How to Log Pottery Steps From Wet Clay to Fired

A Claybook project is not a single status. It is a timeline. Each step is a dated event: you formed it, you trimmed it, it came through bisque, you glazed it, it finished, it sold.

That timeline is how you answer “how long did this mug take?” and “was it glazed before the May firing?” without reconstructing the week from photos.

Stage names in clay itself are covered in Pottery Clay Stages and The Clay Life Cycle. This guide is how those stages land in the app.

The built-in steps

When you add a step, you pick:

• Idea: sketch or commission, no clay yet
• Formed: thrown or built. Put starting weight here
• Trimmed: leather-hard work, handles, lids, carving
• Bisqued: out of the first fire
• Glazed: surfaces are on. Pair this with surface logs
• Finished: out of the glaze fire (or complete as a bare-clay piece)
• Sold: include price if you want
• Gifted: include recipient if you want
• Other: custom label for pit fire, soda, photoshoot, repair

You can use a subset. A pinch-pot that never gets a foot can skip Trimmed. A sculpture that is not for sale can skip Sold.

How to add a step on one piece

1. Open the craft
2. Under Steps, tap Add step
3. Pick the state
4. Set the date (default is today, which is what you want if you log in the moment)
5. Optional: time spent, weight in grams, notes
6. For Sold, add price. For Gifted, add recipient
7. Save the craft

Steps sort by date. Adding Finished after Bisqued does not erase Bisqued. You are appending history.

What to put on each step

Formed. Starting weight. One note if the throw had a lesson (“centered cleanly,” “rim thinned”). Time spent if you care about hours later.

Trimmed. Foot diameter or a trim note. Handle attach if that happened the same day. Dry weight only if you are measuring shrinkage.

Bisqued. Crack and warp checks. Cone or program name if you know it. Then change Location to the glaze area.

Glazed. Keep the recipe in surface logs. The Glazed step is the date you glazed and a short “dipped, two seconds” if you want it on the timeline too.

Finished. Result in plain language. Fired measurements if size mattered. Rating: keep, revise, retire.

Sold / Gifted. Date and the extra field. Move location off the gallery shelf.

Logging a whole kiln at once

Do not open 18 crafts to stamp Bisqued.

Long-press, select the load, Bulk edit, add the step, apply. Full walkthrough: How to Bulk Edit Pottery After a Firing.

Bulk edit appends the same step to every selected piece. Individual notes still belong on the odd pot that crawled.

Time spent adds up

Each step can store minutes. Claybook totals them on the craft.

Use this if you price work, if you teach and want to show how long a mug takes, or if you are curious why evenings disappear. Skip it if it will make you hate logging. A dated step without minutes is still valuable.

Custom steps for alternative firings

Raku, pit, soda, and wood are not always “Finished” in the same way as cone 6 oxidation.

Add Other with a label like Raku or Soda fire, dated on unload. Keep Finished if you still think of the piece as complete, or use the custom step as the completion mark. Be consistent so filters work.

Filters can target a custom step you have actually used. See How to Search and Filter Your Pottery Library.

Common mistakes

• Changing one step over and over instead of adding the next one
• Putting the glaze recipe only in step notes so it cannot filter as a surface
• Dating everything to save-day instead of the day the work happened
• Skipping Bisqued, then wondering why the library cannot show “ready to glaze”

Takeaway

Add a short, dated step whenever the pot changes state. Weight on Formed, honesty on Finished, batch updates after the kiln. The craft becomes a timeline you can search, not a snapshot you forgot to update.