Normal Hours of Operation Open Mo-Fr 8:30-5PM, closed Sat, Sun and long weekends. Next closure for stat holiday is for Thanksgiving Day, closed on Oct 14, and re-open on Oct 15. Information Plainsman Products ClaysLow Temperature ClaysMedium Temperature Clays High Temperature Clays Porcelains Other Clays Native Clays Casting Slips MaterialsDry MaterialsStains Encapsulated Stains Liquids GlazesLaguna Dry Low Fire GlazesSpectrum Opaque Gloss Low Fire Glazes Spectrum Semi-Transparent Low Fire Glazes Spectrum Satin Matte Low Fire Glazes Spectrum Crackle Glazes Spectrum Metallic Glazes Spectrum Raku Glazes Plainsman Dry Glazes Potter's Choice Cone 5/6 Glazes Celadon Cone 5/6 Glazes Moroccan Sand Glazes Spectrum Hi Fire Cone 6 Glazes Spectrum Shino Glazes Cone 6 Spectrum Celadon Glazes Cone 6 Liquid Brights UnderglazesSpectrum 500 UnderglazesUnderglaze Tools Amaco Velvet Underglazes EnamellingEnamelling SuppliesEnamelling Tools EquipmentKilnsElectric Pottery KilnsElectric Glass Kilns Kiln Furniture Cones Elements Kiln Parts, Accessories Exhaust Systems Refractories Potter's Wheels Slab Rollers Hand Extruders Pugmills Scales Banding Wheels Air Brushes ToolsBrushesThrowing Tools Trimming, Turning, Cutting Tools Wood/Bamboo Tools Wire and Wood Tools Rollers/Stamps Decorating Tools Glazing Tools Ribs & Scrapers Ribbon/Wire Tools Rasps Knives, Needle Tools, Cutters Sculpture Tools Tool Kits Unclassified AccessoriesMiscellaneous AccesoriesCorks/Stoppers Cork Pads Oil Lamp Accessories Dispenser Pumps Teapot Handles Bisque Tiles | Covid-19 Status: Click here to find out more
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. Copper Enamel Shapes on SALE at 50% off! Enamel Powders and Accessories on SALE at 25% off! Metal shapes, punched out of copper sheet, are now on SALE at 50% off! Great for use with Thompson brand copper enameling materials and tools (now at 25% off) for your school art/metal projects, your mixed media crafts, and for jewelry. Once the enamel powder has been applied to the copper shape, fire it with a kiln, or a torch, to 1450-1500*F to melt the enamel into a glass finish. Use our search box and enter "enamel", or use our website index in the left margin and click on "Enamelling" to see the shapes, tools and enamel pigments.
Kilns for Sale at 60% off - oddballs need good homes! The following kiln is in stock, brand new in the box, and is now discounted until sold! Skutt Scarab Mini, Flameworking Glass Kiln, 12x16x12" inside, 240volt/1phase. $6055 reg.- now on sale at 60% less. $2422 + tax
Sculpture Materials on Sale! The following items are now discounted while stock remains! 1. Roma Plastilina, Grey/Green, oil based clay, offered in soft/med/firm- now at 25% discount. Sale priced at $19.19/2Lb block + tax 2. Armature Wire (not intended for firing within a kiln): - 1/16" by 32' roll: now at 25% discount. Sale priced at $6.19/roll + tax - 3/16" by 10' roll: now at 25% discount. Sale priced at $11.49/roll + tax - 3/8" by 10' roll: now at 25% discount. Sale priced at $17.89/roll + tax
Technical Tips BlogSerious cracking in a crystalline-glazed P700 Grolleg porcelain. Why?The cracks appear to have happened on heat-up (because they have widened). Bisque firing was done around cone 04. Issue 1: The cone 10 electric firing was up-ramped at 400F/hr to 2330F (so it whizzed pass quartz inversion on the way!). Issue 2: Wall thickness variations in the pieces, they produce temperature gradients that widen as firing proceeds. Issue 3: Abrupt contour changes and sharp corners, especially when coincident with thickness variations, provide failure points that rapid temperature changes exploit. Issue 4: This new body is more plastic than the previous Grolleg porcelain used, that was likely an enabler to making these thin wall sections even thinner. But remember, practically any piece (unless it has huge in-stresses from uneven drying) can exit a kiln crack-free if firing is done evenly and slowly enough. Results of past firings are the main guide to know what to do in future ones, this is now a "past firing". So the first obvious fix here is slower heat-up, especially around quartz inversion (1000-1100F). Second: more even wall thickness. Context: How much feldspar should.., Crystalline glazes, Dunting and Cracking of.. Wednesday 2nd October 2024 Extreme handle fitting: A Medalta v.5 ball pitcherThis is for v.5 of our 3D mold-making (and discovery) project for the ball pitcher. The process to make the 3D drawing is quite simple: Cut it out of the model (top left), draw and extrude side walls (top right, notice it does not show the holes for natch embeds, they were added later) and slice off and remove the pointy parts. Bottom: A ready-to-use mold). Cutting the ends flush with the mold will enable just attaching it using some casting slip as the glue. It has become evident that the handle should be cast separately. This greatly simplifies mold making, extracting of the piece and produces a more professional-looking product (without holes inside where the handles join). Context: Printing an entire one-off.., Medalta Ball Pitcher Slip.. Tuesday 1st October 2024 Three reasons for low fire: Underglazing, color, stability during firingYou can decorate the underside! The one on the right is the back side of the plate. This is Plainsman Snow clay, it can have 25% porosity. But when fired at cone 06 the porous body does not absorb any of the glaze. And the plates stay flat when fired on stilts. These are done by the team of Micah & Jeremiah Wassink of Creston, BC (at Pridham Studio). They make matching mugs, but fire those at cone 6 using underglaze decoration with a clear overglaze. But these plates are decorated using a combination of heavily pigmented viscous-melt low-fire glazes and a black underglaze and then finished with a thin layer of transparent glaze. Context: Pottery in Creston BC.., Underglaze Friday 27th September 2024 Adding an opacifier can produce cutlery markingThis is G2934 cone 6 matte (left) with 10% zircon (center), 4% tin oxide (right). Although the base unopacified recipe does not cutlery mark the other two