Paper clay is pottery clay with cellulose fiber, most often paper pulp, mixed through it. You can buy it ready made or make it from any clay body by blending paper pulp into slip. It throws, rolls and builds much like the clay it started as, but it is stronger when dry, it joins dry to dry, and the paper burns away in the kiln to leave a normal ceramic piece.
This guide is research-based. We compared published paper clay work by Rosette Gault and Graham Hay, Ceramic Arts Network tutorials and the makers' own spec pages. We did not mix or fire paper clay ourselves. Specs checked October 2026.
What is paper clay?
Paper is the most common fiber added to clay, and almost any body can be converted: earthenware, terracotta, stoneware, porcelain and even bone china. Rosette Gault, who wrote Paper Clay for Ceramic Sculptors and holds US Patent 5,726,111 (1998) on a paper and clay method, is the name most linked with the modern technique.
Inside the clay, millions of hollow fibers act like tiny wicks. They pull water through the piece quickly and hold the dry clay together. Graham Hay sums up the fired result simply: once kiln fired, the clay "reverts to a purely ceramic body." Glazes, cones and firing schedules are the same as for the base clay.
Paper clay vs air dry "paperclay" craft products
Search "paper clay" and many top results are craft recipes made from paper pulp, joint compound and wood glue, or brands such as Creative Paperclay. These are air dry modeling materials. Creative Paperclay's listing says it "contains no clay in it at all" and "requires no firing in a kiln or baking in an oven," and the maker suggests sealing finished pieces with lacquer or varnish. "Paperclay" is also a registered US trademark for that craft product.
Never put a glue or joint compound craft clay in a pottery kiln. Everything below is about firable paper clay made from real clay. For no-kiln options, see our guides to AMACO air dry clay and air dry clay on a pottery wheel.
Why potters use paper clay
- Green strength. Fiber adds strength before firing, so dry pieces survive handling, transport and kiln loading. Rosette Gault's site claims "double the green strength" of traditional clay.
- Dry joins and repairs. You can attach bone dry parts to each other, or soft paper clay to dry paper clay, which ordinary clay will not allow without cracking.
- Lighter work. Ceramic Arts Network notes paper clay makes work lighter and reduces warping and shrinkage.
- Thin, open forms. Sculptors build thin walls, rods and frames that would sag or crack in plain clay.
There are trade-offs. More fiber makes the unfired piece stronger but the fired piece weaker, so heavy fiber loads suit sculpture more than mugs. Wet paper clay can sour and grow mold. Graham Hay also found that paper fiber disrupts extrusion of fine rods, so it is a poor choice for an extruder.
How to make paper clay
Choose the paper
Ceramic Arts Network's tutorial lists newspaper, cotton linter and photocopier paper as workable, and warns against toilet paper because its starch promotes rot.
Sources disagree on cellulose insulation. A Ceramic Arts Network article recommends the spray-in cellulose fiber sold at hardware stores. Rosette Gault warns that recycled insulation may be treated with flame retardant chemicals that smolder and smoke in the kiln. If you use it, read the product's own warnings and SDS first; plain paper avoids the question.
How much paper to add
No single ratio exists, and the published methods measure in different ways:
- Ceramic Arts Daily: mix 5% to 15% paper pulp into your clay slurry.
- Graham Hay: one third of a bucket of paper puree to two thirds of a bucket of clay slip, by volume.
- Ceramic Arts Network: two gallons of slip with three handfuls of cellulose fiber, for about 10 to 15 lb of paper clay.
Use less fiber for pots, more for sculpture, and fire a test piece first.
Mixing steps
- Soak the paper. Tear it small and soak it in hot water. Hay uses about ten times the paper's loose volume of water.
- Pulp it. Blend or drill-mix until no flakes remain, then drain off extra water.
- Make or reclaim slip. Slake dry scraps of one clay body into slip. Our clay slip guide covers making slip from scraps.
- Combine. Add the pulp to the slip and mix with a drill mixer for about 15 minutes, breaking up dry pockets, until it reaches what Ceramic Arts Network calls a "yogurt consistency with tiny threads of texture."
- Dry it back. Pour or spread the slip about 1/2 in thick on plaster bats, flip it once it firms, and let it reach working consistency. You can also pour it into molds.
Commercial paper clays and maker data
Buying a ready-made paper clay saves the mixing and gives you published firing figures. Laguna makes the paper clays most US dealers stock. Its own store listed Max's and Bob's as sold out when we checked, so look at dealers such as Axner too. Dealer prices ran roughly $1 to $1.20 per lb before shipping in October 2026; check the live price.
| Clay | Cone | Shrinkage | Absorption | Texture | Listed uses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laguna Max's Paper Clay (WC953) | 06 to 10 | 12% | 5% | Fine and medium grog | Sculpture, tile, raku, large throwing |
| Laguna Bob's Paper Clay Sculpture (WC952) | 04 to 6 | 10% | 3% | Highly grogged | Tile, sculpture, large throwing |
| Laguna B-Mix Paper Clay (WC886) | 10 (dealer listing) | 11% | 5% | Very fine grog | Tile, jewelry, sculpture, throwing |
Cone ranges differ between sources. Laguna lists Max's at cone 06 to 10, Graham Hay's US supplier list says 05 to 10, and Axner gives cone 10 reduction, cone 5 oxidation and cone 05 raku. For B-Mix Paper Clay, the Creative Crafts dealer listing and Axner say cone 10, while Hay's list says 04 to 10. We found no Laguna page for WC886, so confirm with your dealer. Laguna does not publish paper content for any of these bodies.
