A Mountain Trail Memory Box

This one is a memory box for a trip you took, with room for maps and photos. The urn is made to hold remains.

Tell me its folded size and I'll size the inside for it.

Of course. Put both names under the peak, like ALEX & MORGAN.

Yes. The complete sample for a pair of Name-As-Structure Bookends (Maya's Alpine Cathedral, an Advanced design) is free to look through: the standard template, its Explain It Like I'm 12 guide and its large-format pages, all stamped SAMPLE. It has been checked the same way every custom template is, and it hasn't been built or fired.

A custom slab pottery template, designed by me around your idea and delivered as PDF files. I design it, then you build it. No finished pottery, clay, glaze or firing comes with it, and nothing ships.

Everything you need to build the piece at the level you chose: full-size patterns for every piece with labels, quantities and dimensions, a tools and materials list, step-by-step assembly instructions, and a bevel guide if the design has angled edges. Expert, Insane and Legendary templates also get in-depth chapters on drying, keeping clay workable over a long build, and avoiding common problems. The add-ons make it easier or faster. They never hold back anything you need.

Explain It Like I'm 12 is a longer PDF guide to your design that walks through every step and why it works (20% of the template's base price). Large-format files put the patterns on 24 x 36 in sheets, every piece whole, ready for a copy shop (25%; printing isn't included). Rush gets your first concept to you in 2 business days, and your finished files 5 business days after you approve the design instead of up to 3 weeks (40%). Clayla project help is $20 for up to 30 questions about building your design. Each percentage is figured from the base price only and rounded to an even dollar amount, and you see the exact price before you add anything.

No. I check every custom template digitally before it goes out: the patterns against the design, and the drawings and instructions against both, with a 3D model behind every Advanced and higher design. Your piece is a brand-new design, so you're the first to build it. If you hit a mistake of mine, I fix it free.

Please do. The examples are sparks, not a menu. Show me one and ask for something like it, or bring something nobody has thought of yet. If your idea fits one of my named custom templates, start there. If it doesn't fit any of them, Your Idea, in Clay is made for exactly that.

The one you're ready to build. A Beginner version is a deliberately simpler build of your idea, and what makes a piece mean something doesn't depend on how many parts it has. The skills calculator on this page asks a few questions about your experience, space and time, then recommends a level. A higher level, or the Explain It Like I'm 12 guide, doesn't replace the skills that level calls for.

I'll tell you before I start your first concept. Then you choose: I simplify it to fit what you bought, or you pay the difference to move up. I never add charges or trim what you bought without your say-so.

Brand names and logos, team names and mascots, and characters, artwork or worlds from games, films, TV and books. Photos and drawings you send need to be yours, or used with permission (finding an image online isn't permission). Your own business name, or a simple text logo you own, is fine. Not sure? Ask me before you order.

Send me a different idea for the same order, switch to another custom template, or take store credit on a gift card that never expires. There's no fee for any of it. And if your idea fits my rules and I still can't take it on, you can choose a full refund instead.

Your first concept arrives within 5 business days after I have everything I need (2 with rush). Once you approve your design, your finished template is ready within 3 weeks (Legendary, 4 weeks), or 5 business days with rush (Legendary, 8). Business days are Monday to Friday, Mountain Time, not counting studio holidays. You get your exact due date the day you approve.

Within 48 hours of your order, you get an email listing what I need. Once I have all of it, I start designing, and your first concept arrives within 5 business days (2 with rush). The due date clock starts the day you approve your design. Take as long as you like choosing and refining. That time never counts against you. After you approve, if I have to wait on an answer from you, those days move your due date, and I tell you the new date.

Life happens. I'll send reminders, and your order waits until you're back. Nothing gets finished without your approval, and nothing you paid for disappears.

A first concept, and up to two alternatives if the first isn't it. Pick the one you love, and one combined round of small refinements comes with it. Then you approve the final design in writing, and I build the template.

If I'm going to miss your due date or a concept date, I'll tell you before it, and you choose a full refund or the new date. With rush, if I miss the date for a reason on my side, I refund that custom template and every rush fee and add-on bought for it, and I still deliver it.

Yes, for a fee. I explain what the change involves, quote the price and the new due date, and wait for your yes. The fee depends on how much has to be redone, up to 70% of the template's base price. Fixing my own mistakes never costs anything.

Tell me (by email, through the contact page, or through Clayla) and I'll send corrected files within a week of confirming it. It's free, there's no time limit, and it never uses your Clayla questions. A different way of doing a step isn't a mistake. A wrong size, a missing piece or a pattern that doesn't match the instructions is.

You do, outright. When I deliver, I assign you my rights in your custom design, with a signed ownership certificate. The design, the template files and everything you make from them are yours to use, sell, share or give away, and you can call it your own design. You never have to credit me.

Yes, both. Share them with anyone, give them away or sell them, changed or not, and the people you pass them to can sell what they make too. There are no limits, and no credit to me is needed.

I may show your design as an example of my work, and I may turn a suitable design into a template for my catalog. Your private photos and contact details never go public, anything personal (a name, a date, a house number, your kid's drawing) gets removed or generalized unless you tell me it can stay, and I don't put your name on it. Your rights don't change if I do either, and my catalog version never limits what you do with yours.

Yes. Buy it, then tell me in your reply to the "what I need" email who will send the details and approve the design. I start designing when I have their information, and the design becomes theirs. A gift card works too, if you'd rather they pick everything themselves.

Every size I list is the finished size after firing, assuming your clay shrinks 12%. Clay bodies vary, so if yours shrinks more or less, send me its shrinkage with your information and I'll size the patterns for it.

Plain paper, at actual size (100%), never "fit to page". The patterns are laid out on US Letter sheets (8.5 x 11 in), and at actual size they usually fit A4 too. Check a printed measurement against a ruler before you cut. Large-format files are 24 x 36 in, for a copy shop.

Clayla, The Clay Hole Assistant, helps while you build your design. $20 gets you up to 30 project questions. A question that gets a real answer uses one. Follow-ups to the same question, failed requests, duplicates and corrections of a wrong answer don't. Clayla shows your balance and tells you before a question counts. Questions about your order, my policies or a mistake in your files are always free, and unused questions never expire.

Yes, as a separate purchase you choose each time: $5 for Beginner to Advanced designs, $10 for Expert and Insane, and $12.50 for Legendary. If a drawing misses, I refund it.

A custom template is personal design work, so there are no change-of-mind refunds. You do get your money back in the situations the terms set out: a missed due date or concept date (your choice), a missed rush date on my side, a material change you don't accept, an idea within my rules that I can't take on, and anything the law where you live gives you.

No. Member picks, bundles and promotions are for pre-made templates. Custom templates are paid design work, priced the same for everyone.

Yes, within 14 days of ordering. When you send your information, you choose whether I start right away or wait until the 14 days are over. If you ask me to start and then cancel, you pay for the work already done and I refund the rest. Once your finished files are delivered, the order can't be canceled.