us pigment chemicals

The first order I placed was at US Pigment.  They generally had the best or near the best prices for each raw material.  The website and order form were simple and easy to use.  The only drawback was that they require a 1 lb. minimum for every chemical.  This is only a minor issue when it comes to the more expensive chemicals.  For example, I needed some Cobalt Carbonate which is $25 per pound.  I didn’t really want to buy a whole pound until I was sure that I would use it eventually.  There were also a few chemicals I needed that weren’t listed on their site.

seattle pottery supply chemicals

So I also placed an order at Seattle Pottery Supply.  Their website is a little awkward to use at first but I got it figured out.  They offered many chemicals in 1/4 and 1/2 pound increments which cost more “per pound” but allowed me to try more chemicals and keep the total within my budget.  At first I ordered 4 chemicals.  The next day someone called while I was at school.  They wanted to tell me that I could fit a few more pounds of materials in the box without increasing the shipping price.  I thought that was a pretty nice thing to do since I wasn’t in a hurry to get my order.  So after playing phone tag for a day or two I finally added more to my order.

The total order from US Pigment was 12 chemicals (12 lbs) for $46 including $12 for shipping.  The total from Seattle Pottery Supply was 10 chemicals (8 lbs.) for $49.90 including $12.95 for shipping.

Next Project: find/build some kind of shelves/drawers/containers to hold all these chemicals.

coyote and amaco glazes

Clay King was having a pretty good sale on glazes.  I ordered a few of my favorites (Coyote: Red Gold and Leopard Shino) and a few new colors to test (Coyote: Espresso Bean and Saturated Iron and Amaco: Frosted Turquoise and Iron Lustre).  I also ordered 10 lbs. of Pam’s Blue dry powder (by Coyote).  Finally!  As soon as I mix up the Pam’s Blue I will be able to dip and pour instead of brushing glaze onto every… single… piece…  This should drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to glaze a load of bisque ware.  I guess at first there will be a lot of blue mugs and bowls but if everything goes smoothly I hope to order some more glazes in dry powder form and mix up some large quantities.

hydrometer, sieve, glaze chemicals, kiln posts

Speaking of mixing glazes…  I needed a few more items to get the job done.  Axner had some pretty good prices on most of the stuff I needed so I ordered a hydrometer, sieve, kiln posts, and some other dry chemicals.  I hope to mix some of my own glazes in the future so I’m starting a small collection of dry chemicals.

In other not-very-exciting news I installed a more permanent light above my wheel and made a small shelf behind the wheel where I can put freshly thrown pots to dry.

In the somewhat-exciting department I have a few mugs and bowls drying on the shelf.  I just threw a few more before track practice today which need handles but I’ll try to put up some pictures before the bisque fire.  I’m trying a different kind of clay so I’m anxious to see how it fires.

Pottery Supplies

I love pottery supply yard sales!  I made a trip up to Michigan on Thursday to see my family and check out a yard sale at Crossroads Pottery.  They didn’t have the kiln shelf that I needed and I didn’t get all the posts that I wanted but I got a lot of new stuff to experiment with.  I picked up some Laguna clay and a few random dry powders.  I also got a decent scale ($3!) to replace the cheap plastic Walmart kitchen scale which was probably $5.

Bad news: this is officially my last day of summer break.  Good news: The kiln is firing as I’m typing this.

Looking back, I had a pretty good summer.  I got some work done in the clay studio and did some work around the house.  My wife and I shot a wedding and we took a class at IUSB together.  We also stayed up late most nights and got to sleep in most mornings.  We got to see my brother and his wife a couple times before they headed over to China.  We also got to hang out with family and friends and use the grill quite frequently.  I love summer…  I’ve probably spent a lot more time on the Internet than I should have but at least I have some small things to show for it. I made a few small updates to my website and created a new Resource for Potters.  I’ve even made a couple bucks with my AdSense account.  I’m also in 2nd place in my fantasy baseball league and soon I’ll start putting together my Fantasy Football draft plan.  I’ve also been keeping up on the football situation in the state of Michigan.  I wouldn’t say that I have enormous expectations for the Lions (Lions, Lions) or the Wolverines (Wolverines, Wolverines) but I expect to see some improvement.  And after all, according to Red, “…hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things…” so I’ve got that.  I just can’t believe summer break is over.  After I pull the finished pottery out of the kiln I’ll try to post some pictures if any are worth posting.  Until then, I’ll be enjoying the last few hours of summer break…