How We Write Studio Notes

Studio Notes are short, practical answers to the questions potters ask most, from centering clay to why a glaze crawled. Here’s who writes them and how.

Who writes them

Mud Mercantile is run by a couple who are both potters. We write, edit and publish every guide as the Mud Mercantile team. There’s no outside writer and no paid placement.

How we put a guide together

• We start from a real question: something we’ve run into in the studio, or that customers and other potters ask.
• For technical points we lean on the people who make the materials and the long-standing references: glaze and clay makers’ own instructions, Digitalfire and Ceramic Arts Network. When a claim needs a source, the guide links it.
• We keep them short. If a step depends on your clay, glaze or kiln, we say so instead of giving one number for everything.

What we don’t claim

• We don’t say we’ve tested a product unless the guide says how we tested it.
• Pottery varies. Clay bodies, glazes and kilns behave differently, so your materials’ labels and a test tile come first.

Products in the guides

We sell pottery tools, and the guides link to tools in our shop when one helps with the job. We try to keep it to the few that matter, say when a cheaper option or no tool at all works, and never let a product decide what a guide says.

Photos and videos

Some guides use photos licensed for reuse, such as from Wikimedia Commons, credited under the photo, and embedded videos that belong to their creators on YouTube. We don’t copy or re-upload anyone’s work.

Corrections

If something in a guide is wrong or out of date, email us at [email protected]. We fix it, and the guide shows the date it was updated.