# How to Search and Filter Your Pottery Library

Cluster: Using Claybook
URL: https://claybook.studio/blog/how-to-search-your-pottery-library/

# How to Search and Filter Your Pottery Library

A pottery journal only pays off if you can find last month’s mug without scrolling every thumbnail. Claybook’s Crafts tab combines search with filters for step, clay, shape, surface, location, tags, and time.

This is how to ask the library real questions: “What did I glaze in celadon?” “What is still in the kiln?” “What sold this month?”

## Search vs filter

**Search** looks at what you type: craft names and other text you would recognize in a hurry. Use it for “blue mug commission” or a customer name you put in the title.

**Filters** narrow the grid by structured fields. Use them when the answer is a category, not a phrase.

They stack. Search `mug` and filter **Surface** to your satin white. You get mugs with that glaze, not every mug you have ever made.

## Where the controls live

Open the **Crafts** tab. The search field and filter bar sit above your library.

Tap **Filters** (or the filter chips) to set:

* **Time**: this week, last week, this month, this year, or a custom range
* **Step**: Idea, Formed, Trimmed, Bisqued, Glazed, Finished, Sold, Gifted, or a custom step
* **Clay**
* **Shape**
* **Surface** (glaze, slip, underglaze)
* **Location**
* **Tags**

Clear all filters when you want the full library back. A leftover filter is the usual reason something “disappeared.”

## Questions the library can answer

**What came out of today’s firing?**
Filter by location (the kiln name) or by the Glazed step, then select those cards for [bulk edit](/blog/how-to-bulk-edit-pottery-after-a-firing/).

**What still needs glaze?**
Filter step **Bisqued**, location glaze cart if you use it.

**Did this celadon crawl on B-mix?**
Filter **Clay** plus **Surface**. Open the crafts and read the fired notes.

**What can I take to the market?**
Filter step **Finished**, tag `market`, or location show shelf.

**What did I sell in March?**
Time filter custom range, step **Sold**.

The quality of the answers matches the quality of the logs. Empty locations and “bowl” names make filters weak. See [How to Log a Pottery Project in Claybook](/blog/how-to-log-a-pottery-project/).

## Name things so search works

Search cannot invent structure you never typed.

Put useful words in the craft name:

* Form (mug, bowl, tile)
* Clay nickname if you use several
* Customer or set name
* A glaze nickname only if it is how you think

Keep official glaze identity on the **Surface** log so you can filter it. Names are for humans. Surfaces are for the database.

## Tags vs location vs step

Use each field for one job so you do not fight yourself.

* **Step**: where the piece is in its life. Changes over time
* **Location**: where the object is in the building (or at home)
* **Tags**: extra buckets that are not a place or a stage (`commission`, `gift`, `test`, `set-of-4`)

A pot can be Finished, on the gallery shelf, tagged `market`. Those are three different facts. Filtering needs all three to stay distinct.

## After you find the group

Selection and filters work together.

Filter the glaze load, long-press, select, bulk-edit to Finished. Filter a set tag, clone is already done, now share or photograph.

If you cannot get the group to appear, clear filters, then add them back one at a time. The last chip you added is usually the too-narrow one.

## Takeaway

Search for a phrase. Filter for a fact. Log clay, surfaces, steps, location, and tags while they are cheap. The library is only as smart as the last firing you bothered to label.