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 BlogHere is why you don't want an engobe to fire too vitreousToo much frit in an engobe and it will lose opacity and whiteness. The white slip on the left is an adjustment to the popular "Fish Sauce" slip recipe (L3685A: 8% Frit 3110 replaces 8% Pyrax to make it harder and fire-bond to the body better). The one on the right, L3685C, has 15% frit. Although applied at the same thickness, it is becoming translucent, moving it into glaze territory. That means it will have a far higher firing shrinkage than the body (a common cause of shivering at lips and contour changes). This slip is basically a very plastic white body. Since white burning slips are made from refractory materials they are not nearly as vitreous as red ones, at low fire they need help to mature and a frit is the natural answer. With the right amount of frit the fired shrinkage of body and slip can be matched and the slip will be opaque. This underscores the need to tune the maturity of an engobe to the body and temperature. Although zircon could be added to the one on the right to opacify and whiten it, that would not fix the mismatch in fired shrinkage between it and the body. And it would increase the price. Context: L3685U, Creating a Non-Glaze Ceramic.., Bi-Clay strips test compatibility.., Potters can learn from.., Applying an engobe by.., Here is motivation to.., Engobe, Opacity Saturday 19th October 2024 A method to make a two-part slip casting mold in one pourThis is part of a project to create a new mold. I have to make various iterations to arrive at a final design where rubber will be used to make the case mold. But until then I will 3D print the case mold directly. Here are some features that make this super cool: Context: How to 3D-design a.., 2 19 Jiggering-Casting Project.., Medalta Ball Pitcher Slip.. Saturday 19th October 2024 Here is what happens when a glaze has too much raw clayThis is an example of how a glaze that contains too much plastic clay has been applied too thick. It shrinks and cracks during drying and is guaranteed to crawl. This is raw Alberta Slip. To solve this problem you need to tune a mix of raw and roasted clay. Enough raw clay is needed to suspend the slurry and dry it to a hard surface, but enough calcine is needed to keep the shrinkage low enough that this cracking does not happen. Perhaps you have been using a glaze having a high percentage of clay and this does not happen - the reason is likely that the clay is not highly plastic. Context: Alberta Slip, Alberta Slip 19 F.., G2934 cone 6 matte.., Crawling, Glaze Shrinkage, Glaze thickness, Subsitute Gerstley Borate in.., Powdering Cracking and Settling.. Monday 14th October 2024 Is Ferro Frit 3124 a viable substitute for Frit 3134?This is a GLFL test comparing the melt flow of the three materials at 1800F. Frit 3124 is barely out of the starting gate and the other two have crossed the finish line! With frits chemistry is a big deal, they are all about supplying oxides to the melt. Frit 3134 is low-alumina/high-boron, 3124 is medium-alumina/low-boron and 3195 is medium-alumina/high-boron. Boron is the melter. Alumina thickens the melt and hardens the glass. Just from this it appears that Frit 3195 is a better starting point for calculations to replace frit 3134. Context: Substitute Ferro Frit 3134.., Material Substitution, Substitute Ferro Frit 3134.. Monday 14th October 2024 3D printed mold tests of embossed logoWe want to achieve embossed lettering inside the foot rings of slip-cast ceramic pieces by using a standard consumer 3D printer with PLA filament. There are plenty of obstacles to overcome in doing this. Since plaster does not release well at all from lettering having sharp corners, bevelling has to be done. However, our CAD software has problems rounding the corners of many fonts, I had to search for one having no variations in stroke width. Then it was a matter of discovering how much to extrude and how much bevelling it would tolerate - this one permits a 1 mm extrusion with a 0.6 radius bevel. Saturday 12th October 2024 Extreme handle fitting: A Medalta v.5 ball pitcherThis handle mold 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) and slice off and remove the pointy parts (a step-by-step video coming soon). Bottom left: A ready-to-use mold. Notice how it fits perfectly onto the side of the pitcher form (bottom right). Because of the good fit, attaching these is just a matter of using some casting slip as the glue. Casting this handle separately affords multiple benefits: It simplifies making the mold of the pitcher itself, of extracting pieces after casting and it produces a more professional-looking product (without holes inside where the handles join). And, handles can be stockpiled in a damp box, ready to use when needed. Context: Printing an entire one-off.., Pour spout for complex.., Medalta Ball Pitcher Slip.. Friday 4th October 2024 Serious 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 Reasons for low fire: Underglazing, color, transparency, fired stabilityYou 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, Transparent Glazes 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 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. |
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