Buff is the workhorse colour of British studio pottery: a pale warm body with enough iron to be interesting and not enough to fight a glaze. It sits between the white bodies and the red earthenwares in both colour and price, and for most people it is the sensible first bag.
What buff actually is
A body with a modest iron content, fired at stoneware temperature, coming out somewhere between cream and light tan depending on the clay and the atmosphere. The iron that gives it the colour also gives it a little more forgiveness than a pure white body, and in reduction it can develop the speckle that many potters buy it for. Suppliers list buff versions of most of their throwing bodies.
How it behaves on the wheel
Well, which is why it is the default. Buff bodies are typically plastic enough to centre and pull without fighting, firm enough to hold a form, and available both smooth and lightly grogged. A beginner given a smooth buff stoneware will find the material is not the thing making throwing hard, which is not true of porcelain.
Under a glaze
A buff ground warms every glaze slightly. Whites read as cream, blues soften, and a transparent glaze shows the body's own colour and any speckle in it, which is often the effect wanted. Where a glaze colour needs to be bright and exact, a white body is the better base; where the body is part of the surface, buff is.
Price and what to buy
Buff stoneware sits in the middle of every price list here and is among the cheapest classes per kilogram. Bath Potters lists several buff throwing bodies with per-kilogram figures, and CTM lists buff and buff-grogged rows at similar money to its other stoneware. Buy a single bag of a smooth and a lightly grogged buff, throw both, and the choice makes itself.
Questions people ask about buff clay
What colour does buff clay fire?
Cream to light tan, warmer than a white body and much lighter than a red earthenware. Reduction firing can bring out speckle.
Is buff clay good for beginners?
Yes. It is plastic, forgiving, cheap by the kilogram and available smooth or lightly grogged.
Does the body colour change my glazes?
Yes, slightly. Whites warm towards cream and transparent glazes show the body through. A white body is the base for exact glaze colour.