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URL: About Plainsman Clays
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Plainsman dark bodies with Alberta Slip floating blue
Cone 6 mugs made from Plainsman M350 (left) and M390 dark burning cone 6 bodies. The outside glaze is Alberta-Slip-based GA6-C rutile blue and the inside is GA6-A base (20% frit 3134 and 80% Alberta Slip). That inside glaze is normally glossy transparent amber, but crystallizes to a stunning silky matte when fired using the C6DHSC schedule.
The sun. Brought to you by Plainsman Polar Ice!
The walls are very thin, yet no trimming was done to make them thin. Why? It is super plastic. Others claim to be plastic, but they use the word in a relative sense. They mean a little less flabby than other flabby porcelains! Polar ice, when it has the right water content (dewater it on a bat if needed), is tough enough to throw as large as even the most plastic stonewares. It might seem impossible that a body this translucent can be as plastic as it is and as stable in the kiln as it is. Want to know it’s recipe? Search around on this site and you will find clues in a number of places, put them together, do a little testing, and derive it yourself!
Mel Noble at Plainsman Clay's Ravenscrag, Saskatchewan quarry
Plainsman Clays extracts 6 different sedimentary clays from this quarry (Mel knows where the layers separate). The dried test bars on the right show them (top to bottom). The range of properties exhibited is astounding. The top-most layer is the most plastic and has the most iron concretion particles (used in our most speckled reduction bodies). The bottom one is the least plastic and most silty (the base for Ravenscrag Slip). The middle two are complete buff stonewares made by mother nature (e.g. M340 and H550). A2, the second one down, is a ball clay (similar to commercial products like OM#4, Bell). A2 is refractory and the base for Plainsman Fireclay. The second from the bottom fires the whitest and is the most refractory (it is the base for H441G).
John Porter visiting Plainsman Clays in 2023
John took us kids under his wing way back in the early 1970s and we have all been here ever since, working together since he left in the late 70s. Left to right: Joe Schmidt, my lab co-worker; Tim Lerner, our purchasing agent; Kirk Miller, production foreman; John Porter and me, Tony Hansen.
New batch of celebration posters at PlainsmanClays.com
Do you know a veteran potter or sculptor whose work and dedication really need to be appreciated, celebrated and remembered in more ways? Especially ones who are techno timid. In 2020 we added the ability for account-holder customers at plainsmanclays.com to submit their story and other information and upload and organize up to seven photos. With that data, the site can generate PDF posters like this. However, our intervention was required to make most of these - the artists are one of the very things we celebrate them for - really busy! So - there are many hundreds more to do. Please contact the coach, tony@digitalfire.com, if you or someone you know really should be a part of this collection. So far we have not published anything, these simply exist for our internal use at the factory and on sales calls. But we are hoping to turn them into a library at some point.
Links
| Articles |
Alberta Slip, 20 Years of Substitution for Albany Slip
Alberta Slip makes a great base for glazes because not only is it almost a complete glaze by itself but it has low thermal expansion, it works well with frits and slurry properties can be adjusted. |
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| Articles |
How to Find and Test Your Own Native Clays
Some of the key tests needed to really understand what a clay is and what it can be used for can be done with inexpensive equipment and simple procedures. These practical tests can give you a better picture than a data sheet full of numbers. |
| Articles |
Duplicating AP Green Fireclay
Few people actually understood what AP Green fireclay really was (it is no longer available). By carefully ascertaining its physical properties we were able to formulate a substitute material mix. |
| Media |
A 3-minute Mug with Plainsman Polar Ice
Tony Hansen takes you through the steps from opening the box and wedging the clay to taking the fired mug from the kiln. |
| Glossary |
Plainsman Clays
A clay mining and processing company in Southern Alberta since 1965. |
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