You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 10.12

The Clay Hole University · Surface and Decoration

40 Ways to Add TexturePrintable pottery guide

Find the stage your clay is at, read only that part of the list, answer three questions before you choose, and keep the fixes beside the pot, so the texture you pick is one the clay is ready to take.

$20.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 25 printable pages
  • 6 video picks
  • 8-question quiz + answer key

Flip through the free sample
  • Instant download
  • Prints on any printer
  • The lesson stays free
The printable, at a glance

What is the 40 Ways to Add Texture printable guide?

It is the texture lesson on paper: a reference of forty techniques sorted by the stage of the clay, from wet on the wheel to bisque and glaze, so you read only the part that fits the pot in front of you. A short tick list for choosing one, the ways texture goes wrong and what to do about each, a page of what changes at The Clay Hole, and a one page summary for the bench. A practice log for every pot you texture. Built to be printed and written on.

Prefer to read it online first? The “40 Ways to Add Texture, and When to Apply Each” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 25printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 6hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 18glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the pot that needs something and you cannot think what

Find the stage first, then pick one

A long list of techniques is easy to read and hard to use. Stamps, combing, carving, trailing, chattering, wax: the trouble is rarely the technique. It is that the clay was at the wrong stage for it, too soft to hold a line or too dry to take a stamp. So the list in this guide is sorted by stage, and the first job is to look at your pot and decide which section you are in.

That is a decision you make with clay on your hands, standing at the bench, with the pot drying while you think. A screen times out and gets slip on it. A page stays where you put it, open at the stage you are working in, with a pencil tick beside the one you chose and a note of what glaze you plan to put over it.

The guide gives you a tick list of questions to answer before you choose, the forty in the order you meet them, and a fix for each of the ways texture goes wrong. There is also a log, so that after a few pots you can see which textures suit the work you make and which ones the glaze keeps burying.

Look inside

Real pages, for the bench beside your work

These are actual pages from the guide, shown here with the sample watermark.

  • Page 5 of the “40 Ways to Add Texture” printable guide: choosing one, shown with the sample watermark
    Choosing oneThe tick list you answer before you pick anything, with the first stage, wet on the wheel, starting underneath it. Stage first, then the glaze, then the zone.
  • Page 6 of the “40 Ways to Add Texture” printable guide: stage one, wet on the wheel, shown with the sample watermark
    Stage one, wet on the wheelWhat the entries look like: a name, what it does and the stage the clay has to be at. This page holds finger combing, wire facets, the twisted-wire base, paddling and the start of the soft slab stage.
  • Page 12 of the “40 Ways to Add Texture” printable guide: six ways it goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    Six ways it goes wrongThe start of the fixes. Each one says why it happens, what to change on the next pot, and what can still be done with the piece in your hand.
  • Page 18 of the “40 Ways to Add Texture” printable guide: every pot you texture, and how the texture came out, shown with the sample watermark
    Every pot you texture, and how the texture came outA log to write in: the stage, the technique, the glaze over it and how it came out. The last column is the one that pays, because the next pot starts from it.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A reference works best when it stays open at the right page

Texture is chosen and done at the bench, with wet hands and a pot that will not wait. Paper suits that.

  • The stage decides, so it is on the first page you use

    Five sections, one for each stage of the clay. Open the guide at the one your pot is in and the rest of the list is out of the way.

  • A tick list for choosing

    Answer the questions in pencil before you reach for a tool. It takes most of the list away, and it is easier to do on paper than to scroll back to.

  • A log that remembers the glaze

    The practice log has a column for the stage, the technique and the glaze over it. By the time the kiln opens you will have forgotten which glaze went where, and the page has not.

  • One page for the bench

    The one page summary has the stages, how to pick, what to do when it goes wrong and how to keep the dust down. It pins up beside the wheel for the moments when your hands are full of clay.

How this one is built

Rebuilt for paper, not printed from a web page

Every guide in the series is set from scratch for print. Here is what that meant for this one.

