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Western Canada's largest distributor of pottery materials and supplies. Clays, raw materials, tools, wheels, kilns, slabrollers, books & much more. Our continuing goal is to supply artists, potters and crafts people with great quality products, knowledge and customer service. Our staff is familiar with all the items we stock and can help you through the selection and ordering process. We will also see that your order is shipped according to your directions, or put together for pick up at our retail store in Surrey, BC. Invoice by Email Changes to Service - as of Jan 1, 2022Hi Everyone, Greenbarn is going to put more emphasis on the Green in our name by reducing our paper footprint. Starting on Jan 1, 2022 we will discontinue the practise of our shipped orders triggering an automatic paper invoice, stuffing an envelope, and mailing them. Instead, we will strive to use electronic copies which are faster, are easier to file for taxes, and are better for the environment. When placing phone or electronic orders, please specify your preferred email address, and future invoices will be sent to you via email.
Thank you, and wishing you well, From all of us at Greenbarn. Technical Tips BlogM341S coming beginning of November, 2022![]() M341S is an all-new recipe, it fires easily to cone 6 (and even cone 7) while burning to the same color as M340. M340S and M340GS are no longer available, this replaces them. The white and colored mugs are made using the G2934 base, the clear and purple one using the G2926B base. These are fired using the PLC6DS schedule. M341S is smooth, almost as smooth as M370. It throws much better than M340 so you will be able to make ware thinner and lighter. M341S works well with our L3954B engobe. There will be no grogged version, this dries well so there is no need for it. Dealers will be able to order starting in November 2022, let them know you want some. We assure you that this new body is much better than M340S, there should be no concerns with glazes, fired ware should appear the same as before. Sunday 14th August 2022 New iron-red glaze on porcelain at cone 6 oxidation![]() This is G3948A. Iron red glazes are easy to do in high-temperature reduction but not so in medium-temperature oxidation. Most people just try a bunch of recipes they find online hoping that one of them actually fires the way it is shown in the picture! A better approach for us was to study a range of ones claiming to be iron reds looking for things in common with the chemistries and recipes. G3948A, on these two M370 mugs, is a product of that. Unlike many, the original recipe we found, G3948, did have a suggested firing schedule. It seemed strange so we just used the standard C6DHSC slow-cool schedule. That one is also ideal for the liner glazes, giving them a better gloss finish. It was not tempting to even try the original recipe (because it measured up poorly against common sense recipe limits), but it did make sense to fix obvious issues and then try it. Unlike every other recipe we have seen, this one suffers no issues with gelling of the slurry because it contains no Gerstley Borate and uses black iron oxide. It has very good application properties and requires only 80 water for each 100 powder to mix as a creamy dipping glaze. And it does not need any lithium carbonate. Context: Iron Red Glaze Sunday 14th August 2022 Mod Podge clay sealer![]() Available at Walmart, Amazon, Michaels and others. It was water-based, non-toxic, "top-rack dishwasher safe" and dries to a hard finish. This makes it potentially useful to seal porous ceramic such as terra cotta and dolomite or talc white-burning bodies, even functional ware. Context: Silicone sealer for porous ceramic for outdoor use, ModPodge clay sealer Friday 12th August 2022 Large Snow plate fired at cone 04![]() The plate was made by Karel Peeters, Aug 2022. The glazes are from Spectrum, they are watered down and applied using a gravity feed sprayer. It is the higher porosity of Plainsman Snow that makes the use of these watery gummed glazes possible (older talc bodies would not have worked with this method). Large pieces like this are extremely difficult at stoneware temperatures because of difficult drying, high firing shrinkages and extended firing schedules. But these are non-issues with Snow, it is super plastic yet dries exceptionally well, has zero firing shrinkage and can be fired in a fraction of the time! These factors coupled with the brilliant colors possible at low temperatures make this body an attractive option for potters to make extra money with less effort. Friday 12th August 2022 Terra Sigilatta surface on a dolomite white earthenware![]() The clay is Plainsman Snow fired at cone 04. August 2022 by Nina Berinstein. Very thin and light pieces can be made without danger of warping during firing (because this clay as zero fired shrinkage). This piece was treated with Mod Podge, this has sealed it against water penetration and not affected the appearance or texture. Context: Silicone sealers prevent water absorbing in porous ceramic, The high porosity of this clay body is what makes it easy to seal against water