Sweeping changes with Mason Stains

Blended Material Inventory Change
What Mason Says (quoted from the Mason Color website):
Basically, we will be reducing the number of inventoried pigments from around 160 to about 100. Each color section will be impacted, some more severely than others. All of our existing pigments that are manufactured as single calcinations will continue to be offered as they have been for the last 100 plus years. The majority of blended pigments will no longer be held in our inventory after the current supply is gone. A full listing of all the blended pigments will be available to you, including up-to-date inventory levels and the formulas that will enable you to make your own blends from the large supply of pigments currently being manufactured. Since it is customary in ceramic businesses to blend colors to achieve a desired shade, we do not expect this to be a problem.


Mason Stain Changes
What Bracker's Says (how these changes will affect Bracker's and our customers):
Oh, my...you should have seen the look on Anne W.'s face when we heard this news. Shock and awe, people. It was complete and utter shock and awe. The new color chart (now available) looks pitifully small compared to the previous chart (no longer available). At this point, we have a decent supply of all the colors that we currently carry. We'll sell the blended colors we have in stock and will continue for as long as we can get them blended. But we'll also provide you with the chart of how to blend the single calcination colors together to get the other colors for which you are familiar. For example, if you love 6265 Leaf Green, you'll just need to blend 67% 6204 Victoria Green and 33% 6219 French Green to get the same Leaf Green color. We strongly recommend that before the existing supply of stains runs out, you try blending a few of them yourself to see the original and the version you have to blend yourself in a side-by-side test.

We expect that we will have to explain this issue a couple hundred times and do a lot of hand-holding throughout the change, but that's what we're here for. Check out the NEWS section of the Mason website (3 pages into the news section as of this posting) for even more details or give us a call. Our current website will NOT reflect these changes immediately, but please be patient with us.