Using Claybook · 2026-09-20

How to Bulk Edit Pottery After a Firing

Kiln unload is the worst time to open 20 records one by one. Hands are dusty, shelves are full, and every mug from that load just moved from Glazed to Finished together.

Claybook bulk edit is built for that moment. Select the load, add one step, set a location, add tags, and apply the change to every selected craft.

What bulk edit can change

Bulk edit adds to the pieces you selected. It does not wipe their existing history.

You can apply:

  • Steps: Bisqued, Finished, Sold, Gifted, or a custom step, with date, notes, optional weight, and time spent
  • Location: kiln, glaze cart, show shelf, home. A new location replaces the old one
  • Tags: cone 6, soda, kiln B, market load. Tags are added. Existing tags stay

Names, photos, clay, shape, and glaze logs stay as they are. Edit those on the individual craft if one piece is the odd one out.

Before you select: make the load easy to find

If you already tagged pieces as they went in, filter first.

On the Crafts tab:

  1. Filter by Location if you named the kiln or shelf
  2. Filter by Step (often Glazed going into a glaze fire, or Trimmed going into bisque)
  3. Filter by Tags if you marked the load earlier
  4. Use search if the pieces share a name like “Mug set”

The goal is a short list, not a hunt through the whole library. More on that in How to Search and Filter Your Pottery Library.

If you did not tag the load going in, that is fine. Select from the grid by eye. Next firing, add a location or tag on the way into the kiln so unload is faster.

How to select several crafts

  1. Open the Crafts tab (your library of pieces)
  2. Long-press any pot from the load
  3. Tap Select
  4. Tap every other piece that came out of that firing
  5. Check the selection count at the bottom so you did not miss a mug

You can filter while you are thinking, then long-press to enter selection. Once selection is on, taps add or remove pieces instead of opening them.

To leave selection without changing anything, tap Cancel.

Apply the firing update

With the load selected, tap Bulk edit.

A typical glaze-fire unload looks like this:

  1. Under Steps, tap Add step
  2. Choose Finished
  3. Set the date to unload day
  4. Add a short note if the firing had a personality (“hot at the top,” “even reduction”)
  5. Set Location to wherever the pots actually went (gallery shelf, pickup table, home)
  6. Add tags such as glaze-fire, cone-6, or the kiln name
  7. Tap Apply

A bisque unload is the same pattern with a Bisqued step. If pieces still need glaze, set location to the glaze cart instead of a finished shelf.

Claybook appends the new step onto each piece’s timeline. Older steps stay, so you still have Formed, Trimmed, and Glazed underneath.

A workflow that survives busy unload days

Do the logging in two passes, not one perfect pass.

Pass 1, at the kiln (60 seconds): select the load, add Finished or Bisqued, apply. The stage is honest even if photos wait until tonight.

Pass 2, when you can look: open keepers, add a result photo, write a glaze note, mark duds. One cracked bowl should not block the other 17 records.

If you want a stage-by-stage checklist for what to write, use How to Document Your Pottery Projects Like a Pro.

After the fire: sold and gifted work

Bulk edit also works when a market table clears.

Select the pieces that sold, add a Sold step with the date, and optionally a price on that step. Gifted work gets a Gifted step and a recipient if you want to remember who got the blue mug.

Do not mix sold and unsold in the same bulk edit. Split the selection so the step matches reality.

What bulk edit will not do

  • It will not replace glaze recipes. Surfaces stay on each craft
  • It will not clone missing photos onto every mug
  • It will not delete old steps
  • An empty bulk edit cannot be applied. Add at least one step, a location, or a tag

If one piece in the load needs a different story (it crawled, it was a test tile, it never went in), deselect it before you apply, then edit it alone.

Why this is worth a habit

A firing is a batch event. Your journal should update like a batch.

Once unload is a 15-second select-and-apply, you stop “meaning to log it later.” Later is how glaze combos disappear. For the rest of the timeline, see How to Log Pottery Steps From Wet Clay to Fired.

New to the app? Start with Getting Started With Claybook.