Two brown 1970s van bookends, a front half and a back half, holding books on a shelf, made from The Clay Hole paper template
The back half of a brown 1970s van bookend with its spare tire and rear doors, made from The Clay Hole paper template

Paper template 171, a hand-building pattern

The Boogie Van Bookends Advanced slab pottery template

New: nobody has built this one yet

You can download this one with confidence. Every template has been audited at least three times for accuracy. So far every template built and every template in progress has come out 100 percent perfect, and the same will likely be true for this one.

Every template starts out in my New Pattern Program, marked NEW, until someone builds it in clay and it checks out. This one should be sound and work as drawn, so use it at your own discretion and be ready to adjust on the fly if your project needs it. Pivoting mid-build is part of the fun of pottery.

Members: be the first to show me this one fully assembled and I’ll fire that piece free, with your name on its tile for good. See which templates are still up for grabs.

Made this one? Text it to the studio or tag @theclayhole on Instagram.

A pair of bookends that make one 1970s custom van, cut in half so it drives right through your books. Finished: 6 in tall, each half 7 1/4 in long and 6 3/16 in wide over the wheels, at 12 percent shrinkage.

Part of the Kitchen and Home collection.

  • Advanced
  • About 6 hours over two sittings, plus drying
  • About 13 3/4 lb of clay
  • 11 template sheets, 20 pages
  • Requires extra hardware purchase

You will need play sand, two #5 rubber stoppers and felt dots, bought separately. The hardware page in the template names the parts and draws how they go together.

How Templates Work

Explain it like I'm 12

Ever get to a step and think, okay, but why? This is for that.

It's the whole build again, start to finish, in plain words and far more thorough than the template, with the reason behind each step. (Like why the bird whistle has you prick all those dots.)

It comes with the template once it's yours, bought or picked as a member. Already have it? Log in and this button opens your guide.

See an example

Ask Clayla

I trained Clayla on every template, drawings and all. Once this template is yours, she'll talk you through any step that has you stuck.

Before you buy, she's happy to answer anything about how the paper templates work. Already own it? Log in first so she knows it's yours.
$12.00 one PDF, 20 pages, yours to print as often as you like

Flip through the free sample
  • Members get five templates free every month. Log in to claim this one.
  • Not a member yet: see what a membership includes.
  • Delivered as a download link by email the moment the order goes through.
For community studios

Community Studio License

$36

Run a studio the public can join? Print this template for every member at your location, as often as they need it, for good.

Get the license

Your cart shows the template plus a license line. Together they come to $36. Your receipt is your license, and its order number is your license number.

Community Studio License

One studio. Every member. Print it forever.

If you run a studio the public can join, this is the version for you. Print this template as many times as your members need, for as long as your studio is open. Nobody has to count copies.

Who it is for

  • Community studios, meaning studios the public can join as members or come to for classes.
  • One license covers one location. Every other location needs its own license.
  • The price is the same for everyone. I don't offer discounts on it, for non-profits or anyone else.

What you can do

  • Print as many copies as you like for anyone making pottery at your location, members and class students alike.
  • Teach classes and workshops with it, and charge for the class.
  • Let people take their printed copies home and keep them.

What you can't do

  • Share the PDF itself. It stays with your staff, who print it. No emailing it, posting it or putting it in a shared drive.
  • Sell printed copies on their own, or charge for them apart from a class.
  • Use it at any other location.
  • Edit it, rebrand it, take off my logo or copyright, or turn it into a template of your own. Print it at 100 percent.
  • Resell or hand off the license. If your studio moves, it moves with you. If you sell the studio, it goes with the business.

The rules everyone follows

Everyone who builds from this template at your studio follows the same template rules every buyer does. What they make is theirs to keep, give or sell. Anything Advanced or above that gets sold online credits me, Dan Pearce, as the designer and links to theclayhole.com.

Want a design you can sell outright?

A custom template is yours with full commercial rights under section 9.3 of my custom template terms: sell the pottery, sell or share the files, and call the design your own. See custom templates

The price

Triple the price of the template, with a $25 minimum. It replaces the single version, so you never pay for both. Already bought it on this account? You only pay the difference.

Your receipt is your license. It lists your studio, what the license covers, and an order number that doubles as your license number. Break the rules and the license ends, with no refund.

