How to Add a Clay Body in Claybook

Every useful weight estimate and shrinkage number starts with a clay record. If Claybook only knows “stoneware,” your mug weights and lid sizes will be stoneware-generic too.

Add the bags you actually wedge. The app then offers those clays on every project, in the weight estimator, and in the shrinkage calculator.

Where to add a clay

Open Crafts, then the Clays tab. Tap to add a new body.

You can also add a clay from the clay picker while you are logging a craft. Same form, fewer context switches if you just opened a new bag at the wheel.

Fields worth filling

Name. Use the bag name: “B-Mix,” “Speckled Brown,” “studio reclaim.” You will pick this from a list with wet hands. Make it obvious.

Type. Earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, or whatever label you use. Helpful when you filter later and when you remember why two “white” clays threw differently.

Cone / firing temperature. The range the body is meant for. This is a planning field, not a kiln controller.

Texture. Smooth, groggy, sandy. A word that reminds you how it likes to be pulled.

Manufacturer / brand. Optional, but it stops “which white stoneware?” a year later.

Density (wet clay) in g/cm³. The weight estimator uses this. If the bag is silent, 1.80 is a common starting point. Update it if you weigh a known volume once.

Shrinkage as a percent. The shrinkage calculator and the estimator both use this. Start with the bag, then replace it with your own tile measurement when you have one.

Notes. Recycle behavior, “cracks on thick rims,” grog size, which studio batch you are on.

You can save with only a name. Density and shrinkage are what make the tools honest.

How this clay shows up elsewhere

Once saved, the body appears:

On a craft, in the Clay picker
In the Clay weight estimator
In the Clay shrinkage calculator
In library filters, so you can list every piece on that bag

Last-used clay is remembered in the tools so you are not re-selecting B-Mix every session.

Walkthroughs: How to Estimate How Much Clay You Need and How to Calculate Clay Shrinkage in Claybook.

Measure shrinkage once, then stop guessing

Bag shrinkage is a claim. Your kiln is the referee.

Mark a span on a test bar or small cylinder while plastic
Measure bone dry, then fired
Linear percent is (wet - fired) / wet * 100
Edit the clay and put that number in Shrinkage

Do this per body you care about. Porcelain and a groggy sculpture clay will not share a rate. Background: Pottery Clay Shrinkage and Types of Pottery Clay Explained.

Studio clays and reclaim

If the studio mixes a house body, add it as its own clay. Name it after the studio, not after a commercial bag it “sort of feels like.”

Reclaim from a known body can stay on that clay if you trust the mix. Mixed-bucket reclaim deserves its own record with a note: “mixed scraps, shrinkage unverified.” Do not let mystery reclaim silently feed lid math.

Editing later

Open the clay from the Clays tab and update shrinkage or density when you learn more. Existing crafts stay linked. New estimates use the new numbers.

If you retire a body, leave the record. Old pots still need the name. Add “retired” in notes rather than deleting history.

Takeaway

Add the bag, fill density and shrinkage, then pick that clay on the project and in the tools. The journal, the gram estimate, and the lid size all stay attached to the same body. That is the difference between tracking pottery and tracking vibes.