Pottery blog

A first-week setup for Claybook. Create your library, add a clay body, log a project, and learn the tools that turn studio notes into a searchable pottery journal.

Save a pottery clay body in Claybook with brand, cone, density, and shrinkage so the weight estimator and shrinkage calculator use your real bag, not a guess.

Attach wet, glaze-day, and fired photos to a Claybook pottery record, and add photos to glazes so you can recognize each surface at a glance.

Update a whole kiln load at once in Claybook. Select every piece from the firing, add a Bisqued or Finished step, move the location, and tag the load in a few taps.

Use Claybook's shrinkage calculator to throw to a target fired size, or predict how much a wet pot will shrink. Pick your clay body, enter dimensions, and read wet-to-fired numbers.

Duplicate a Claybook pottery record into as many copies as you need so matching mugs, bowls, or test tiles share clay, glaze, and notes without retyping.

Use Claybook's clay weight estimator to turn a target mug, bowl, or vase size into a starting weight in grams, including shrinkage and an optional foot trim.

Scan your studio's Claybook QR flyer to unlock lessons, practice, and pottery logging on the studio plan. Create an account, redeem, and start logging pieces the same day.

Create a pottery project in Claybook with a name, clay, shape, photos, steps, and glaze notes so you can repeat the pieces that work.

Record Formed, Trimmed, Bisqued, Glazed, and Finished steps on a Claybook project, including weight, time, and notes, so each pot has a timeline you can search.

Find any pot in Claybook by name, clay, glaze, step, location, tag, or date. Use filters after a firing or when a customer asks for another piece like the last one.

Save studio glazes as surfaces in Claybook, add a photo so you can spot them, then log method and how many layers you applied on each pot.

A practical troubleshooting guide for early pottery frustrations like air bubbles, S-cracks, heavy bottoms, and wobbly walls.

Simple hand-built and wheel-thrown pottery project ideas for beginners who want confidence-building wins in the first month.

Learn how to make a pinch pot with even walls, a stable base, and a clean rim. The best first pottery project if you have never touched clay.

Five practical ways to practice pottery between studio classes using sketching, mental reps, planning, and simple hand exercises.

Why potters wedge clay, how to do spiral and ram's head wedging, and how to tell when the clay is mixed, de-aired, and ready to throw.

Learn the pottery clay stages from wet to bone dry, how to tell them apart by feel, and which jobs belong at each stage so pots stop cracking and collapsing.

What pottery is, how a pot moves from wet clay to finished piece, and how to start without feeling lost.

The essential beginner pottery tools worth buying now, plus the gear you can wait on so you save money and skip the overwhelm.

Why clay cracks while drying, trimming, or firing, including S-cracks, handle splits, and kiln shocks, plus the habits that stop most of them.

A clear beginner pottery progression from pinch pot to mug, with skills to master at each step before moving on.

A step-by-step guide to coil pottery. How to roll even coils, stack and blend them, shape a curved vase, and avoid the cracks and slumping that catch most beginners.

Start pottery at home without a wheel. Which clay to buy, the handbuilding methods that work on a kitchen table, how to get your pieces fired, and ten things to make first.

Learn slab pottery from scratch. Rolling an even slab, the right thickness, joining pieces without cracks, and five first projects that work without a wheel.

Ten focused pottery wheel exercises for centering, coning, cylinders, off-the-hump cups, and wobble diagnosis to sharpen technique fast.

A practical centering guide covering posture, sticking clay down, coning, pressure, and how to know when clay is truly centered.

Learn to pull a mug handle from a lug of clay, curve it, attach it at the right moment, and make a set of handles that look like they belong together.

Learn how to throw an even pottery cylinder with better pulls, floor compression, rim care, and wall consistency.

Throw a lidded jar with a lid that fits. How to make a gallery, measure with calipers, choose between a drop lid and a flanged lid, and fire the pair without them fusing.

Throw a functional pottery mug body on the wheel, then pull and attach a handle that lasts through daily use.

Why plates are the hardest simple form on the wheel, how to throw a flat floor with a clean rim, and how to dry and trim a plate so it stays flat through the kiln.