do. Although the marks clean off all of the two on the right, the zircon version (in this case Zircopax) version has the worst and is difficult to clean. Thus, a small change is all that is likely needed. One solution is to reduce the matteness of this glaze, moving to more toward a satin surface. A way to do this is to line-blend in a glossy glaze to create a compromise between the most matteness possible yet a surface that does not mark or stain. Another option is to switch to 400 mesh silica in the recipe, that will enable many more of the particles to go into solution in the melt, thus increasing the gloss a little (an improving the firing surface in other ways). Context: ZrO2, G2934, Zircopax, Staining of a sanitaryware.., Opacifier, Cutlery Marking Friday 27th September 2024 Here is what can happen when a stoneware clay is overfiredThis is a cone 10R stoneware, Plainsman H550. Made by Donna Ratlege at Spirits of the Creek Pottery in Cranbrook, British Columbia. She titles these: "Honest! I just had it". Her new super-powered gas kiln, built by Bruno Sperling, went over temperature on the first firing. These were in different parts of the kiln, each bearing witness to the degree to which it went past cone 10. This clay body should not be fired to lower than 1.5% porosity or bloating can occur. These are a testament to Bruno's kiln-building and firing ability, these pieces have even gone beyond that - far enough to seriously warp. Context: Warping Friday 20th September 2024 G2934 cone 6 DIY matte glaze: Reliable, durable, adjustable, stainableThese pieces were made from Plainsman Polar Ice and fired to cone 6 using variations on the PLC6DS and C6DHSC schedules. The dipping glaze is G2934Y, a recipe variant of G2934 having a finer micro-surface texture (it has the same chemistry but the MgO is sourced from a frit and talc instead of dolomite). These mugs display varying degrees of matteness depending on the cooling rate of their firings and the percentage of glossy G2926B base we blend in. As an MgO matte, this glaze is can have a surface very pleasant to the touch. It fires durable, can be quite matte without cutlery marking and it has very good slurry and application properties (as a dipping glaze). It has a very low thermal expansion (won’t craze). It works really well with stains (except purples). It melts even better than the glossy! Context: G2934Y, G2934, G2926B cone 6 transparent.., Souvenir mugs that demonstrate.., Mason stains in the.. Sunday 15th September 2024 Souvenir mugs that demonstrate incredible workmanship, glaze recipes, use of decalsThese porcelain mugs are sold at many tourist shops on the Alaskan cruize circuit. Made in China of course. But their quality is astounding. And they teach multiple lessons to potters - great skill in the use of decals (even inside), meeting different glazes at the rims, evenness of application, layering, the use of wax resist, etc. They likely have a glossy and matte base glaze and add stains (to get the black, blue, red, white, green). Notice they have an iron red (lower right) that is stable enough not to run and host an even more fluid melt second layer. They also have a stoney yet functional matte white (bottom left). You can make dipping glaze versions of all of these: Context: Cone 6 iron red.., Control matteness by glaze.., An ordinary white mug.., G2926B cone 6 transparent.., Mason stains in the.., Mason stains in the.., G2934 cone 6 DIY.. Friday 13th September 2024 3D printed jigger one-off case mold completeThis is revolutionary because it is now practical to make one-off jigger test molds in one step using a consumer 3D printer and no plaster original model. Draw, print, glue, pour plaster, peel off (or heat off using a hair drier) the printed PLA piece by piece and you are ready to jigger test mugs. Context: 3D render for a.., 3D-Printing, 2 19 Jiggering-Casting Project.. Monday 9th September 2024 The 3D printed hinge demonstrates the capability of a consumer printerThis was printed as an assembly. The grooves between the teeth were filled with support but it cleaned out easily. The hinge moves smoothly and has no slack. I did not draw it, I downloaded it as an upgrade to the door in my Creality K1 Max printer. Making something like this is a good lesson in the precision that consumer printers are capable of. Stratasys, a long-time maker of industrial 3D printers is suing Bambu Labs, a maker of low-cost consumer machines similar to those from Creality. Stratasys apparently sees a real threat from consumer printers that are gaining quickly, and in some ways surpassing the capabilities of industrial devices. Context: 3D-Printing Monday 9th September 2024 A cone 6 black-burning stoneware with a porcelain surface. How?Black-burning bodies are popular with many potters. This one is stained by adding 10% raw umber to a buff-burning stoneware. Umbers are powerful natural clay colorants, they have high iron and also contain some manganese oxide. Could a white engobe produce a porcelain-like surface on such a clay body? Yes. L3954B engobe was applied during leather-hard stage to this Plainsman Coffee Clay mug (on the inside and partway down the outside). After bisque, transparent G2926B glaze was applied inside and GA6-B outside. Notice the GA6-B over the engobe fires amber but over the black it produces a deep glossy brown. The engobe was mixed into a thixotropic slurry, as explained on the page at PlainsmanClays.com (see link below), and applied in a relatively thin layer. This porcelain-like result is a testament to the covering power of a true engobe. It is no wonder they are so popular in the ceramic tile industry - a red burning body can be turned white as a porcelain, that enables all the marvellous glazing and decorating they can do. Context: Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, L3954B, Can an engobe block.., The L3954B engobe page.., Manganese Inorganic Compounds Toxicology.., Manganese in Clay Bodies.. Monday 2nd September 2024 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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