Sheffield Pottery

Burnt Umber

$6.65

Unit price: per

SKU : RMUMBBUR

Item Class Raw Materials

Availability

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Free Insurance - Peace of Mind with Every Purchase

Shop with complete confidence knowing that every order is fully insured from our warehouse to your doorstep. We protect your investment against damage, loss, or theft during transit—at no additional cost to you. Experience worry-free shopping and the assurance that your valuable purchases will arrive safely or be promptly replaced.

Product Description

A natural brown earth for brushwork, washes and darker clay bodies.

You must test before you use it, at any scale. Raw materials, mined or man-made, are not consistent. Color, strength, particle size and chemistry can change from one bag to the next and from one supplier to another, even when the name on the bag stays the same. Before you use this material in a glaze, slip or clay body of any size, mix a small test batch, fire it on your own clay in your own kiln, and check the results.

What it is

A natural brown earth made of iron oxide with some manganese, heated ("burnt") to deepen its color. Potters brush it on as a decorating wash for reddish-browns, and mix it into clay to darken it.

Getting started

As a wash, mix it with water, brush it onto bisqueware, and wipe it back so color stays in the texture. Test it under and over your clear glaze.
In clay or slip, start around 2 to 5% for a darker body.
In a glaze, start at 2 to 3% for warm browns.

For glaze formulators

Calcined natural earth: iron oxide with manganese oxide. Because it's dug from the ground, the iron-to-manganese ratio varies from lot to lot.
The manganese can cause blistering at higher amounts.

Safety

Contains manganese, which gives off harmful fumes during firing. Vent your kiln and stay out of the kiln room while it fires.
Wear a NIOSH-approved respirator (N95 or better) when handling it dry, and clean up with a wet sponge, not a broom.
On food surfaces, keep it under a stable, tested glaze, and have the finished piece lab-tested before you sell it.

Sizes & pricing

Size	Price	Per lb
1 lb	$6.65	$6.65	Add to cart
5 lb	$30.75	$6.15	Add to cart
10 lb	$59.00	$5.90	Add to cart
25 lb	$141.25	$5.65	Add to cart
50 lb bag	$255.00	$5.10	Add to cart

Full bags mix and match. Every full bag in your order, of any raw material, adds up. That total sets the price of every bag. Smaller sizes don't count.

This bag's price stays the same at every level, but it still counts toward your full-bag total.

Prices from our October 23, 2026 price list.

Frequently Asked Questions

Glaze and clay recipes go by weight, not by volume, and they don't count water. Each ingredient is a share of the dry total. 2% means 2 grams for every 100 grams of dry ingredients. For a 500-gram batch, that's 10 grams. Colors and opacifiers are often listed as extras on top of a recipe that adds up to 100, written like "+2" or "add 2%." Weigh those the same way: 2 grams for every 100 grams of the base recipe. A digital scale that reads to 0.1 gram makes small amounts easy.

A test tile is a small piece of the clay you use, glazed and fired just like your real work. Raw materials vary from bag to bag, and results also change with your clay, how thick you apply the glaze and how your kiln fires. A test tile is the only way to know what you'll get before you glaze a whole batch of pots. Write what's on each tile on the back (an underglaze pencil works), and keep notes so you can repeat what works.

Yes, whenever you handle the dry powder. Fine dust is the main hazard with most raw materials, and some can harm your lungs over time. Wear a NIOSH-approved respirator (N95 or better) while you weigh and mix. A basic dust mask that isn't N95-rated won't protect you. Once a material is mixed with water, dust is much less of a problem, but wipe up spills with a wet sponge before they dry, and mop instead of sweeping. Don't eat or drink while you work, and wash your hands afterward. Check each product's Safety section for anything extra that material needs.

Burnt Umber

1 Pound