Season's Greetings and Raw Material Updates !

• Posted on 14 December 2023
• By Tucker's Pottery Supplies
• Posted in clay, raw materials, tuckers clay, tuckers pottery supplies
• 1

Wishing all our customers a safe and happy holiday season! Read on for the latest on raw materials!

Hello Everyone,

Firstly, I would like to thank you for your wonderful support again this year. We appreciate your business, and our staff works very hard to get your orders out effectively and in a timely manner. We look forward to servicing your pottery supply needs in 2024.

As you are likely aware by now, Gerstley Borate, a popular glaze material is no longer available. We have had good luck replacing it with Gillespie Borate, but please also test in your own conditions. A great advantage of Gillespie Borate is that it is a man made material, and therefore should not fall to the same demise as some of the mined materials that we've witnessed this past year.

EPK, another glaze staple, is still being mined, but is very hard to get. Our orders are taking months longer to process than normal, and we are never certain of an ETA. Because of the inconsistency of supply, we do still suggest making adjustments to your recipes to use more abundantly available kaolins. We have had good luck with Diamond Kaolin as a replacement, but again, please test. We do have EPK available in limited quantities currently, but as mentioned before, that availability is not consistent.

The latest material to come off of the market is Custer Feldspar. Custer is a potash feldspar, and we have 2 replacements. We stock Mahavir, which should be a 1:1 replacement for Custer, and we also stock G-200 EU, which should be a 1:1 replacement for the old G-200 if you still have recipes calling for that. You should consider testing them both to see which one is the best fit for your glazes.

I am also pleased to announce that we have a treat for 2024. We will be resuming hosting our Warehouse Workshop Series. We have a few small details to iron out still, but we have some fantastic names lined up for you. Early in January you can expect us to reveal the details of who and when the workshops will be. We are very excited about this, as the last one we did was pre-Covid. The workshops are a great learning opportunity, but also a chance for us to meet you and put real time faces to names…as well as for you to connect with your compatriots in the pottery world.

Lastly, please note that we will be giving our staff their traditional holiday break. We will be closing at 12:00 noon on Friday, December 22nd…and we will re-open at 8:30 am January 2nd, 2024.

All of us here at Tucker's Pottery Supplies and Cone Art Kilns wish you and your loved ones a very happy holiday season.

Sincerely,
Frank Tucker
Tucker’s Pottery Supplies Inc.