How to Log a Pottery Project in Claybook
A pottery project in Claybook is one piece (or one record you will clone into a set). You capture it while the facts are cheap: wet weight, clay name, a side photo, then glaze and firing as they happen.
This is the field-by-field walkthrough. For the habit behind it, see How to Document Your Pottery Projects Like a Pro.
Open a new craft
- Open the Crafts tab
- Tap New craft
- Give it a name you will still understand in six months
“Mug” is a pile. “Mug, B-mix, 400 g, satin white over tenmoku” is a record.
You can rename later. Start specific anyway. Search works better when the name holds a clue.
Fill the sections you know today
You do not need a complete record to save. Claybook keeps empty fields empty.
Name. Required. Use form + clay + weight or a commission name.
Photos. Add a wet profile now if you can. Beauty shots wait until after the fire. Walkthrough: How to Add Photos to Your Pottery Journal.
Steps. Add Formed (or Idea if you are only sketching) with the date and starting weight in grams. Full step list: How to Log Pottery Steps From Wet Clay to Fired.
Clay. Pick the body from your library. If it is not there yet, add it from the picker. That is how weights and shrinkage stay attached to a real bag, not a vibe.
Shape. Mug, bowl, cylinder, plate, or a custom shape. Shape feeds the weight estimator later and makes filters useful.
Location. Wheel, damp box, kiln, glaze cart, home shelf. Location is how you find a whole kiln load later.
Tags. Optional labels: set-of-4, commission, test, market. Tags are for you. Keep them short and reuse them.
Surfaces. Add glazes when you glaze, not when you throw. See How to Track Glazes and Surfaces in Claybook.
Notes. One or two sentences the fields cannot hold: “rim thinned on last pull,” “handle sat overnight before attach.”
Save when the wet facts are in. Come back at leather hard, bisque, and glaze.
A minimum useful record
If you are tired, log this much and stop:
- Name
- Clay
- Formed step with weight
- Location
That already beats a camera roll. Photos and glazes can land on the same record later.
When to open the craft again
| Stage | What to add |
|---|---|
| Leather hard | Trimmed step, foot notes, handle notes |
| Bone dry | Optional dry weight if you track shrinkage |
| After bisque | Bisqued step, crack checks, move location to glaze |
| Glaze day | Surface logs with method and thickness |
| After glaze fire | Finished step, result photo, honest notes |
| If it leaves the studio | Sold or Gifted step |
Updating one record over two weeks is the point. Starting a new note every session is how history fragments.
Sets, tests, and one-offs
One-off winner. Log it fully. This is the recipe you will clone.
Matching set. Log the hero, then clone. Guide: How to Clone a Pottery Record for Matching Sets.
Test tiles. Name them with the glaze stack. Treat them as crafts so they show up when you filter by surface.
Duds. Still log them. A Finished step with “crawled, too thick” is more useful than deleting the evidence.
Find the project later
From the crafts library, search the name, or filter by clay, step, surface, location, or tag. Details in How to Search and Filter Your Pottery Library.
Common mistakes
- Waiting until the kiln is cold to reconstruct the week
- Naming everything “bowl”
- Skipping weight because it felt like enough
- Writing “blue glaze” instead of the bucket label
- Creating a second craft for the same pot at glaze time
One pot, one record, many steps.
New to Claybook? Use Getting Started With Claybook as the wider map.