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

Just spending a little “quality time” with my diamond grinding disc from DiamondCore Tools !!! Cleaning off a few drippy soda-fired. bottoms. Notice the mug bottom before & after… plus a few more to come!

Just put the grinding bat on the wheel, wet the disc, wet the pot, press… spin… grind… CLEAN!!! Thank you DiamondCore Tools for making this ugly task so much easier & smoother!!!

Categories: kiln firing, process, production

After a couple hours of loading the kiln last night, it’s always great to get to the end & brick up the door. One by one, brick by brick. Hiding the pots… knowing that we won’t see them again until after the soda-firing process works its “magic”… fingers crossed.

Categories: glaze, process, production

It was pretty late last night when I finally finished glazing in my studio… lots of pots, lots of wadding! So I packed both sides of my studio cart and put some masking tape “seat belts” on it so none of the pots would jump off as I rolled everything downstairs on the rickety freight elevator!

Categories: mugs, process, production, stamped

What better way to celebrate than with another batch of mugs freshly stamped, assembled & accents painted with colored flashing slips.

Categories: mugs, process, production

Here we go again… more handles… more fun… making more MUGS!!! Always my favorite thing to make!!!

Categories: mugs, process, production

Getting ready to add make some handles… and then make some mugs! Always my favorite thing to make!!!

Categories: mugs, process, production, stamped

After stamping, trimming & adding handles… I added some colored flashing slip accents to the latest batch of mugs! The band along the top with a smidge on the stamped impressions… and these slips will change colors during the soda firing!

Categories: process, production, terra cotta, The Ghouls Collection

There’s a whole lotta scoring & slipping going on as I continue to add details to the latest addition to The Ghouls Collection. Getting cuter & cuter with every piece I add on!!! Just hope they all get done in time for ART IN THE BARN?!!!

Categories: process, production, studio, terra cotta, The Ghouls Collection

Made some good progress on the newest Ghoul today.
Still have a LONG ways to go… but for now, they’re under wraps for the night!

Categories: kiln firing, lillstreet

So now the soda kiln is empty once more… although I do still have some cleaning to do! Ugh. Gotta scrape the shelves, re-kiln wash them, clean the fire box & tidy up the kiln room. Ahhh… the glamorous side of soda-firing!