NEW Mason Stain Reds!

Mason K5987 Red, Mason K5988 Dark Red, and Mason K5997 Cherry Red (shown here in 1/4# bags for either $10.50 or $10.65 each, depending on color) are brand new encapsulated cadmium/selenium sulfides which are very safe to use and stable from extremely low temperatures to Cone 11/12. They can be used in underglazes, added to existing glazes, mixed with water to an inky consistency and brushed on over glazes, in slips, and even as a body stain. They can also be blended with many of the Mason regular, non-cadmium stains to achieve many variations of colors not normally possible with the chrome-tin crimson/pink varieties. This color is NOT affected by normal amounts of boron and should take reduction conditions under most circumstances!

Reference
1 (Can be used as a body stain at high temperatures)
3 (Max Temp = 2300°F)
6 (May be used with or without zinc)

Slap Stix - New Product

Slap Stix are hard plastic texturing paddles from Custom Design Manufacturing in Liberty, Missouri. Create interesting and unique textures on both handbuilt and thrown pottery. Each of the eight paddles have two different texture designs.

TileMaker 6.0 by Daniel Gegen Designs

This new item ensures that making standard square tiles is a breeze. Perfect for classrooms, home studios, or busy pros. It comes with everything you need to get started. The main part of the tile maker is the large MDF form with the inset square tile shape. MDF shims are included so you can achieve three different thicknesses of tiles: 1/4", 3/8", or 1/2". Select the shim (or combination of shims) for the thickness you want then slide in a slip of 6" x 6" paper on top of the shims. The paper (cutting up old newspaper works well) prevents the clay from sticking to the shim and makes moving your tile easy when it's finished.

Once you've set up the TileMaker with shims and newspaper, you're ready to smoosh clay into the form. Start at the corners with soft clay and squish it in tightly, then work your way around the edges, then finally fill in the middle. Add more clay than you'll need - a slight bulge above the top of the form is preferable. Grab the rectangular piece of MDF and use it to scrape it across and level the clay. Start at the middle and work your way out to each edge as you scrape to further compress the clay into the form. You might need to take a moment to fill in a few voids of clay then re-scrape for the smoothest, most even surface. When you're finished smoothing, use the big square with the peg on top. Position the tile form on top, lining up the peg with the hole underneath the tile form. Gripping opposite edges of the form firmly, push down evenly so the tile pops out cleanly. Transfer your new tile with the paper underneath it to a worktable, shelf, or ware board, then start all over to make the next uniform 6" tile!

Nickel prices skyrocket

According to our supplier, the market for nickel is fairly volatile right now and prices on chemicals including nickel have increased substantially. Unfortunately, that means that our prices on Nickel Carbonate and Nickel Oxide have gone up dramatically, too. Nickel Carbonate is now up to $26 per pound and Nickel Oxide is $36 per pound (half pound amounts are available for both of these chems).

Long time, no posts

It's been a long time since I actually posted anything here. Sorry! It's been a crazy summer around here - busier than normal. Some things wind up getting lost in the shuffle, and this blog was one of them. I'll be posting more regularly again. It's good to be back!

NEW Opulence Cone 6 dry glazes

If you fire in the cone 5 or cone 6 range, these luscious new satiny glazes from Opulence will really excite you. The earthy hues of Bark and Chicory or the soft, spring-like tones of Everglade and Meadow could make a nice addition to your existing palette of colors. Try 1 pound sample bags of any of the colors for $6.00 each or go for the quantity-based discount for 5 pound bags of several (5 pounds makes about a gallon of glaze).

NCECA Conference in Portland Oregon

The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, otherwise known as NCECA (typically pronounced en-seek-ah), had their 40th annual conference in Portland, Oregon, from March 8th through March 11th. The focus of this year's conference was Explorations and Navigations: The Resonance of Place. I'm not exactly sure how they tied it to clay and ceramics, but there's usually some esoteric link. I've been to about a dozen of these conferences and I rarely pay attention to the "title" of the conference. Bracker's had two booth spaces at the conference and we rarely got out of the booth to explore the actual conference. It's so much fun to talk with potters from all over the country and even worldwide. A lot of lovely Canadians crossed the boarder to visit the conference this year, as well as some potters from France, England, Australia, and several Pacific Rim countries. I'm sure there were others, but I lost track. We introduced some fun new products, and I'll tell you all about them over the next couple of days.

