Min

@cp dunbar, our main admin contact, @Jennifer Harnetty is off for a couple weeks but I'll forward your post to @Kaitlynne Flanigan, she might be able to get you on the right track. If not then when @Jennifer Harnetty returns I'll let her know. (I'm afraid this isn't something mods can sort out)

Pottery supply places sometimes have a notice board where you can post used equipment. Pottery Supply House (same company as Euclid) has a webpage of used equipment being sold by private sellers. https://psh.ca/pages/buy-and-sell (probably more places, don’t know) The repair people that pottery supply places refer people to can be another good resource for used equipment or leads.

I heard back from Laguna about the Cim Talc they are now carrying. The chart below is what I was sent, apart from a minuscule bit of alumina and slightly less LOI it's the same as what @Hulk linked to above in his last link. I noticed the data from the chart Laguna sent is from 2016. I did a side by side comparison of Amtalc-C98 (aka amtalc, amtal and the old pioneer talc). I entered Cim Talc from the Laguna info. The Cim Talc does have more SiO2 which I would rebalance in recipes having more than a small amount of talc in them. I picked a random fairly high talc recipe and ran it with both Amtalc-C98 and Cim Talc, shows the silica difference and very minuscule differences in calcium, magnesium and alumina. I would reduce the silica in the Cim Talc recipe to equal the Amtalc formula. The calcium and alumina differences are more than likely insignificant given the analysis from Laguna had both the calcium and alumina oxides at <3 and <1 respectively. I'll pin this thread as I'm sure the "new" talc topic will come up again.

Mother of Pearl. It looks a bit like the inside of an abalone shell but much lighter.

I emailed Rose at Laguna asking about it, she passed my question onto tech so hopefully we'll get confirmation from them that it's the same (or close to) what @Hulk linked from Digitalfire. Depending on how much talc is in the recipe it might need some tweaking of silica and calcium.

Hi Mark, do you have the chem analysis for the new CimTalcs? (I couldn't find it when I did a search)

@Griffox, I'll let admin know.

I’ll send @Jennifer Harnetty a message asking her to look into your issues.

This question is kind of like asking who's your favourite child. Somedays one can be a "problem" child but on other days they can shine. For a glaze colourant /visual texturizer I can't do without I'ld have to choose rutile, but then again not all rutile behaves as well as others so it too can be a problem child. As far as consistency goes cobalt has always done what it's supposed to do.

Honestly, some days my favourite technique would be to get someone else to do it.

@GEP, the Saftey Data Sheet for the speckled clay body you like should indicate if there is manganese in the body.

Hi Susie, I'll forward your post to admin to resolve. Welcome to the forum.

Links have been updated to the 1.91 version of the EuCal. User Guide (updated also) and the EuCal can be read and used by anyone, the link to the 2018 CM article is behind a paywall but everyone can access 3 free articles a month so it's available that way to people without a subscription. All links in the first post in this thread.

Pots such as your platter that are for functional use should be fired to the clays maturity. If you used a clay that matures at cone 9 then it's best to fire to that. If you have spend the past 2 months working on these pots I wouldn't rush things now just to get them fired. I know it can be a real temptation to get pots glazed but it can also be a big disappointment if things don't go according to plan. Do you by chance have a scrap pot or some test tiles made with the same clay? If you do I would strongly suggest to try out your underglazes on that with your cone 9 glaze and fired to cone 9. Even if you just have bisque fired test tiles or a scrap pot and don't want to re-bisque the underglazes on it's worth doing. If you find some of the underglazes burn off on your test piece(s) you could cover them with another layer of underglaze that you find doesn't burn off. Preferably testing this first too. Welcome to the forum.

Best selling lower price point item for the amount of work involved would be my little tubs (with black walnut spoon). Mugs always sell well. Higher price point best seller are my swirl serving dishes. Edit: I don't get the opportunity to soda fire very often but when I do anything that comes out of the kiln fairly decent sells quickly.

If they ship to Europe chineseclayart has this one: https://www.chineseclayart.com/Store/Search?Query=mallet

Acquisition of Ferro Corp went through recently so our Ferro frit supplies might suffer a hiccup, or not, don't know. Maybe it will be good news and the prices will come down. (insert laugh here) For any of us firing low or midrange this could be something to stay on top of. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210909005779/en/Ferro-Shareholders-Approve-Acquisition-by-an-Affiliate-of-Prince

Hi Bryan, send me a PM for the email address you would like me to send it to you. Admin has been tied up with some glitches with the new CAN website so this has been on the back burner longer than anticipated.

Hi Jasmine and welcome to the forum. Lustres are an overglaze so it's best not to use your Hanovia Opal on bisque. I would suggest using a gloss glaze on it first then applying your lustre and firing to the recommended cone, gold lustres are usually fired to cone 018 and mother of pearl lusters to cone 020. Lustres take on the finish of the underlying glaze so a matte glaze will give a matte result, gloss will give gloss. You really need to work outdoors if possible and if not then work in a really well ventilated space, either way you also must wear a respirator rated for vapours not just dusts. For firing, load the kiln loosely and keep it well ventilated, just your regular glaze firing should be fine but obviously you will be firing much much cooler. (That zero at the front of the cone 018 is important!)

I'll ask admin if they can replace the clickable link in the first post in this thread to the 1.91 updated version. I'm using a Mac and it comes up fine with Numbers. edit: admin is tied up until the beginning of October. If anyone needs this before then send me a pm and I'll email it to you.

I couldn't find the mesh size on the Laguna site so I emailed them and asked. Rosanne Sloane replied saying it's a 48 mesh grog in the ^5 B-Mix with grog.

If @Dick White is okay with this then absolutely yes. Thank you.

I believe B-Mix with grog is going to be much finer than 35 mesh. I'm guessing it's more like an 80 mesh.

Have you tried just using the B-Mix with grog that you already have? I've used that for raku with good success.

Sounds about right, depends on how quickly you are heating and cooling the pots etc. Fine or medium grog? If you guesstimate the wet clay having around 20% water you will be a bit over your 20% grog target but it should be close enough. Have you tried cut and slam wedging to get the grog mixed in? Video below if you need it. When I've added grog (or sand) to clay I make a rough block shape with the clay, slice it up and sprinkle the grog on each layer then slam them together. Add water with a spray bottle as you need. Once the grog is layered into the block then do the slice and slam wedging to get it mixed in. https://youtu.be/HApNjUnI9U4