Laguna Clay · WC617

#16 Porcelain

cone 6 25 lb bag Shrinks 13.9% Fires white

Yes, it is the hard one. It is also the one that will make you better at every other clay in the building, and this particular porcelain was formulated to be the forgiving end of the family. Buy a bag, expect to lose a couple of pieces, and come out the other side a different potter.

#16 Porcelain Clay 25 lb bag · cone 6 · in-studio pickup

What is your membership level?

$44.50 $1.78 per pound

Green level pays full price on clay.

How many bags?

In-studio pickup only. We do not ship clay. Buy it here, then show your receipt to a staff member and they will walk back with you for a fresh bag.

A 25 pound bag of #16 Porcelain clay from The Clay Hole Twenty-five pounds. Very light gray in the bag and white out of the kiln, and it arrives slightly firmer than the other clays here.

Before you buy it

Is #16 Porcelain your clay?

Nobody eases into porcelain. You decide to do it, you have a rough couple of nights, and then something clicks and you never quite go back. Here is the honest picture of both halves.

Buy it if

  • You have been throwing a while and you want the next real challenge.
  • You want the whitest, cleanest, most refined result available in this building.
  • You are carving, faceting, or doing anything where a crisp edge matters.
  • You want your glaze to come out exactly, precisely the color on the chip.
  • You want work that rings when you tap it and never seeps, ever.
  • You are prepared to lose one or two pieces learning, and you have decided that is fine.

Buy something else if

  • You are in your first month or two on the wheel. Come back to this. It will still be here.
  • You are making something large, tall, or sculptural. Laguna does not rate this body for any of that.
  • You want warm, earthy, iron-driven glaze results. A white body has nothing to give them.
  • You need this specific piece to work. Porcelain does not care about your deadline.
  • You are making a pile of practice pieces and price matters. This is the second most expensive bag we sell.
  • You are not willing to slow down and dry things properly. That is the whole game here.

What it is best at

Where #16 Porcelain earns its keep.

Laguna rates WC617 for tableware, wall tile, floor tile, wind chimes, jewelry, sanitary ware, crystal firing, jiggering, pressing, and throwing and hand building at small and medium. That is a serious list for a serious body, and note what is not on it: nothing large, and no sculpture.

Fine detail and carving

Nothing else here holds an edge like this. Carve a line in porcelain and it stays a line: no grog blurring it, no specks landing in it, no tooth softening it. This is why people put up with the rest of it.

True glaze color

The whitest ground in the studio, and the extra silica in this body reduces crazing in some glazes on top of that. Better color and better glaze fit at the same time.

Functional ware that outlives you

0.12% water absorption. That is effectively zero. A mug made from this does not seep, does not stain through, and rings like a bell when you tap the rim. Laguna rates it for sanitary ware, which is the highest bar a clay body gets asked to clear.

Slab work

Called out specifically by the maker as good for slab forming, which is not true of every porcelain. If the wheel is not where you want to fight this battle, our molds are a genuinely good way in.

Wheel throwing, small to medium

Laguna calls this body very plastic and perfect for throwing, and among porcelains that is true. It is still porcelain: the window is shorter and the walls are less patient than any stoneware here.

Large forms and sculpture

Not rated for either, and 13.9% shrinkage is the highest on our shelf. Big and porcelain is a fight for another year. Half & Half or B-Mix w/Grog for anything with size to it.

The nerdy part

The numbers, and what they actually mean.

These are Laguna’s published figures for WC617. Two of them, the shrinkage and the absorption, explain almost everything about how this clay behaves.

Maker Laguna WC617 A Grolleg porcelain, Grolleg being the English china clay that most Western porcelain is built on. This is the number 16, and the number matters. See the next card.
Why 16 and not 15 More ball clay Laguna makes a #15 that is whiter. This one has more ball clay in it, which makes it less white but, in their own words, more plastic and more forgiving. It is deliberately the porcelain you can learn on.
Cone cone 6 A true cone 6 body, and the only clay on our shelf actually rated at 6 rather than 5. It fires right where our kilns already go.
Wet color Very light gray Pale and cool in the bag. It also arrives slightly firm compared to the stonewares, so give it proper wedging before you expect it to behave.
Fired color White The cleanest white we sell. If you want the absolute whitest possible porcelain, that is a #15 body, which we do not stock. This one trades a little of that whiteness for a lot of workability.
Shrinkage 13.9% The highest number on our shelf by a clear margin. A six inch mug loses most of an inch. That much movement magnifies every flaw, which is why compression matters more here than anywhere else.
Water absorption 0.12% Effectively zero, and the tightest body we sell alongside Berlin Gray. This is the whole point of porcelain: a wall so dense that water has nowhere to go.
Crazing Extra silica This body carries additional silica specifically to reduce crazing in some glazes. Crazing is the fine crackle that shows up in a glaze months later, and having a body that fights it is a real advantage.
Laguna’s use list Small and medium Tableware, wall tile, floor tile, wind chimes, jewelry, sanitary ware, crystal firing, jiggering, pressing, throwing small and medium, hand building small and medium. No large, no sculpture.

