Tool from DiamondCore Tools was the perfect too for shaving off the white slip! It’s nice & sharp, and the curved edge seemed to fit in all the right placed without shaving off any gouges or lines!

And now that I have all of the pattern revealed, I’m planning on smoothing it out a bit with some sandpaper after to dries completely… with my mask on of course!!!

So I’ve finally started glazing these combo mugs! Since they’re going to be soda-fired, I pretty much need to just put a liner glaze inside, and then hope that the soda-kiln atmosphere makes all the “magic” happen! They were all dipped in colored flashing slips before bisque firing… so there should be some fun colors when they come back out of the kiln!

So I’ve unloaded the bisque kiln and now I’ve got just a bit of glazing to do. These are more of my new “wheelthrown-handbuilt-combo” mugs. They’re all ready to go… but I might tackle these tomorrow! Seems a little daunting right now?! I’ve got time… my next soda-firing is still a ways away!

After my sprigged demo bowl, my students started with the sprigs to decorate their plain demo bowls. So much fun to watch my SURFACE DECORATION students excited to try new things on the plain bowls I surprised them with… as stamping & sprigs can be quite addictive… I should know – HA!

Here we go again…
making more handles… making more MUGS!!!
My favorite thing to make!

Score, slip, attach… repeat, repeat, repeat! You know by now that making mugs is my favorite thing to do in the studio! So today was another good day with another batch assembled.

Handles pulled, looped over & standing tall so they can stiffen up with the curve already established. I’ll let them set for a few minutes before I start attaching them to the cylinder mugs-to-be!