# Where to Buy Clay for Pottery: Every Option Compared URL: https://myclay.online/blog/where-to-buy-clay-for-pottery Published: 2026-08-14 Category: Buying guide Tags: Buying, Beginners, Clay bodies Reading time: 5 min > Buy from a dedicated ceramic supplier if you can reach one — they sell 10 to 12 kg boxes at a fraction of craft shop prices. Local studios often resell clay, and shipping is what makes online orders expensive. Clay is heavy, which shapes everything about buying it. A 12 kg box costs little to make and a lot to ship, so the price you pay depends mostly on how far it travelled and how many hands it passed through. > **From the studio:** I bought my first clay in 500 g craft-shop blocks and got through about four pots before working out I was paying roughly five times the per-kilo price of a supplier box. The box also lasted eight months in its sealed bag without deteriorating in the slightest. ## 1. A dedicated ceramic supplier — the cheapest by far This is where potters actually buy clay. Ceramic suppliers sell clay by the box, usually 10 to 12.5 kg, alongside glaze materials, tools and kiln parts. **Roughly what to expect**: a standard stoneware body works out at a modest per-kilo price, dropping further if you buy a pallet. Compared with a craft shop block, you are typically paying a third or less per kilo. **Finding one**: search for "ceramic supply" or "pottery supplies" plus your region rather than "clay shop", which returns craft retailers. Most countries have only a handful of significant suppliers, and they ship nationally. **What to ask for**, in this order: 1. **The cone you fire to** — [cone 6](/blog/cone-6-vs-cone-10) for most electric kilns, cone 10 if you have gas. This is the single most important thing. 2. **The forming method** — wheel throwing, hand building, or sculpture. Suppliers will steer you to a body with the right plasticity and grog content. 3. **The colour** — white, buff, speckled, red. Say "a mid-fire stoneware for throwing, cone 6, buff" and you will get exactly the right thing. ## 2. Your local pottery studio Community studios and teaching potters very often resell clay to members and sometimes to the public. Prices sit between supplier and retail, and you avoid shipping entirely. There is a second reason to ask here first: **if the studio is going to fire your work, they may require their own clay.** A body rated for a different cone can bloat, slump or melt onto their shelves. Always check the policy before buying elsewhere. ## 3. Online Suppliers ship, but the weight bites. A box of clay frequently costs more to deliver than to buy. Two ways to make it work: - **Order in bulk.** Shipping does not scale linearly, so a pallet is dramatically cheaper per kilo than one box. - **Split an order.** Two or three people ordering together turns an unreasonable delivery cost into a reasonable one. General marketplaces sell clay too, usually in small blocks at high per-kilo prices, and often without saying what the firing range is. A listing that does not state a cone is not worth buying for pottery. ## 4. Craft and art shops Convenient, and expensive per kilo. Genuinely useful for two cases: buying your very first block to see whether you enjoy this, and buying air-dry or polymer clay, where the small-block format is normal anyway. Be careful with labelling here. "Modelling clay" in a craft shop is often oil-based plasticine, which never hardens and cannot be fired. Look for "pottery clay", "stoneware", "earthenware" or "porcelain", and for a stated firing temperature. ## 5. Digging it yourself Free, abundant and a genuine project rather than a shortcut. [Wild clay](/blog/where-to-find-natural-clay) is found in riverbanks, road cuttings and building excavations, and it needs to be dug, slaked, sieved, dried to workable stiffness and test-fired before you know what it does. Most wild clay is low-fire and behaves nothing like a commercial body. Worth doing for the connection to the material. Not the way to get clay for a project due next week. ## What you actually want to buy For most people starting out: **a mid-fire (cone 5–6) stoneware with fine grog, in a 12 kg box.** That body throws forgivingly, hand-builds well, tolerates uneven drying, vitrifies to a durable, food-safe result, and fires in any electric kiln. Porcelain is beautiful and unforgiving; heavily grogged sculpture bodies are rough on the hands at the wheel; low-fire earthenware limits your glaze options and stays porous. ## Storing it Clay does not go off. Keep the plastic bag sealed inside the box, out of frost and direct sun. If it stiffens, poke holes in the block with a dowel, fill them with water, re-bag it tightly, and leave it a week. If it arrives too soft, wedge it on a plaster bat or a dry board for twenty minutes. Both problems are routine and neither is a reason to buy new clay. ## What to say when you call a supplier Suppliers are helpful and used to beginners, but the conversation goes much better if you lead with the right information. A good opening is one sentence: **"I'm firing to cone 6 in an electric kiln, I'm mostly hand building, and I'd like a buff stoneware."** That gives them everything they need. If you do not know your cone, say so and ask what they recommend for an electric kiln — the answer will almost always be cone 5 to 6. Worth asking while you have them: - **Is this body grogged, and how coarsely?** It changes the feel more than the colour does. - **What is the shrinkage and absorption?** Both are usually on the datasheet and both are useful. - **What glazes do you know fit this body?** Fit is the thing most likely to bite you later, and suppliers often know which combinations craze. - **Do you have offcuts or a returns pallet?** Slightly dried or mislabelled boxes are sometimes sold cheaply and are perfectly usable. One box, one conversation, and you avoid most of the expensive mistakes people make in their first year. ## Where to go next Decide the body before you order — [stoneware, porcelain or earthenware](/blog/stoneware-porcelain-earthenware) covers what to ask for. For budgeting the whole hobby rather than just the clay, see [how much does pottery clay cost](/blog/how-much-does-pottery-clay-cost). And if free appeals more than fast, [where to find natural clay](/blog/where-to-find-natural-clay). ## Frequently asked questions **Can you buy pottery clay at craft stores?** Yes, usually in small blocks at several times the price per kilo of a ceramic supplier. It is fine for trying clay out and a poor way to buy it regularly. **How much clay should you buy to start?** One 10 to 12 kg box. That is roughly 20 to 25 mugs' worth, it stores indefinitely if sealed, and buying smaller is disproportionately expensive. **Do you need to buy clay from the studio that fires your work?** Often, yes. Studios fire to a specific cone and cannot risk an unknown body melting on their shelves. Ask before you buy clay anywhere else. --- Source: https://myclay.online/blog/where-to-buy-clay-for-pottery — https://myclay.online/