Straight answers

What is great about it, and what is not.

What it does well

  • It is the best surface in the building.Whitest ground, crispest edges, truest glaze color, and a density nothing else here comes close to. When somebody picks up a porcelain piece they can tell before you say anything.
  • It is functionally the best clay we sell.0.12% absorption plus a sanitary ware rating. No seeping, no staining through, no weeping planter. Work made from this will outlast the person who made it.
  • It fights crazing.Extra silica in the body, specifically to reduce crazing in some glazes. That is a real, practical advantage that shows up months after the firing.
  • It is the forgiving porcelain on purpose.The extra ball clay that makes it slightly less white is exactly what makes it more plastic and more forgiving than a #15. Laguna built the easier one, and this is it.
  • It is good for slabs.Named by the maker as good for slab forming. Our molds plus this clay is a genuinely underrated way to make beautiful porcelain without ever touching the wheel.
  • It makes you better.The habits porcelain forces on you, less water, better compression, even walls, real patience while drying, are the same habits that improve everything else you throw. Members come back from a bag of this and their stoneware is noticeably better.

What it does badly

  • The window is short.Porcelain goes from perfect to floppy quickly, and it does it without much warning. You have to work faster and stop sooner than you are used to, and the instinct to add water is the exact wrong instinct.
  • 13.9% shrinkage magnifies everything.The highest on our shelf. Every uneven wall, every uncompressed floor, every thick-to-thin transition gets amplified as the piece travels that distance. Porcelain does not create flaws, it reveals them.
  • It warps.Wide, flat and open forms are the vulnerable ones. Plates, shallow bowls and anything with a big rim want slow, even, level drying or they come out oval.
  • It shows every contaminant.Worse than any other clay here because it is the whitest. A speck of iron off a tool, dust from someone’s Berlin Gray, an unwiped bat. All of it fires in as a dark spot.
  • It is not for anything big.No large throwing, no large hand building, no sculpture on the manufacturer’s list. Ambition here should go into refinement, not size.
  • It is $44.50 at Green level.Second only to Berlin Gray, and you will probably lose a piece or two while you are learning it. Budget the first bag as tuition and the rest as clay.

The scary part

Porcelain is not harder. It is less patient.

That distinction matters, because it tells you what to do about it. Stoneware lets you get away with things. Porcelain does not, and the list of things it will not let you get away with is short, specific, and completely learnable. Nobody is naturally good at this. Everybody who is good at it was bad at it first.

1

Less water, not more

This is the one that gets everybody. When a wall starts feeling soft, every instinct says add water and push harder. Porcelain drinks it, goes floppy and collapses. Reach for a rib instead, take the slip off, and let it firm up for a few minutes. It will come back.

2

Fewer pulls, better pulls

You have less time on the wheel than you do with stoneware, so waste none of it. Center properly, open properly, and make each pull count rather than nursing the wall upward in six timid passes. Then stop. Deciding to stop is a skill and porcelain is where you learn it.

3

Compress like you mean it

At 13.9% shrinkage this clay travels further between wet and fired than anything else on the shelf, and everything you left loose gets pulled apart on the way. Rib the floor twice, compress the rim before it leaves the wheel, and keep the wall one thickness top to bottom.

Then dry it like it matters, because it does. Tent it loosely, dry it slowly, dry it evenly, and keep flat things flat and level. Most porcelain that fails does not fail on the wheel, it fails on the shelf two days later. Give it a week rather than a night.

And the honest part. You will lose pieces. Everybody does, including people who have been doing this for twenty years, including us. The first bag is tuition. Start with something small and repeatable, throw six of them rather than one perfect one, and let the failures teach you where your hands are sloppy. Two or three sessions in, something clicks that does not un-click, and you will find your stoneware got better while you were not looking.

Glazing it

The truest color in the studio.

Every glaze chip in this building was photographed on a light body. This is the lightest body we sell, and it carries extra silica specifically to reduce crazing in some glazes. Best color accuracy and best glaze fit, on the same bag.