Laguna Max's Paper Clay (WC953)
Laguna says Max's fires gray stony white in reduction at cone 10, off white at cone 5 oxidation and bright white at cone 05 raku, and suits cross sections up to 1 in. That range makes it the easiest pick if you fire both low and mid range.
Laguna Bob's Paper Clay Sculpture (WC952)
A dark red brown wet body with "fine wood fiber content" that Laguna rates for cone 04 to 6. Fired color is not published by the maker beyond "a toasty color."
Laguna B-Mix Paper Clay (WC886)
A paper version of Laguna's popular B-Mix, cream when wet, off white in oxidation and gray white in reduction per the dealer listing. Our Laguna clay guide covers the standard B-Mix bodies.
Graham Hay's list of US makers also names Aardvark, Clay Art Center, IMCO, Leslie Ceramics, Minnesota Clay and New Mexico Clay; some of these use nylon fiber instead of paper. Check current maker pages before ordering.
Joining bone dry paper clay
Dry joins are the main reason many potters switch. Plain clay shrinks as it dries, so a wet join on dry clay cracks. Paper clay's fibers pull water in fast and hold the join while it dries. Hay reports a dry-to-dry join takes about 10 seconds "as the dry pieces suck the moisture out of the paperclay slip," and that good joins are as strong as the body before and after firing.
- Make paper clay slip. Soak dry paper clay scraps in water. Hay reconstitutes scraps into joining slip within an hour.
- Brush slip on both faces. Press the parts together and hold for a few seconds.
- If the join pulls apart, thin the slip or dampen the dry pieces first, then rejoin.
- For wet to dry, dip a soft piece of paper clay in slip before pressing it on. This adds contact area and strength.
- For small spot joins, run a bead of slip from a squeeze bottle.
The same method repairs cracks and breaks before firing, and Ceramic Arts Network notes that wet paper clay can patch small breaks in bisqued paper clay. Regular clay still needs the score and slip method at leather hard; see scoring and slip for that. Our bone dry clay guide explains why plain clay cannot do this.
Drying, storing and stopping the smell
Wet paper clay can develop what Ceramic Arts Daily calls a "rotten, moldy smell" as it ages. Rosette Gault describes mold as dark streaks on the surface of moist blocks, which can be scraped off, and says firing destroys any trace. The fixes that published potters use:
- Store it dry. Pour slabs, dry them fully on plaster and stand them on end. Gault suggests slicing clay thin and drying it, which she says keeps it for years.
- Rehydrate as needed. Ceramic Arts Daily sprays dry slabs with four to six thorough soakings until the curl disappears; Gault soaks dry scraps from 15 minutes to overnight.
- Mix small batches. Hay makes only a day's supply of slip in summer.
- Additives. Ceramic Arts Network adds a tablespoon of bleach and remixes; Hay adds detergent to summer slip.
Firing paper clay and venting the paper smoke
Fire paper clay to the cone of its base clay. It must be completely dry first. Gault says the fiber leaves the clay at about 451°F (233°C), early in the firing, and is gone within the first several hours of an eight-hour bisque. She notes the paper in a whole load is less than the newspaper many people stuff inside handbuilt work.
- Heat slowly early on. A slow climb through the low range lets moisture and burnout smoke leave before the kiln gets hot.
- Vent the kiln. Gault advises ventilating burnout fumes from any clay firing, paper or not, with a hood or vent that exhausts outdoors.
- Never add dry paper to a red hot electric kiln. Gault warns that combustibles placed in a kiln at about 1,850°F (1,010°C) and up can ignite and make smoke that corrodes and shortens element life.
- Bisque high enough. If you bisque, Gault recommends at least cone 04 to 03, not cone 08, because underfired bisque can be fragile. She also notes single firing is an option since the greenware is strong enough to glaze.
Our kiln vent guide compares downdraft vents and hoods. Follow your kiln maker's clearance and venting instructions.
Common paper clay mistakes
- Using toilet paper or glossy paper that rots or will not break down.
- Adding so much fiber that fired work turns weak and crumbly.
- Storing wet paper clay for weeks in a warm room.
- Firing work that still feels cool or damp to the touch.
- Skipping a test tile, when clay, paper and water all vary.
Safety notes
Dry paper clay is still clay and makes silica-bearing dust when you sand, scrape or break it. Work it damp, wipe surfaces with a wet sponge, mop instead of sweeping, and wear a NIOSH-approved respirator when mixing dry clay or fiber. Avoid fiber clouds when pulping. Vent the kiln during firing, and anyone sensitive to mold should test a small batch first, as Gault advises.
What you need
To start, you need a bag of commercial paper clay, or slip from one clay body plus plain paper, a drill mixer, plaster bats and a vented kiln. Our best clay for pottery guide explains how to choose a base body and cone, and our best pottery tools guide covers the hand tools for building.
Sources: Laguna Clay product pages for Max's Paper Clay (WC953) and Bob's Paper Clay Sculpture (WC952); Creative Crafts dealer listing for Laguna WC886 B-Mix Paper Clay; Axner Paper Clays page; Graham Hay, "More paperclay" and US paper clay manufacturers list; Rosette Gault, paperclayart.com firing and safety pages; Ceramic Arts Network, "Lose Weight, Get Strong: Put Your Ceramic Work on the Paper Clay Diet"; Ceramic Arts Daily, "Making Paper Clay Storage Easier and Less Stinky"; Wikipedia, Paper clay; Creative Paperclay retailer listing (Wyndham Art Supplies). Specs checked October 2026.