Event - Souper Bowl Saturday

The Lawrence Arts Center will host the 7th Annual Souper Bowl Saturday on February 4, beginning at 11 am. Word to the wise: In the past, this event has had people lining up and down the block to purchase handmade ceramic bowls and a hearty lunch of soup from HyVee and Great Harvest Bread, all for a $10 donation.

This event benefits the ceramics program each year, and it's always a lot of fun besides. Last year the Arts Center used the proceeds to repair our ceramic kilns, give scholarships for ceramics classes, and purchase studio materials.

All bowls sold are handcrafted by area artists, community members and students. During this event anyone in the community can purchase a bowl of soup with bread for a minimum donation of $10 - and keep the bowl!

Teacher's Roundtable Discussion Sessions

The Teacher's Roundtable sessions last year were a great success, and this year will be even better! We have two days of discussion sessions - Saturday, Feb. 11th for K-8 teachers and Saturday, Feb 18th for Secondary teachers. Junior High/Middle School teachers can choose either session (or both!), depending on their own needs. The cost is only $15.00 per day.

We can't stress enough how beneficial this is for teachers of all levels of experience. New teachers are energetic and excited about teaching, but sometimes unprepared for some of the actual classroom stuff they weren't taught in college. More experienced teachers can get bored teaching the same types of projects over and over. The Roundtable Discussion Sessions allow teachers of all levels of experience to learn from each other.

Last year, sessions focused on things like ways to offer exciting projects on a shoestring budget or sharing information on the best ways to navigate the administrative maze. The sessions this year feature an exciting variety of topics. The K-8 teachers can learn about integrating music, math, and other curricula into clay and art; navigating the fine line between encouraging a student and giving them a false sense of accomplishment when assessing their art; and including historic and cultural lessons while teaching art without overstepping the delicate boundaries of religion. The Secondary teachers will be able to share information about teaching figurative sculpture while avoiding the typical high school giggles; testing student abilities with teapot construction and study; integrating music, math, and other curricula into clay and art; and keeping the interest of freshmen in beginning art/clay classes with age-appropriate projects, especially on a budget.

These sessions are geared toward teachers in a school system, but art center teachers could learn a lot too. Anyone is welcome!

PDF Library - AMACO & Spectrum Glaze Color Charts

I added PDFs of the AMACO Glaze Color Charts and Spectrum Glaze Color Charts for online viewing or downloading. These are great for people who want to look at all of the colors in a series at once or print out something for later reference. Please keep in mind that color pictures of glazes are not as accurate as making a test tile of the glaze yourself. Different computer monitors and color printers can also affect the accuracy of the glaze colors.

I'll be adding Laguna glaze color chart PDFs next, along with a few miscellaneous files. Then I might try to tackle MSDS for clays and chemicals. That's a huge job, though, with a lot of typing and coding.

Driving the Porsche

Our web tech, Phil, is responsible for all the macho web site coding in cold fusion and maintaining the technical aspects of our product database and the really techie-geeky things like that. The look-and-feel, as well as the content, is primarily my responsibility (along with Cindy, who helps out more than I can even thank her for). My web skills are entirely self-taught over the past couple of years. It's kind of been on a need-to-know basis. I recently upgraded my web software to the latest version (Dreamweaver and Fireworks, for those who care). Fiddling around with certain files helps me to learn the new tricks and tips of the new software. I started off small, and Phil and I joked about how I had taken over a little of the driving of the web site. As I progressed, so did the joke. After I took the next baby step of changing a design or two on the web site, I called Phil and joked that I used to just drive the Chevette, but I had upgraded to driving a Honda. Later on, I called Phil to ask him about how to do another trick. After he explained it to me, he told me he had just given me the keys to the Porsche.

Well, I've been speeding along in the Porsche for the past couple of days. For most of you, it's probably not a big deal - or even very noticable. But for me, it's a huge step. I've been adjusting the graphics of the site template. For example, we used to have a series of pottery-related pictures at the top of the page. I've changed that to a clay-colored texture background. Overall they are very small changes, but I have been learning a lot that will help me make bigger changes that are going to increase content and functionality of the site as I continue working.