ClayLab Reviews

I love the functionality of ClayLab, it has made my process much easier to follow and recreate! Absolutely invaluable for keeping track of where pieces are while firing in a community studio.

However, I am very disappointed with the choice to use a subscription model with the latest update. The new features added seem like a significant improvement and reflect what the community was asking for, which is great work from the devs! I would have much preferred a one-time payment to access the broader functionality of ClayLab . With something like a pottery app where I’ll be using it more intermittently as a hobby potter, a monthly subscription does not make sense for me financially. I would be much more interested if it was a one time payment, even if that payment was on the higher end of app pricing.

I really like ClayLab! You can easily keep track of your projects with photos, stages, clay type, glazes, and more. I’ve been struggling with tracking my clay projects and ClayLab is helpful!

A couple of suggestions for the developer: 1) for the glazes, it would be great if we could track number of layers for each glaze, 2) for glazes, I also will use more than three glazes on the inside and outside of my pieces, it would be nice to be able to record more than three. 3) and if you could record what order and location on the pieces glazes we’re added. Example: X glazes was used on the outside, middle, 3 layers. 4) a search function for types of items (bowl, cup, etc), completed date, glazes used, clay bodies, etc.

What I love:
- I can track every step of my project
- The settings are customizable so I can add my own clay bodies, forms, and glazes.
- The notes section lets me add extra details
- I can take in-app photos
- I can save multiple photos for each step of the process

Things that have room for improvement:
- Agree with the previous poster that it would be nice to have more flexibility in the glazes - maybe a multiplying field for glazes, where you can enter one and then add additional as needed; checkmarks for inside and/or outside, layer 1, layer 2, number of coats, etc.
- A way to cancel all changes if I decide I don’t want to save changes to a piece
- A way to delete either default or user-added glazes, forms, and clay bodies.
- A sorting feature by name, date, project stage, form, glaze, clay body, etc.
- Agree with previous poster about searching

I see that the last update was 2 years ago, so I hope ClayLab hasn’t been abandoned because it really is the best thing out there for managing pottery projects.

Overall, ClayLab is super useful and has allowed me to keep track of my pottery so much more effectively than before. A couple of small requests to make it even better: 1. Allow for searching by glaze or form—the more pieces I add the more important it seems to be able to use this as a database instead of remembering when I might have used a certain glaze/combo before 2. Allow for reordering of photos/swiping between photos (instead of exiting then opening the next one 3. Allow for categories to be collapsed/expanded (so you can see a list with totals of how many pieces you have in each category, then click to expand a category to see in detail what’s in there) Overall, pretty solid, but those tweaks would make it nearly perfect

Like others have said, after trying a few different similar apps, this is the best one! I love the checklist style of adding steps, and everything is overall super intuitive.

The recent updates say that you can delete and edit the clays, glazes, etc. but I can only edit custom ones. My studio has limited clays and glazes and I would like to be able to remove all of the options that I don’t have. This is my biggest request right now.

As others have said, options for hand built vs. thrown, additional steps for decorating, and options for glaze applications would be great updates too.

Love ClayLab! So user friendly and nearly perfect in every way. Love that you can take photos at each step. Would love to be able to select multiple glazes and order them. Especially if it’s dipped 2/3, 1/2 way down. Writing all of that in the notes makes documenting pretty slow in ClayLab to actually make it functional. Another thing that would be great is rating the pot so that I could search or sort my work by what has worked and what didn’t. Otherwise I’m just endlessly scrolling. I wonder if I told he same way you add custom glazes, could you add custom categories? For example, I don’t really care how much my pots weigh, but I’d love to track the shrinkage rate instead!

Thanks for making an awesome app for us potters. 🧡

ClayLab has really helped me get organized on the throwing and decorating end of my pots.. It is great especially for potters using a standard kiln firing regime. But for anyone who changes the way they fire, it is missing a place for that. I wish there were fields to record firing details (cone number, shelf location, reducing, electric, gas, Roku etc).

I also wish you could rearrange the image order and sort/search through projects. If I want to pull up all the projects with glaze x there really isn’t a way to do it..

But even with those constraints, it is still much better than my previous system of labeling images or keeping spreadsheets.

I’ve been looking all over for an app that can record my clay projects and glaze combinations. Although not perfect, this one probably is as close as I would want it. If I could build my own I certainly would but alas I’m not that smart. The only recommendations I would have are that I am a hand builder and there is no option for hand building. Also I would prefer the glaze selection to have the ability to select multiple glazes and to be able to indicate which one was the first layer and which one is the second layer. Lastly, in a perfect world, I would have the ability to look up my projects by certain variables like, say, form or color of glaze etc. So when I need to find my favorite blue combo, I could just organize by blues.
But I know it’s the first version so I’m sure there will be more options in the next version. Thanks for building it!

I’m a mobile developer and hobby potter. ClayLab is amazing! I recently started developing my own glazes and it’s great to have one place to log all of my experiments. The design is smooth and easy to use. It follows iOS design conventions so naturally and it feels like Apple themselves could have designed it.

My only request is that I wish there was a workflow for quickly adding and logging many test tiles all at the same time. I have been trying to test the same glazes on many clay bodies and wish the flows to log them could be a bit faster. Keep up the great work!

ClayLab is simple and that makes it magical! I love being able to add my own clay bodies and glazes and being able to categorize it all.