Read the full terms
Bundles you may love

This one isn’t in a bundle, but if it’s your kind of build, these probably are too.

What you will make

A 1970s van that drives right through your books

One boxy 1970s van, sliced clean in half: the front with its windshield, grille and bumper holds one end of your books, the back with its spare tire and bubble windows holds the other. Hollow, then filled with sand after the last firing.

For the pair: 2 bases, 2 book plates, 4 side walls, a front, a hood, a windshield, 2 roofs, the back doors, 5 wheels, 4 flares, a grille, 2 bumpers, 2 bubble windows. Every piece is drawn at wet size for a 1/4 in slab, and the finished sizes are what comes out of the glaze kiln at 12 percent shrinkage, which is what most of the studio's stoneware does.

Height6 in
Each half7 1/4 in long, 6 3/16 in wide
Wheels2 1/16 in across
Weightabout 4 1/2 lb empty, up to 15 1/2 lb with sand
What is in the template

20 pages. Every piece whole on its own sheet.

  • 11 template sheets, each piece printed whole at exact size, with a 1 inch check square and a 5 centimeter bar on every sheet so you can prove the print before you cut
  • A cover with the finished size drawn and labeled, so you know what you are building before you roll a slab
  • One page on printing, rolling, cutting and the seam method, the same on every template
  • Assembly in 24 numbered steps written for this piece, then drying, glazing, and the three things that go wrong and why
  • A size table at 10, 12 and 14 percent shrinkage, because 52 Buff, B-Mix and porcelain do not shrink the same

The pieces

  • Basecut 2
  • Book platecut 2
  • Front half, right wallcut 1
  • Front half, left wallcut 1
  • Frontcut 1
  • Hoodcut 1
  • Windshieldcut 1
  • Front roofcut 1
  • Back half, right wallcut 1
  • Back half, left wallcut 1
  • Back doorscut 1
  • Back roofcut 1
  • Wheelcut 5
  • Flarecut 4
  • Grillecut 1
  • Bumpercut 2
  • Bubble windowcut 2
Cover page of The Boogie Van Bookends, a printable pottery paper template from The Clay Hole in Draper, Utah
The cover
The template sheets of The Boogie Van Bookends shown small, a hand-building pattern from The Clay Hole
The template sheets, shown small
Why it works

Worked out from the finished piece backward

My standard for these is spot on, not close. A template that is close is worse than no template, because you trust it. So every number in this template comes from the finished size, through the slab thickness and the shrinkage, to the flat shape that makes it. Then the finished file was measured to prove the shapes landed at that size.

1

Exact scale, with a check

Every sheet carries a 1 inch square and a 5 centimeter bar. Print at 100 percent, measure the square, and the whole sheet is right. If it is not, the print is wrong and you reprint before cutting anything.

2

Seams and bevels planned

Each edge that needs a bevel is hatched on the template and the steps say which way it leans. Mitered corners come out square because all four pieces come from one outline.

3

Tapers cut as fans

A wall that flares is drawn as part of a ring, not a trapezoid, so it closes into a cone with no pleats. The curves are worked out from the exact rim and foot sizes.

4

Fits that are already solved

Lids, flanges, saucers and ridges carry the clearance built in, at wet size, so the parts still fit after they shrink together in the kiln.

MeasurementWet, on the template52 Buff, 10 percentMost stoneware, 12 percentPorcelain, 14 percent
Height6 13/16 in6 1/8 in6 in5 7/8 in
Each half, over the bumper8 1/4 in7 7/16 in7 1/4 in7 1/8 in
Width, over the wheels7 in6 5/16 in6 3/16 in6 in
Hood height4 1/4 in3 13/16 in3 3/4 in3 5/8 in
Wheel2 3/8 in2 1/8 in2 1/16 in2 1/16 in
Fill hole1 1/8 in1 in1 in15/16 in
How to use it

Print, check, roll, cut, build

Print at 100 percent

Actual size, never Fit to page. Plain copy paper works. Card stock survives a wet slab and can be used again.

Measure the square

A ruler on the 1 inch square settles whether the sheet is right. Thirty seconds that saves a whole piece.

Roll 1/4 in

Every clearance assumes it. Let the slab firm up to soft leather hard before you cut, so it holds an edge and still bends.

