A blue stoneware water bird whistle standing on a wooden table beside a white mug, made from The Clay Hole paper template

Paper template 138, a hand-building pattern

The Water Bird Whistle

New: nobody has built this one yet

You can download this one with confidence. 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 round clay songbird that whistles when you blow its tail and warbles with a little water inside, tuned to C. Finished: a round bird 3 7/8 in long and 2 1/4 in tall at 12 percent shrinkage, tuned to C with water.

Part of the Showpieces collection, all 29 together for $663.60.

  • Intermediate
  • About 2 hours at the table, plus drying, and a few minutes of tuning with water
  • About 1/2 lb of clay
  • 1 template sheet, 7 pages
$8.00 one PDF, 7 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.
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  • Delivered as a download link by email the moment the order goes through.
What you will make

A round clay songbird that warbles with a little water inside

A little round clay songbird with a real whistle in its tail. Blow and it sings one clear note. Add a little water and it warbles like a bird in a hedge, and that same water tunes it to C, so it plays along with the pan flute.

Two domes 2 7/8 in across; a head 2 5/8 in across; a tail 1 15/16 in x 1 1/2 in; a foot ring 3 3/8 in x 3/8 in; a beak. 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.

NoteC, with water
Long3 7/8 in
Tall2 1/4 in
Tunedwith water, A 440
What is in the pack

7 pages. Every piece whole on its own sheet.

  • 1 template sheet, 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 19 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

  • Top domecut 1
  • Bottom domecut 1
  • Headcut 1
  • Beakcut 1
  • Tailcut 1
  • Foot ringcut 1
Cover page of The Water Bird Whistle, a printable pottery paper template from The Clay Hole in Draper, Utah
The cover
The template sheets of The Water Bird Whistle 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 pack 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
Long, beak to tail4 7/16 in4 in3 7/8 in3 13/16 in
Tall2 1/2 in2 1/4 in2 1/4 in2 3/16 in
Body across2 1/16 in1 7/8 in1 13/16 in1 13/16 in
Head across1 1/16 in1 in15/16 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 19 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 pack 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.

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 136.

A teal stoneware pan flute of eight pipes lying on a wooden table beside a white mug, made from The Clay Hole paper templateSame collection The Pan Flute Intermediate, $8, free for members Stoneware checkers board with six-sided cream and red checkers set up on an oak table, made from The Clay Hole paper templateSame collection The Checkers Set Expert, $20, free for members A stoneware wind chime, blue glazed tubes under a cone roof with a round striker and a sail, from a Clay Hole paper templateSame collection The Five-Note Wind Chime Expert, $30, free for members A green stoneware mancala board with cream pits, colored pebbles and its lidded jar, made from The Clay Hole paper templateSame collection The Classic Mancala Set Expert, $20, free for members Five-story stoneware pagoda lantern, black roofs over glowing red walls, made from The Clay Hole paper templateSame collection The Five-Story Pagoda Expert, $40, free for members A yellow stoneware mancala board shaped like a sunflower, a brown lid and clay seeds, made from The Clay Hole paper templateSame collection The Sunflower Mancala Board Expert, $25, free for members A sage green stoneware butter dish with the lid lifted to show the butter, made from The Clay Hole butter dish paper templateSomething different The Butter Dish Intermediate, $8, free for members A celadon green stoneware serving tray with slotted handles, crackers and cheese, made from The Clay Hole paper templateSomething different The Twin Handle Serving Tray Intermediate, $8, free for members
Or all 136 at once

The whole set for $1,353.25, half of what they cost one at a time

Every template on this site except the Legendary world monuments, in one order, $1,353.25 instead of $2,706.50, sent as download links by email. See everything that is in it.

$1,353.25$2,706.50All 136 templates in one order: 136 PDFs, 1527 pages, yours to print as often as you like.

Delivered as download links by email the moment the order goes through. Members get five templates free a month, one at a time: log in.

Questions

The ones that come up

Do I need a membership to buy this

No. It is $8 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 pack 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 pack 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

136 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.

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