leakage, ModPodge clay sealer, Terra Sigilatta Friday 12th August 2022 The Iron Red mechanism is working in one base but not the other![]() These two pieces were fired in the same kiln using the C6DHSC firing schedule. Fluid melts are an essential enabler of crystal growth during cooldown, both of these contain significant Li2O to help the B2O3 achieve that. Glaze #1, G3948A, has less iron than is typical and much more MgO/CaO. Glaze #2 has much more Na2O and it has both SrO and ZnO that #1 does not have. #2 is much higher in Al2O3 and has more than double the amount of SiO2. So which of all these factors is responsible for #2 having zero crystals? Very likely its low CaO/MgO levels. Fixing it does not appear practical because of the "major surgery" needed to exchange ZnO/SrO for MgO and the extra B2O3 needed to restore the melt. Since #1 has a low thermal expansion it should fit most bodies anyway. Context: Fix obvious issues in Glazy recipes before even trying them, How to keep an iron-red glaze from being a bucket-of-jelly, Iron Red Glaze Wednesday 3rd August 2022 Delflocculation is a "magic process", appreciate it![]() Casting slips require a minimum of water. Amazingly, it is possible to get this 3000g of M370 powder into only 1100g of water! And the fluid slurry produced, 2250cc, still fits in the container. How is this possible? That water has 11 grams of Darvan 7 deflocculant in it, it causes the clay particles to electrolytically repel each other! An awareness of “the magic” can help give you the determination to master deflocculation, the key enabler of the slip casting process. Determination? Yes, the process is fragile, must develop the ability to “discover” the right amount of Darvan for your clay mix and water supply. And the ability to recognize what is wrong with a slurry that is not working (too much or little water, too much or little deflocculant). Context: Deflocculants: A Detailed Overview, Understanding the Deflocculation Process in Slip Casting, Propeller Mixer, Deflocculation, Slip Casting Saturday 30th July 2022 Drying shrinkage + firing shrinkage ≠ total shrinkage![]() Plainsman Clays, for example, publishes dry and fired shrinkage data for their clay bodies. The former is the shrinkage from wet-to-dry. The latter is the shrinkage from dry-to-fired. You cannot add the dry and fired numbers together to get the total because the two are based on different starting points. Consider this example: 6.25 dry shrinkage + 6.66 fired = 12.9 whereas the actual total shrinkage is 12.5%. Shown is the way to calculate the total shrinkage correctly if you only have drying and fired values (thanks to Tom Hittie for deriving this for us). Of course no one is going to bother actually doing this calculation! So just remember that the actual total is a little less than adding the two together. Context: Firing Shrinkage, Drying Shrinkage Monday 25th July 2022 Liquify a pint of brushing glaze so well it does not need sieving![]() This photo shows a method we used to use for adding CMC gum solution to glazes to make them brushable, this made it possible to produce high specific gravity slurries. But we don't do it this way any more. The reason is that kitchen blender. It can mix a slurry containing gum powders quickly and thoroughly, even on low speed. There is another thing we also do now: Make low specific gravity glazes, they are more brushable. That can be accomplished by also adding Veegum (it also gels the slurry). Commercial brushing glazes are made this way, that is why they often require many coats to get adequate thickness. In this example of cone 6 black G3914A, we added 5g Veegum and 5g of CMC gum to 340g of ball milled glaze powder. After shaking it together in a plastic bag and adding it to 440g of water the blender turns it into a gelled slurry that is a delight to paint with. This process produced just the right amount to fill a 500ml jar. Context: Alberta Slip based black passed all four leaching tests, Your supplier is out of stock on glossy black glaze? We made our own., Brushing Glaze Friday 22nd July 2022 Alberta Slip based black passed all four leaching tests![]() This is the G3914A recipe on Plainsman M340 test tiles. They were fired at cone 04 using the PLC6DS schedule. We tested them in four different caustic liquids (using the GLLE test), there is no sign of leaching on any of them. This recipe contains only 4% black stain, that is enough to stain the base GA6-B glaze to a jet black. The surface has a unique iridescence not found in any other glossy black we have used. Context: Liquify a pint of brushing glaze so well it does not need sieving, Cone 6 oil-spot glaze effect, what works and does not work?, Two black cone 6 glazes recipes. One is much safer., Your supplier is out of stock on glossy black glaze? We made our own. Sunday 17th July 2022 SignUp For Monthly Tech-Tip EmailPlease visit https://digitalfire.com and use the Register feature at the top of the page. No art or sales language, no tracking and no ads. To find past posts please use the search bar on this page. |
Greenbarn Potter's Supply Ltd., 9548 - 192nd Street, SURREY, BC V4N 3R9
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