Cut the count, then build

Lay the paper on the slab, cut straight down just outside the edge, bevel where the hatching says, and follow the 24 steps. Score, slip, press, compress, every seam.

A string around your finger

The final lap is yours

I drew these so the fiddly part is already solved. The seams line up, the lid fits, and the piece comes out the size the template says. That’s my part. Everything after the last seam belongs to you.

Press a texture into the slab before you cut it. Carve or pierce it at leather hard. Give it feet, a knob or a handle I never drew. Glaze it in something I would never pick in a million years. Two people can build the same template side by side and walk away with pieces that look nothing alike, and that’s exactly how it should go.

  • Texture the slab first
  • Carve, pierce or stamp
  • Add feet, knobs or handles
  • Sprigs and slip trailing
  • Glaze it your way

One thing to keep in mind: leave the bones alone. Thinning a wall that carries weight, cutting through a seam or piling extra clay on a lid changes how the piece holds together in the kiln. Decorate the skin as much as you like.

And if you'd rather the whole piece be yours from the first seam, I'll design a custom template around your idea.

Picked for this one

Other templates you may also love

If this one is your speed, these are the ones I’d point you to next: the same set or collection, a step up when you’re ready for it, and a couple of wild cards. Or browse all 178.

Two jade green Art Deco sunburst stoneware bookends holding books on an oak shelf, made from The Clay Hole paper templateA step up The Art Deco Sunburst Bookends Expert$20(Free for members) Two faceted snow-capped stoneware mountain bookends holding books on an oak shelf, made from The Clay Hole paper templateA step up The Mountain Range Bookends Expert$20(Free for members) A pair of green stoneware ramp bookends holding a row of linen books on a shelf, made from The Clay Hole paper templateSame collection The Hollow Bookends Intermediate$8(Free for members) A tall glossy white stoneware pitcher with a pinched spout and a strap handle, made from The Clay Hole paper templateSame collection The Quart Pitcher Advanced$12(Free for members) A square stoneware teapot in glossy teal with a cone spout and strap handle, beside a cup, from The Clay Hole paper templateSame collection The Square Teapot Advanced$12(Free for members) Twisted six-sided salt and pepper shakers in cream and charcoal glazes on marble, made from The Clay Hole paper templateSame collection The Twisted Salt and Pepper Set Advanced$12(Free for members) A stoneware origami fox in burnt orange and cream, built from faceted slabs with a Clay Hole paper templateSomething different The Origami Fox Advanced$12(Free for members) A black and white stoneware puffin whistle with an orange bill beside a white mug, made from The Clay Hole paper templateSomething different The Water Puffin Whistle Advanced$12(Free for members)
Concept rendering: two cream garage-bay bookends with a powder blue pickup split across them, DAD'S BLUE and 1967 below Made for youCustom template Your own car, van or truck, as a pair of bookends. Send me photos and I'll design bookends of your actual vehicle, its shape and colors simplified into slab panels. My Favorite Car Bookends Custom, from $200See the custom template
Questions

The ones that come up

Do I need a membership to buy this

No. It is $12 for anyone. Members get five templates free every month, along with everything else a membership includes.

How do members get it free

Log in with the email your membership is under and claim it at a $0 checkout. Then the download is right here on this page. Every membership comes with five free templates a month.

Can I make it bigger or smaller

Yes. Print every piece of the template at the same percentage and the parts still fit each other. Anything over about 115 percent runs a piece off the page, so check the sheet before you cut.

Which clay

Any of the studio's stoneware. The template is drawn for a 1/4 in slab and the sizes assume 12 percent shrinkage. 52 Buff comes out a little bigger, porcelain a little smaller, and the size table in the template covers both.

Can I sell what I make from it

Yes. The pots are yours. The template file is for your own use and is not to be shared, which is the whole of the terms.

What if a piece does not fit on my printer

Every piece sits whole on one letter sheet with a 3/8 inch margin, which every ordinary home and office printer reaches. Landscape sheets print landscape. Let the printer rotate the page rather than scaling it.

Members

Free templates, every single month

178 templates now and more as they are drawn, and current members of The Clay Hole pick five free every month. Print one tonight and bring it to your next session. I’d love to see what comes out of the kiln.

Log in to claim it freeSee all 178 templates

Sent as download links by email the moment the order goes through. Already a member? Log in, and five templates a month are free, one at a time.