Scarva Earthstone Professional PF680 Black Smooth From  £23.18

Most glazes fail on this clay but the new GZ2161 Low Expansion Tin Gloss Glaze which I understand is developed for this clay works perfectly. No bubbling or crawling. There is also a clear version of this glaze which works without issues too.

I have been handbuilding with this clay for a year or so and love it. I use minimal slip decoration and it provides a great contrasting background. I've also used Amaco brush on glazes for interiors to water proof vases etc, and it works fine. However I have just tried throwing with it and have abraded my hands rather painfully. It is pretty heavily grogged and throwing washes out the finer particles, leaving the sand behind. Ouch!

Bought a sample amount to have a play with as hope to design and make a chess set one day soon! So far only fired a bead size to check on its colour and texture, quite tacky to use but it does fire to a good black.

I wasn't a fan throwing this, I was throwing some smaller pieces, mainly teabowls but I found it tricky to work with. This clay doesn't really like too much water, will tend to collapse in on itself. If you're used to throwing with grogged clays you'll probably be okay with this.

I found it very very soft, almost like butter. Easy to work with but extremely fragile when dry. I'm planning on glazing to see what the effect is like. I'm hoping it doesnt bubble as bad as the other reviews I've read says.

A beautiful clay to work with, especially for works left naked. Can be fragile at bisque. Glaze uptake seems poor but slip and even oxides create interesting effects.

I used this clay and ended up throwing aaway clothes and towels as it stains everything, but it comes out a wonderful warm dark chocolate colour. When you used the Scarva crawl glazes on it at Cone 6, the results are perfect.

Although not advertised as a throwing clay it is superb to throw especially large pieces. Wonderful product

I found this body much harder to throw that porcelain. It's rather course on your hands, but finished product looks great. Looking forward to firing.

Great for hand building and looks so beautiful when fired

A bit hard to roll but was less messy so in the end I had to do so much less polishing and my ware looked so much neater