Learn how to throw a lighter pottery bowl with better curves, floor planning, collapse prevention, and trimming awareness.

Learn throwing off the hump, the production technique of throwing several small pots from one mound of clay. Setup, weights, cutting off cleanly and making a matching set.

A practical guide to trimming pottery at leather hard, from recentering the pot to cutting a clean, stable foot ring on cylinders and bowls.

Learn pottery wheel throwing from the ground up, including posture, wheel speed, hand placement, centering, and water control.

Diagnose why your clay will not center on the pottery wheel, with ten practical fixes for posture, water, wedging, speed, and wobble.

Compare earthenware and stoneware on firing temperature, strength, porosity, color, glazing and cost, then choose the right clay for mugs, planters, tableware and sculpture.

Starting clay weights for small, medium, and large bowls, and why depth and width change how much clay you need.

Starting clay weights for common mug sizes, plus a free estimator so you can plan matching sets and save notes in Claybook.

Starting clay weights for bud vases to tall bottles, height-to-weight ratios, and tips for enclosed forms and sectional throwing.

A practical reclaim workflow for pottery scrap: slake bone-dry clay, dry it back to plastic, wedge it, and test it before it goes back on the wheel.

Learn how clay shrinks from wet to fired, how to work backward from finished size, and how to use Claybook's free shrinkage calculator.

Compare stoneware and porcelain for throwing, durability, glaze color, and beginner friendliness so you can pick the right clay body.

Bookmarkable starting clay weights for 50+ pottery forms, from mugs and bowls to plates, vases, and handbuilding projects.

A clear beginner guide to earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain, including firing ranges, strength, and how to choose a clay body.

How to load an electric kiln for bisque and glaze firings. Shelf and post placement, spacing, what can touch, and the mistakes that cause fused pots, cracked ware and uneven results.

What oxidation and reduction firing mean, how the atmosphere in a kiln changes clay and glaze colors, which kilns do each, and why reduction needs careful ventilation.

A realistic introduction to pit and barrel firing. How burnished pots, combustibles and fire create smoky surfaces, how to prepare, the safety rules to follow, and why results are unpredictable.

A plain-English pottery cone chart with temperatures in Celsius and Fahrenheit, what low, mid and high fire mean, and how to match your clay and glaze to the right cone.

How raku firing works, from preparing pots to pulling them red hot and reducing them in combustibles. What makes it different, what to wear, and why raku pots are not for food.

Fifty inspiration pairings and layering recipes using generic glaze-type language, plus a simple way to log what actually works in your studio.

What bisque firing and glaze firing are, typical cones and temperatures, why pottery is fired twice, and how to know when a pot is ready for each kiln load.

Is handmade pottery microwave and dishwasher safe? What makes a pot hold up, a simple water test for the microwave, which finishes to avoid and how to word the label for buyers.

Identify the most common pottery glaze defects, from crazing and shivering to pinholes, blisters and crawling, with the usual cause and the first fix to try for each.

Clear guidance on glaze thickness for brushing and dipping, plus how to compare coats with simple test pieces.

A practical system for making, labeling, firing, and reading glaze test tiles, plus how to keep a digital log you can search later.

What food safe pottery really means, which glaze and firing mistakes cause problems, how to check your pots, and when to send a glaze for lab testing.

A calm, practical path from bisqueware to glaze-fired pots, covering dipping, brushing, pouring, wax resist, and safety basics.

Why pottery glaze runs onto kiln shelves, how to prevent drips with the right thickness and clearance, and how to safely remove a stuck pot from a shelf.

What glaze crawling looks like, the most common beginner causes, how to prevent it, and how it differs from crazing and pinholing.

Learn mishima, the Korean-rooted technique of carving lines into leather-hard clay and filling them with contrasting slip. Five steps, the right timing and how to scrape back for crisp results.

Learn sgraffito, the technique of scratching a design through slip or underglaze to reveal the clay beneath. Timing, tools, clean lines, and how to glaze and fire the result.