What pops on it

Celadons
Amaco CeladonsCoyote Celadons
Celadon and porcelain is the oldest pairing in ceramics and it is still the best one. Transparent color over a white body, pooling darker in every carved line and thinning to almost nothing on an edge. If you only do one thing with this bag, do this.
Crystalline glazes
Coyote CrystallineAmaco Kiln IceAmaco CosmosCoyote Constellation
Laguna lists crystal firing as an application for this body. Crystals need a dense, pale, quiet background to be visible, and porcelain is what that description was invented for.
Bright and pastel color
Stroke & CoatCoyote Vibro-ColorCoyote SatinAmaco Satin Matte
Nothing is tinting your color from below and nothing is breaking through it from inside. Whatever is in the jar is what lands on the piece, which no other clay here can promise.
Underglaze illustration
Amaco VelvetSpeedball underglaze
Draw straight onto bisque, clear gloss over the top. Fine lines stay fine because there is no grog, no sand and no speck to interrupt them. This is the drawing surface.
Carving with a glaze that pools
CeladonsAmaco PhaseCoyote Archie’s
Carve or facet the form, then use a glaze that breaks and pools. The glaze finds every cut you made and darkens in it. This is the single most rewarding thing to do with porcelain and it is worth planning a whole piece around.

What fights it

Iron-driven glazes
ShinosPC Ancient JasperPC TemmokuSpectrum Floating
These pull iron out of the body beneath them to build their depth. There is none here to pull. They will come out pale and flat compared to the same jar on Speckled Buff, and that is not the clay failing, it is you using the wrong one.
Dirty hands, dirty tools, dirty tables The most important line in this section. Porcelain records every contaminant as a dark fleck. Wash your hands after handling any other clay, wipe your bat, use a clean canvas, and never roll porcelain on a table that just had Berlin Gray on it.
Heavy dipping At 0.12% absorption, bisque porcelain drinks glaze far more slowly than an open clay does. A dip timed for 52 Buff goes on much too thick here and will run onto the shelf. Count your seconds and cut them down.
Thick glaze on a thin wall Porcelain walls end up thin. A heavy glaze coat on a thin wall changes how the whole piece behaves in the firing, and slumping in the kiln is a real way to lose a good pot at the last possible moment.

Satin or glossy?

Glossy, if you want the classic answer. Gloss over porcelain is how you get depth, how a celadon pools in a carved line, and how the color reads truest. It is also the easiest surface to clean, so it is the right call inside anything you eat or drink from.

Satin is beautiful here too, particularly on faceted or carved forms where a soft surface plays against a hard edge. What porcelain does not need is a heavy opaque, because covering this body completely is paying for something nobody will ever see.

Is it beautiful naked?

It is the best bare clay we sell, and it is not close. At 0.12% absorption a fired unglazed surface is essentially sealed, so bare porcelain is both beautiful and genuinely practical. Sand it after firing and it goes smooth, cool and stone-like. Bare clay is fine to fire here.

Half naked is where porcelain becomes show-off work: a glazed interior against a raw white exterior, or a glaze that stops in a hard line partway down. The contrast between a glassy surface and bare porcelain is one of the sharpest things you can make in this studio.

Combinations worth trying

Carve first, celadon second Facet or carve the leather-hard form, then a single celadon over the whole thing. The glaze pools dark in the cuts and goes pale on the ridges. The oldest trick in porcelain and still the best one.
A crystalline over a pale satin Coyote Ivory Crystal or Crystal Celadon on a simple thrown form. Laguna rates this body for crystal firing, and a plain white ground is what lets the crystals actually read.
Underglaze line work under clear Fine drawing straight onto bisque, clear gloss over the top. Porcelain is the only clay here where a thin line stays a thin line all the way through the firing.
Glazed inside, bare outside Wax the exterior, glaze the interior, sand the outside smooth after firing. Costs you one glaze and looks like it came from a gallery.
One saturated color, one hard line A strong gloss on the top half, bare white below, and a clean horizontal where they meet. On porcelain that line stays razor sharp, which is the entire effect.
Potter’s Choice over Celadon Snow Amaco publishes layering charts built on this pairing, and on a porcelain body your results land closer to their photographs than on anything else we sell.

Where these came from. These pairings come from the glaze makers’ own layering guides and from what potters consistently report on porcelain. They are not photographs of a shelf of #16 test tiles from this studio. Fire a test tile before you commit a piece you care about, and go dig through the Glaze Bible and our glaze combination resources while you are at it.

Keeping it alive

#16 Porcelain in a desert.

