Getting Started With Claybook (Pottery Journal App Tutorial)
Claybook is a pottery journal, glaze tracker, and studio toolkit in one app. This guide is the shortest path from download to a library you will actually use after class.
If you only do four things this week, do these: add your clay, log one project, save one glaze, and try a calculator before you weigh the next ball.
What Claybook is for
Most potters lose the same details: starting weight, glaze stack, kiln load, and whether the mug that sold was 380 g or 420 g.
Claybook keeps those notes on the piece, not in a camera roll or a notebook you cannot search with wet hands. For the “why bother” version, see Why You Should Keep a Pottery Journal.
The app is organized around four Crafts tabs:
- Crafts: your pieces (the journal)
- Shapes: forms used by the weight estimator
- Surfaces: glazes, slips, underglazes, oxides
- Clays: clay bodies with density and shrinkage
Tools live in a separate tab: clay weight estimator, shrinkage calculator, studio join, and community.
Step 1: Add the clay you actually use
Open Crafts, then the Clays tab. Add the bag on your shelf, not a generic “stoneware.”
Record:
- Name and brand
- Cone or firing range
- Wet density if you know it (about 1.8 g/cmÂł is a common starting point)
- Shrinkage percent from the bag or your own test tile
That clay then powers the weight estimator and the shrinkage calculator. Full walkthrough: How to Add a Clay Body in Claybook.
Step 2: Log one project the same day you make it
Open Crafts, tap new craft, and fill only what you know:
- A name you will recognize later (“Mug, speckled brown, 400 g”)
- Clay and shape
- A Formed step with starting weight
- A photo of the wet profile if you can
You can add glaze layers and firing steps later. Empty fields are fine. Fake precision is not.
See How to Log a Pottery Project in Claybook and How to Log Pottery Steps From Wet Clay to Fired.
Step 3: Save glazes as surfaces, then attach them to pots
In the Surfaces tab, add the studio buckets you reach for. Name them the way the bucket is labeled, not “blue.”
When you glaze a piece, open the craft and add a surface log: glaze name, method (dip, brush, pour), and a note like “2 second dip, satin over tenmoku on the rim.”
That is the difference between a pretty photo and a recipe. Details: How to Track Glazes and Surfaces in Claybook.
Step 4: Use Tools before you guess grams
Before the next throwing session, open Tools.
- Clay weight estimator: pick a shape, enter the size you want, choose your clay. It accounts for walls, shrinkage, and an optional foot trim.
- Clay shrinkage calculator: work from a target fired size back to the wet size you should throw, or the other way around.
Web versions of both tools are free on this site if you want to try them before installing.
After a kiln: update the whole load at once
Unload day is when journals die. You do not want to open 18 records one by one.
Long-press a piece, choose Select, tap the rest of the load, then Bulk edit. Add a Bisqued or Finished step, move the location to a shelf, and tag the firing.
That workflow is in How to Bulk Edit Pottery After a Firing.
Matching sets without retyping
If you threw four mugs the same way, log the hero piece fully, then long-press and Clone. Claybook copies clay, shape, steps, surfaces, and notes. Rename the copies and fix anything that drifted.
Guide: How to Clone a Pottery Record for Matching Sets.
Find things again
The crafts library search and filters cover time, step, clay, shape, surface, location, and tags. “What did I dip in celadon last month?” should take seconds, not a scroll through every thumbnail.
See How to Search and Filter Your Pottery Library.
If you make at a community studio
Open Tools and join with the studio QR flyer. You get lessons, practice, and piece logging on the studio plan. You do not need to buy a personal subscription first.
Walkthrough: How to Join a Pottery Studio With a QR Code.
A simple first-week checklist
- Add one clay body with shrinkage
- Log the next thing you make, with weight
- Save two studio glazes as surfaces
- After the next firing, bulk-edit the load
- Filter the library once so you trust search
That is enough. Claybook gets more useful every time you close the loop from wet clay to fired result.
Download the app at claybook.studio.