A beginner guide to underglaze. When to apply it, how many coats to brush, how to layer colors, why you still need a clear glaze, and how to test before painting a real pot.

Take clear, honest photos of your pottery with just a phone. Window light, simple backgrounds, the five shots every listing needs, and how to handle glossy glaze reflections.

A simple formula for pricing handmade pottery. Add up materials, firing and your time, then set wholesale and retail prices that cover your costs and leave room to grow.

A practical checklist for your first craft fair or market. What to make, how much stock to bring, how to display pottery, take payments, and what to record afterward.

What silica dust is, why it matters in a pottery studio, and the daily habits that keep it out of your lungs, from wet cleaning to respirators and glaze mixing safety.

How long pottery takes to dry from wet clay to bone dry, with timelines for mugs, bowls, and plates, plus how humidity, thickness, and wrapping change the clock.

Build a weekly pottery practice plan with clear goals, volume tracking, and simple app logging so progress survives busy seasons.

A stage-by-stage checklist for noting pottery projects at wet, leather hard, bisque, glazed, and fired stages so you can repeat what works.

Why Claybook is a strong pottery journal and tracking app for projects, clay weights, glaze notes, lessons, practice, and studio tools.

Compare notebooks, spreadsheets, and pottery apps for glaze tracking, and build a searchable system that connects test tiles to real pots.

Why potters forget clay weights and glaze recipes, what belongs in a project log, and how a simple journal habit speeds up progress.

How to estimate clay use, track glaze and supply stock and set reorder points in a small pottery studio, with an inventory spreadsheet layout you can copy.

How to price pottery studio memberships. Work out your costs, choose between monthly, off-peak and drop-in tiers, set clay and firing rules, and use a simple pricing worksheet.

How to set up a shared glaze library in a pottery studio, with test tile boards, consistent labels, mixing records and rules that keep the library trustworthy.

Compare the three common ways to charge for kiln firings in a pottery studio, work out a fee that covers your costs, and use our free firing fee calculator.

How pottery studio owners can assign between-class practice that students actually do, so skills stick, retention improves, and class time is not spent re-teaching centering.

A practical pottery studio onboarding checklist for new members, covering orientation, rules, first projects, and resources they can use between visits.

A simple system for scheduling bisque and glaze firings in a shared pottery studio, with a printable kiln sign-up sheet, rules for full loads and ways to keep members informed.

How to offer pottery parties, date nights and private classes in your studio. Planning, pricing, group sizes, a run sheet and how to handle firing and pickup afterwards.

Fair ways to share a limited number of pottery wheels during open studio hours, with booking rules, time limits and a printable open studio rules poster.

A practical guide to starting a community pottery studio, covering space, equipment, first classes, member habits, and how to support students between sessions.

An 8-week beginner pottery class curriculum for studio owners, with weekly skills, homework, and success checks you can run with mixed-ability adults.

A kiln log template for pottery studios. What to record for each firing, how to track element wear and shelf condition, and when to schedule maintenance.

How to manage pottery class bookings in a small studio. Fair waitlists, a no-show and make-up policy template, and what to look for in booking tools.

A practical cleaning checklist for a shared pottery studio with daily, weekly and monthly tasks, why wet cleaning matters for clay dust, and how to share chores fairly.

An honest look at the software pottery studios use for piece tracking, firing fees, memberships and class booking, what each tool says it does, and how to pick one for your size.

How to sell pottery class gift cards and vouchers before the holidays. What to offer, how to price them, expiry and refund rules, wording ideas and how to handle redemption.

How to set shelf, cubby and locker rules in a shared pottery studio, with a shelf space policy template, rental options and a way to handle overflow.

When a spreadsheet is enough to run a pottery studio and when it is time for software. A checklist for knowing you have outgrown your spreadsheet, plus a starter layout.

A simple tracking system for member pottery in a shared studio, from greenware shelf to pickup, with a shelf label template and a checklist for the moments pots go missing.

How to handle unclaimed pottery left in a studio. A clear, fair policy template with notice steps, timelines and wording you can adapt, plus advice on telling members up front.