Costs
Part of Production studies and youth ceramics records agree on one habit: keep notes
Record-keeping habits shape a practical home pottery setup
A home pottery studio records what happened in the kiln and what it cost, and the layout that makes both easy decides whether either gets done.
A studio that produces records is arranged differently from one that only produces pots. The difference is physical and cheap: a place for the log, a rack for test tiles, and a labeling habit that survives a wet afternoon.
What to take away
- Put the firing log on the wall beside the kiln, with a pencil on a string, so writing an entry costs less effort than skipping it.
- Label a test tile when you make it. An unlabeled tile from last spring tells you nothing.
- Keep the studio log and the business record in separate books. They answer different questions.
- Photograph a piece before you refire, grind or scrub it. The before shot is the only evidence of what you started with.
- Keep business records for the retention period that applies where you live. Typical US guidance runs from three years for a filed return to seven years for records behind a deduction. Confirm the period with a CPA or your state or regional guild, or in Canada with a provincial craft guild.
Where things go in a spare room
- Firing logtaped to the wall by the kiln, per the home kiln setup notes, with a pencil on a string.
- Test tilesone labeled rack, sorted by glaze first, then by clay body.
- Cameraa corner with a sweep that stays up, so a photograph is a five minute job rather than a project.
- Marker and labelswith the glaze buckets, not in a drawer across the house.
- Receiptsone envelope, emptied into the spreadsheet monthly.
Two record systems, not one
The studio log answers what happened in the kiln: cone reached, soak, which shelf, which glaze, what the result looked like. The business record answers what the clay, glaze and kilowatt-hours cost and what came back.
Extension guidance for home-based businesses collects record keeping resources, including a guide for home-based businesses and material on the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. Keeping the two books apart means neither gets abandoned because the other felt like homework.
A firing log page holds one firing. The fields, with a filled example:
| Field | Example entry |
|---|---|
| Date and kiln | April 3, Skutt 818 |
| Clay body and cone | Buff stoneware, cone 6 |
| Glaze and load | Ten mugs, Floating Blue over white slip, shelf 2 |
| Program | Medium speed, 20 minute soak |
| Result | Even glaze, two rims pinholed |
| Next | Retest the soak at 15 minutes |
A full entry takes about two minutes, written while the kiln is still warm. That is cheaper than trying to remember a soak time in November.
Record the piece before you change it
Museum practice has a rule worth borrowing: document the object before treatment. A conservation note on the long-term effects of acid-cleaning archaeological ceramics records a treatment that looked harmless for decades and was not.
The studio version is smaller and the logic is the same. Before you grind a foot, refire a piece or sand out a glaze fault, photograph it and write down what it was. Half the time the treatment works and the note is spare. The other half it is the only record of what you started with.
| Before you | Write down |
|---|---|
| Refire a piece | Original cone, glaze, and a photograph |
| Grind or sand a surface | What the fault looked like and where |
| Reclaim a failed batch | Body, drying time, failure mode |
| Change a glaze recipe | The old mix, and a fired tile of it |
Fit it to the room you have
The whole system is a clipboard, a shelf of tiles, a folder and a corner that stays clear. Typically that is under $30 in stationery and it fits whatever floor space the room allows.
Recording has to be easier than not recording, so the log belongs in sight of the kiln rather than in another room.
At year end it makes the supply arithmetic possible. That is what turns a shelf of pots into a record that explains them.
Common questions
Is a paper log better than an app?
Whichever one you will actually use with clay on your hands. Paper by the kiln usually wins that test.
How long should I keep studio records?
Glaze and firing notes, indefinitely, because they get more useful with age. Business records follow the retention rules where you live, so confirm the current period with a CPA or your state or regional guild.
Do I need to photograph everything?
Every firing, not every pot. One frame of the loaded shelf and one of the unloaded results covers most of what you will want later.
What about recording failures I would rather forget?
Those are the entries you will reread. A shelf of labeled failures is the cheapest reference material in ceramics.
