Normal Hours of Operation Open Mo-Fr 8:30-5PM, closed Sat, Sun and long weekends. Next closure for stat holiday is for Victoria Day, closed on May 19. 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. Position Available - Shipping and Receiving - as of Apr 15, 2025
Hi Everyone, Greenbarn is looking for a full time staff member, starting for a 1 year long position, to help us with warehouse work such as shipping, receiving, and other duties as required. We are happy to provide training, and we are looking for someone with an easy going personality, who meshes well as part of our team, and for someone who can take initiative. Having forklift skills would be a strong asset. Greenbarn offers you a chance to:
* learn more about this wonderful art form, increase your skills, use staff discounts
* competitive pay, vacation days, benefits package
* a Christmas/New Year break so that you can be with your family
* and a great place to work where both our friendly customers and staff have been consistent for many years
If you, or someone you know, might be interested, please have them send us their resume to sales@greenbarn.com, and we would be happy to meet with them! Thank you for your support and for reading! 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 32039; roll: now at 25% discount. Sale priced at $6.19/roll + tax - 3/8" by 10039; roll: now at 25% discount. Sale priced at $17.89/roll + tax
25% TARIFFS - Watch this space for updates, please! As of March 7, 2025, Greenbarn anticipates that some tariffs will impact our pricing. Greenbarn expects that Canada will leave all tariffs against the USA in place as long as any tariffs remain in place against Canada. Specifically, this policy may increase the pricing of the following US items by 25%. Greenbarn will attempt modify this list for our customers as the situation develops, and as we learn more details: Confirmed 25% Tariff on Skutt Kiln elements
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.
Technical Tips BlogCeramic Oxide Periodic TablePretty well all common traditional ceramic base glazes are made from only a dozen elements (plus oxygen). Materials decompose when glazes melt, sourcing these elements in oxide form. The kiln builds the glaze from these, it does not care what material sources what oxide (assuming, of course, that all materials do melt or dissolve completely into the melt to release those oxides). Each of these oxides contributes specific properties to the glass. So, you can look at a formula and make a good prediction of the properties of the fired glaze. And know what specific oxide to increase or decrease to move a property in a given direction (e.g. melting behavior, hardness, durability, thermal expansion, color, gloss, crystallization). And know about how they interact (affecting each other). This is powerful. And it is simpler than looking at glazes as recipes of hundreds of different materials (each sourcing multiple oxides and thus affects multiple properties). Context: KNaO, Li2O, ZnO, Na2O, MgO, SrO, ZrO, MnO, MnO2, V2O5, CrO3, Fe2O3, FeO, NiO, ZrO2, TiO2, SiO2, PbO, Al2O3, B2O3, BaO, Bi2O3, CaO, CoO, Cr2O3, Cu2O, CuO, SnO2, Changing Our View of.., Understanding Ceramic Oxides, Glaze Chemistry Basics -.., Ceramic Oxide, Oxide Formula, Glaze Chemistry, Decomposition, Oxides Thursday 8th May 2025 Custom-printed rib smooths this plaster surface![]() This is part of a test hybrid case mold for a Medalta Potteries ball pitcher. The bottom plate is 3D printed and the top form is solid plaster. Recessed holes in the back of the plate enable securely inserting screws into threaded anchors embedded into the back of the plaster form. The upper plaster surface has artifacts (stair-casing remnants) from the 3D printed shell used to cast it. While these could be sanded out, we find that a flexible metal rib works much better. Even better than that is this custom 3D printed rib that I made, the edges are sharp and precise. I designed it with contours to match the belly, neck and rim of this piece. Using this, it takes minutes to smooth out the surface. Context: Hybrid plaster 3D printed.. Tuesday 29th April 2025 3D printed test jar with bail-and-latch fastener![]() I have had a dream of being able to slip-cast jars with this type of fastener. Until this week, I did not even know what they are called or anything about their history. Now I do. Context: Bail-and-Latch wire clamp mechanism.., Wikipedia page about flip-top.. Sunday 27th April 2025 Amaco PC-20 vs Ravenscrag Floating blue![]() G2917, which I mixed as a brushing glaze, is on the right. This is not sold in jars, I make my own labels as part of the demonstration that it is possible to make your own brushing glazes (ink-jetted onto regular paper, cut 62mm wide (2 7/16") and held securely on