I’d love for some customization (multiple outside glazes, dimension pre&post fire, etc) and an export feature (always worried when I can’t get my data out of ClayLab ).

I see there is continuous improvements which makes me less hesitant to completely switch over (import from csv would be nice too). Hoping some of the features requested in the reviews are on their way. But overall excellent app! Thanks for making it!

The creator of ClayLab really makes pottery/ceramics! The effort and thoughtfulness that went into ClayLab is evident. I will now know where my pieces are in the process of being made. I will be able to log what went into my pieces (size, weight, clay body, shape, glazes, underglazes etc). to be able to replicate what I liked as well as combinations to avoid. I will also be able to look up pieces and be able to see photos of my work. Again, very well thought out app and I look forward to using it over the summer when I take classes at a new facility.

I have a hundred projects in here now! It is so perfect for tracking works in process — and I’m so grateful it’s free! I used to lose track of smaller pieces, forget which clay I used or (definitely) which glaze combo gave which unexpected effect. I love that you can add your own clays, glazes, underglazes and forms. I wish… for it to be completely perfect (and then probably not free)… you could: delete pre-populated glazes clays etc. , sort works by Location (or other fields, like glaze or clay used), star works for a “Portfolio” subsection. There are hideous failures I want to keep record of but do not enjoy scrolling through every time I look for something :-)
Wishes aside, I work with a community of potters almost none of whom can/want to pay for a clay log, and we love,love,love it! I recommend this to everyone!

By far the best and most useful app I’ve used for documenting projects at every stage of the pottery process! I’m excited for the new features and improvements that are sure to come; ClayLab developers on social media are super responsive and eager to make their product even better. ClayLab makes it so much easier for me to track glaze combinations, where I’m at on any given project, etc. and I really like the new search function they rolled out where you can filter by glazes used, status of project, and so on. Thanks for making my ceramics life so much more organized and easy, this app!

ClayLab is essential if you want to keep things straight and be able to refer to what and how you did thing later on. I love it. One time I did not use it for my glazing, and my soap dishes came out of the kiln not the way I expected… well let me tell you that straightened me up and now I take detailed notes it ClayLab every time! Thank you. Ap developer: I wish I could share my account with others folks in my studio so we could benefit from each others learning e g when I added this glaze on top of that the results are great / not great (and here is a pic that show before and after)

hello devs! i am a pottery student who has been doing pottery consistently probably a little over 4 years now, 3 years consistent with wheel throwing. i love the fact that we are able to keep track of what slips, underglaze, and glazes we have. however, may i add a suggestion to the glaze and underglaze categories?

i would like to be able to add a photo along with the glaze name in the glaze and underglaze categories, as many glazes aren’t what they say they are. i am organizing and doing testers for over 40 glazes and this would be SUPER helpful.

thank you for making such a wonderful app that helps those in the art room. to me (personally) this is the best thing i’ve come across.

I’m new to wheel throwing, and instructor told someone in my class about ClayLab last week when I was absent. My fellow student told me and I loaded it during this week’s class. I was very quickly able to start using ClayLab . It’s really fun. I can keep track of your pieces, the glazes, and also special notes about the piece. I can take pictures as time progresses to see how each piece changes. The only thing I haven’t figured out yet is how to change (correct) a glaze color or a location if I add them in ClayLab . I’m not sure if it’s me who can’t figure it out or if it’s ClayLab that doesn’t offer that capability.
In any case, I love ClayLab! What a great idea.

A fellow potter recommended ClayLab to me to keep track of my ceramics progress, and it has not disappointed. It’s super easy to add new pieces, duplicate existing ones and keep track of all my glaze experiments on test pieces. I would love to see the ability to customize the different progress statuses in a future update. For example, if a piece gets damaged during trimming or cracks during bisque, I’d love to have a “graveyard” status so I can still keep track of it. Right now my only options are to delete the piece fully or include some notes, but would love a better way to track this without having the damaged pieces clutter up my “finished, “trimmed” or “bisqued”sections.

I can’t recommend ClayLab more highly. The most useful aspect is being able to track which stage your pieces are at and their locations. If you are working in a studio with many others, it would otherwise be tricky to remember which pieces should be coming out of their bisque or final firings and when pieces go missing. The ability to keep track of which glazes you have used with photos of their results is also immensely helpful. As a newbie I also like the ability to track the development of a piece from thrown to trimmed to finished with photos. As the pieces are ordered by date I can also see how my skills are developing. I can’t believe it is free and so well designed. Thank you!!!!

Really like the structure of this pottery management app. I am able to not only keep track of the varied pieces I have in different stages of completion but I can also have a record of what I made when and where it ended up, along with all of the profile info I would want; clay ,shape and dims, glazes and underglazes etc.

Ability to add my own data; locations, materials etc along with a notes section makes it very flexible.

Finally I can photo record each piece at each step of the process which is unbelievably helpful in a community studio where so much looks alike. Would like to see the photo option allow for a default choice (camera or photo list). I usually choose the camera option and take a pic in place.

Rock solid way to organize pieces for an amateur like me. Like the ability to edit all the options and does a great job sorting. Only beneficial feature to add would be if the pictures taken in ClayLab showed up in their own folder in photos. Other one would be to have a graveyard category for pieces that got trimmed through / exploded / didn’t come out properly before a final stage so it doesn’t junk up your other in process pieces. Thank you tho - great great app!