ClayTrace: Pottery Journal

LifeVen Studio

About this app

The next time a piece works, remember why.

ClayTrace is a pottery journal for the studio: photos, glaze layers, firings, and lessons kept with the piece they belong to, so your ceramics notes are still findable months later.

CAPTURE IT IN THE MOMENT

When your hands are covered in clay, take the photo and get back to making. Add the clay body, dimensions, and next step later, with clean hands. Ideas and references save the same way, so a promising shape is still waiting when you come back.

FOLLOW THE REAL PROCESS

A piece is not one form to fill in. Every step and photo stays attached to the piece it belongs to, from the first form to the kiln opening, so you can see what actually changed along the way.

REMEMBER EVERY SURFACE

Record the glaze order, coats, area, and application method behind a result. When a surface finally comes out right, the recipe is sitting beside the photo — not buried in Notes or lost in your camera roll.

FIND WHAT WORKED

Search one place instead of Photos, Notes, and scraps of paper. Pull up every piece where you used a glaze or a clay body, see how each one came out, and go back to last season's work while the details still mean something.

TURN RESULTS INTO EXPERIENCE

A surprise from the kiln does not have to become a mystery six months later. Write down what happened, what you learned, and what you would change. Over time this becomes a searchable memory of your own practice.

LEARN AND SHARE

See your skills and milestones through work you actually made. When a piece deserves it, turn its finished photo into a Finished Card, or share the making as Process Slides without rebuilding the story from your camera roll.

YOUR JOURNAL IS YOURS TO KEEP

We made ClayTrace so potters could keep a real record of their own work, and a record is only worth keeping if it stays yours. No caps on pieces or glaze layers. Whatever else changes over the years, your own records will never sit behind a payment. Export everything — pieces, glaze notes, original photos — to a single file, free, anytime, and restore it on this device or a new phone. No account, and your work stays on your device.

ClayTrace speaks English, 简体中文, 繁體中文, 日本語, 한국어, Français, Deutsch, Español, Italiano, Português (Brasil), Nederlands, and Polski.

What’s new

Enhanced clay body records with support for multiple clay bodies per piece.
Crop your photos, and save copies to your photo library.