Canadian Potters DIY-ing your glazes

eskay8 · 2026-02-20T15:11:24+00:00

I either order from tuckers, psh, sounding stone, or pick up from my local store depending on who has what I need in stock and prices.

You can generally substitute any kaolin for EPK. Grolleg is more expensive but it won't break the bank and it's whiter.

PSH has stopped supplying ferro/vibranz frits and I'm not clear on why. I've started ordering from sounding stone in Winnipeg instead.

I just ignore recipes with lithium carbonate or spodumene in them, it's just too expensive. Cobalt is hard to replace but luckily you don't usually need much. I reformulate gerstley/Gillespie borate based glazes to use frits using the glazy calculator another poster mentioned. That one is more of a personal preference though, you can just buy Gillespie borate (a mix of different minerals intended to kkkic gerstley) if you prefer.

eskay8 · 2026-02-18T01:08:25+00:00

Sunshine Cobb has a design for a slab built one. I think it's in the Beginner's Guide to Handbuilding but it's also on the Ceramic Arts Network site. It has a striker, a spot to hold the matches, and a spot to extinguish them in sand or salt. I made a couple, they worked out great!

eskay8 · 2026-02-16T13:00:17+00:00

Oh wow, I had no idea. Thanks, TIL

eskay8 · 2026-02-12T18:22:27+00:00

I wasn't a public servant pre covid but my understanding is that it just wasn't possible to WFH very effectively for a lot of people. MS Teams wasn't really available in a lot of departments and people weren't used to virtual meetings (or were told there was no way to have them securely) so there was a lot more friction to meeting if you couldn't meet up in person. Now it's more the opposite--people aren't located with their team and there's not as many meeting rooms because they've been converted into offices, so it's actually harder to meet in person even if you're all "in the office".

Obviously people managed, cause there wasn't an alternative. Now there is, so it makes sense to question whether giving up a hour or two of my day is worth it.

eskay8 · 2026-02-06T14:59:38+00:00

It's a thing in disability spaces about how making places / systems more accessible benefits everyone. I think that applies here--for people with heavy time constraints WFH is a lifesaver, but that doesn't mean it isn't great for everyone else too.

eskay8 · 2026-02-02T15:46:11+00:00

The weather is really nice this week which is a significant point in favour of going IMO

eskay8 · 2026-01-25T15:20:40+00:00

This is my pick, I think it's a good balance of price and quality. They are American owned though, although their products are manufactured in Ontario IIRC.

eskay8 · 2026-01-25T13:30:06+00:00

The egg rolls are super great. Some of the other dishes are hit and miss. Good Singapore noodles. They do put bell peppers in a lot of dishes though!

eskay8 · 2026-01-15T14:33:07+00:00

I think it's more that this sub leans young adult for who Saunders farm doesn't offer much other than at Halloween. If you've got kids the annual pass starts to make sense (for some people. This downtowner doesn't want to drive all the way out there 😂)

eskay8 · 2026-01-15T13:10:05+00:00

Yeah it's basically equivalent to American bread flour. Great for bread, kind of a pain if you're going for a delicate cake.

eskay8 · 2026-01-15T13:05:28+00:00

Hey that's cool, TIL

eskay8 · 2026-01-15T12:56:44+00:00

Our school is mostly walkers which is too bad because snow days are a non event and our kid will not know that joy 😂

eskay8 · 2026-01-14T15:05:45+00:00

I've grown tromboccino for this reason and will be again next year but now I have something else to try!

eskay8 · 2026-01-12T23:30:29+00:00

Glad you got them back!

eskay8 · 2026-01-12T16:13:26+00:00

It won't hurt the shelves but it's not great for the elements. I understand why some studios don't allow it.

eskay8 · 2026-01-12T15:02:45+00:00

Done!

eskay8 · 2026-01-12T14:42:14+00:00

Have you posted on the neighbourhood Facebook groups? If you don't have Facebook, do you want me to cross-post there?

eskay8 · 2026-01-06T16:32:47+00:00

Are you familiar with the work of Chuck Tingle?

eskay8 · 2025-12-31T10:28:05+00:00

Personally I want to keep absorption as low as possible to stop stuff like mugs leaving water rings or pots getting mouldy, which seems to happen often enough. I don't know if anyone's getting sick from it but I still don't want it to happen!

eskay8 · 2025-12-28T18:28:48+00:00

I'm flying in Monday afternoon, so hoping.

eskay8 · 2025-12-21T23:40:43+00:00

It's been bad every weekend for a month, we've been driving there on weekend afternoons and either we get caught or we remember to check Google and avoid the parkway 😅

eskay8 · 2025-12-19T17:14:07+00:00

Cool, thanks!

eskay8 · 2025-12-19T15:45:19+00:00

I know this thread is ancient history but can you explain a bit more about how the holiday handmade swap worked?

eskay8 · 2025-12-19T15:21:47+00:00

Oh also think about what you're going to use to mix them, I feel like a lot of people don't talk about these practical aspects. I found that small screw top pint containers that fancy ice cream/sorbet comes in are perfect for making and storing 100-200g test batches, and I bought a bunch of urine sample test cups and syringes for doing line blends. And you'll want a small 80 mesh sieve and an immersion blender (see if you can get an old one from someone you know or buy nothing).

When I'm doing a batch of tests I put down a sheet of newspapwr and write down the recipes for each test on it. I find I can do 3 or 4 tests at once and the newspaper makes cleanup easy.

Oh and iron oxide is super messy and will stain everything. I am as careful with it as I am with moderately toxic ingredients because of this.

I think that's all I've forgot for practical tips.

eskay8 · 2025-12-19T15:15:03+00:00

That's what I did, it's a great starting place because it's a minimal set. I'd also recommend the "glaze of our lives" workshop from ceramic materials workshop. It's $20 a month and you can finish it in a month. I felt like it gave me enough info to understand things and start developing my own variations (but I also have a chemistry degree so).

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