with 2 7/8" transparent packing tape). This glaze is less runny but lacks some of the floating white colouration. But that can be achieved using Alberta Slip floating blue L4655, it employs titanium instead of rutile (and relies on the rutile/iron mechanism for the blue color). Context: Titanium instead of rutile.., Here is my setup.., Brushing Glaze, FLB Friday 25th April 2025 The engobe on this stainless steel spoon has not cracked in drying or firing. How?![]() This spoon was dipped into a ceramic dipping engobe, L3954B. It contains no CMC gum, it was only flocculated using powdered Epsom salts. Without the Epsom salts, the engobe runs off, leaving only a film. But, when turned into a thixotropic slurry, it stays on the spoon in an even layer (as a gel), then hardens as it dewaters (left) and finally dries completely (right). With no cracks! It also fires to cone 03 with no cracks. Of course, if this were fired high enough, it would begin to shrink, crack, crawl, melt and then craze, ceasing to be an engobe. Of course, special low-expansion frits and additives and mixing, preparation and application techniques make enamels, which do melt, possible for metals. Context: Epsom Salts, Pure feldspar applied as.., Flocculation Wednesday 23rd April 2025 A black engobe transforms the floating blue glaze over it![]() This is M340 stoneware fired to cone 6 using the C6DHSC schedule. The L3954B engobe fires deep black (it has 10% Mason 6600 black stain). The engobe was applied by pouring and dipping at leather hard stage (inside and partway down the outside). After bisque firing, the piece was glazed inside using the base GA6-B Alberta Slip amber base. The outside glaze is Alberta Slip Rutile Blue GA6-C (you are seeing it on the bare buff body near the bottoms and over the black clay surface on the uppers). Context: L3954B, GR6-M, G2826R, FLB Monday 21st April 2025 One secret of crystal glazes is firing schedule![]() The blue line is a crystal glaze firing schedule. While it reaches the same temperature as a typical glaze firing (purple line) it is different in how it does so. Notice key differences (while cone 10 is most common for this type of glaze, we will discuss theoretical differences in a cone 6 version): Context: Growing incredible glaze crystals.., Crystalline glazed vase by.., Crystalline glazes Thursday 17th April 2025 A test kiln: Enabler to testing glazesAnd to evolving your own glaze recipes![]() The evolution of the quality and aesthetics of your work, and even your ability to cut costs, are stunted when you depend too much on others (e.g. for firing, for premixed glazes). This mug is a good example of tests I need to do. This is G3933, made by adding iron oxide, rutile and tin oxide to a 75:25 blend of our base matte and glossy glazes (G2926B and G2934). Context: The recipe mixing area.., A test kiln with.., A modern electric test.., Commercial hobby brushing glazes.. Thursday 17th April 2025 Hybrid plaster/3D printed PLA mold demoIt leverages the advantages of both materials![]() The challenge: Create a 3D printed case mold that incorporates a plaster section just for the finished surface. Context: Custom-printed rib smooths this.., v9 Hybrid 3D-Printed Plaster.. Wednesday 16th April 2025 Magic tile assembles organically, never creating a patternAvailable on the Downloads page ![]() This is the most complex shape known that can fit together organically, without a pattern (dubbed the Einstein tile, it was discovered by mathematicians in 2023). It has six sides of 1 unit length, six of 1÷1.73205080757 and one side measuring twice the latter. Placing the tiles is tricky because it is only logical to seek a pattern, but there is none. One method is to start with a center tile and move outward in a spiral, being ready to backtrack and place them upside down when a piece cannot be fit. The tile shape is a product of connecting four identical irregular pentagons - each made by cutting a regular hexagon into three pieces. To achieve the maximum precision, 3D print multiple cookie cutters and let them stiffen and shrink in the cutters. To round the upper corners use stretch wrap) when stamping (print cutters in both orientations if doing this). Tiling a floor or wall will present issues with the number of edge tiles that need to be cut. However, cutting at least some custom edge shapes is practical because only 90 and 120 degree angles are needed. Context: Making complex ceramic tile.., Make multiple cookie cutters.., 3D-printed cookie cutters used.., Video Create a cookie.., Mathematicians have discovered an.., Einstein Problem on Wikipedia.., 3D Design, Cookie Cutting clay with.. Wednesday 16th April 2025 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
Phone: 604-888-3411, FAX: 604-888-4247, Email: sales@greenbarn.com