Utah is the worst possible climate for the most demanding clay we sell. Dry air plus 13.9% shrinkage plus thin porcelain walls is a combination that will find any corner you cut. The good news is that all of the fixes are free.

Close the bag the second you are done

Not at the end of class. The second you cut what you need. This clay already arrives slightly firm, and a stiff skin on the block is the last thing porcelain needs before you have even started.

Wedge it properly, every time

More important here than on any other bag. Uneven moisture through the block becomes uneven drying in the piece, and uneven drying at 13.9% shrinkage becomes a crack. Wedge until it is one consistency all the way through.

Cover your work between sessions

A piece left uncovered on your shelf overnight in this climate is a piece with a bone dry rim and a wet base. Plastic over everything, loosely, every single time you walk away.

Only cut off what you are using

Every cut face is a fresh surface losing water. Slice one piece, close the bag, leave the rest of the block whole, and push the air out before you seal it.

When it has already gone hard. Beat it. Throw the block down on the ground hard a few times, turning it between throws, or slam wedge it on the table. Porcelain is the most stubborn clay here to bring back, so the real answer is not letting it get there.

If it is genuinely past saving on the wheel, do not bin it. Stiff porcelain still works in slab molds, and this body is specifically rated as good for slab forming. Never fight hard clay on the wheel. It is bad for your wrists, your hands and your back, and throwing is about touch, not strength. Full drying walkthrough: how to dry your pottery.

Plan it before you throw it

The #16 Porcelain shrinkage calculator.

This clay shrinks 13.9%, the most of anything on our shelf. Throw a mug at the height you want and it comes out of the kiln nearly an inch shorter. Do the math first, every time.

Wet measurement, in inches

Works for height, width or diameter. Measure the wet piece while it is still on the wheel or the table, before it starts drying.

Out of the kiln 4.31 in A 5 inch wet piece finishes about 4.31 inches. You lose 0.70 in.

What a bag actually buys you

Cost per piece.

A bag of clay is 25 pounds. This is the second most expensive bag we sell, and it still works out around three dollars a mug, which is a bargain for learning the hardest skill in the building.

What are you making?

These weights are studio averages for a piece thrown at a normal thickness. Porcelain walls usually end up thinner, so you may well get more pieces out of a bag than this says.

Cost per finished piece $3.18 At Green level, one $44.50 bag makes about 14 mugs.
$44.50 One 25 lb bag at your level
14 Pieces per bag
$12.71 Clay cost for a set of four

Clay only. Glaze up-charges, kiln firing fees and your membership are separate.

All eight, side by side

How #16 Porcelain stacks up.

Prices follow the level you picked in the buy box. Tap any clay to go to its own page.

Clay Fired color Texture Best at Shrinks Price
52 Buff Warm buff tan Slightly coarse Mugs, bowls, tiles, hand building, slab molds 10% $28
B-Mix w/Grog Off white Very fine grog Beginners, joined pieces, bigger forms, and raku 11% $32
B-Mix Cream Smooth, porcelain-like Tableware, ovenware, tile, jewelry, a pleasure on the wheel 12% $36
B-Mix w/Specks Warm white, speckled Smooth Everything B-Mix does, with specks coming through the glaze 12.5% $36.50
Speckled Buff Desert tan brown, speckled Smooth, low grit Wheel throwing, warm earthy work, a reduction look in an electric kiln 12% $40
Half & Half White Smooth Large sculpture, multi-section wheel throwing, white functional ware 12% $40
#16 PorcelainYou are here Very light gray white Very smooth Fine detail, carving, slab forming, true glaze color 13.9% $44.50
Berlin Gray Cement gray to dark gray Impalpable grog Throwing and modeling smooth pieces with fine detail 12.4% $49

Berlin Gray comes in a 27 lb vacuum sealed bag. Every other clay here is 25 lb.

After you buy it

How you actually get the bag.

Clay is not sitting out for anyone to grab. Once you have paid for it, a staff member goes and gets it with you, so you always leave with a fresh bag rather than the one that has been open on a shelf.

1

Buy it here

Pick your level, choose how many bags, and check out. The receipt lands on your phone straight away.

2

Show the receipt

Pull the receipt up on your phone and show it to any member of our staff. That is the whole check.

3

They go with you

A staff member walks back with you and hands you a fresh bag of #16 Porcelain.

Go be bad at something for a night.

Throw six small cups instead of one perfect vase. Use less water than feels right. Stop earlier than you want to. Dry them slowly and cover them every time you walk away. Somewhere in the second or third session it stops fighting you, and after that every other clay in this building feels easy.

Buy a bag See all eight clays