  • Sorted by stage, every entry

    Each technique sits under the stage of the clay it wants, in the order you meet them, so the guide reads the way a pot moves from wet to glazed. Nothing needs a scroll bar to find.

  • Dust, said plainly

    Sanding is wet, never dry, and only on bisque. The dusty textures are done at leather hard, where they make curls instead of dust, and the guide says which are which.

  • Checked against our other lessons

    Every claim was read against the rest of the University, including the firing card, the burnishing note and the slab mold advice, so the guide does not say one thing while another lesson says the opposite.

  • Written for any studio

    The Clay Hole’s own rules, such as which tools and materials are open to which Level and what we cannot do here, are named as Clay Hole facts, so a reader working somewhere else knows which line is ours and which is a rule of the craft.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    A short quiz, and an answer key that gives the reason behind every answer rather than only the letter, worded to match the corrected lesson.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link, video picks included, is a short Clay Hole address. If a video moves, we repoint the address and your printed copy still goes to the right place.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “40 Ways to Add Texture, and When to Apply Each” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Forty techniques is a lot, and nobody needs all of them. Look at what stage your pot is at today and read only that section. That alone takes most of the list away.

Texture needs something plain beside it. A pot with one band of texture and smooth clay around it looks deliberate, and a pot covered in it just looks busy.

Most potters settle on about three textures that suit the pots they make. Use this guide to find yours, and to have an answer when a pot needs something and you cannot think what.

Dan Pearce, founder of The Clay Hole
The series

Build a little pottery library

Every printable guide in The Clay Hole University series takes one free lesson and rebuilds it for paper, with workbook pages, a glossary and a quiz with a worked answer key. Each one keeps its number for good, so a guide you buy today is the same guide in the same place next year.

Put any five printable guides in your cart and the cheapest one is on us. Put in nine and the two cheapest are on us. It happens automatically at checkout, no code to remember.

See every printable guide

  • 5guides in your cart1 on us
  • 9guides in your cart2 on us
Sits next to

Three lessons that pick up where this one leaves off

Each one is free to read online, and the codes in the guide take you straight there.

Questions

Good to know

How is this different from the free lesson?
The teaching is the same, and the free lesson is not going anywhere. The guide is that teaching rebuilt for paper: a learning dashboard at the front, a tick list for choosing, a practice log to write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Do I need to know the stages of clay first?
It helps, but the guide does not assume it. The list is sorted by stage, and each section is headed by its stage with a line on where the clay is at that point, so you can match the pot in your hand to a section. If you want the full picture, our free lesson on the five stages of clay sits beside this one, and a code in the guide takes you there.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Beginner in the University. Most of the list needs no special skill, only the right stage of clay. A few entries, such as chattering, sgraffito and faceting, want a steadier hand and have lessons of their own, and the guide says which ones. You can start with the gentle ones and work up.
Do I need a fancy printer?
No. It is set for an ordinary home or office printer on regular US Letter paper, with nothing important near the edges, so normal printer margins cut nothing off.
Does it print in black and white?
Yes. Nothing in it depends on color to make sense: the text, the tick boxes and the tables are black on white, and color is used for headings and small labels.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The one page summary and the practice log are the two worth having at the bench, and you may want the stage you are working in as well. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
Can I read it on a screen instead?
Yes. It is an ordinary PDF and it reads fine on a tablet or a phone, which suits a list you search rather than read from the top. The workbook pages are the ones that want paper, because you write on them.
How does delivery work?
It is a digital download. The link arrives by email and on the order confirmation page right after checkout, so you can have it printed and beside your bench the same evening.
What happens if the guide is updated?
Every edition carries its version number on the last page. When we correct or improve one, the new edition replaces the old one in the shop, and we can send the updated link to anybody who already bought it.
Can I share it?
It is licensed for your own use. Print as many copies for yourself as you like, on as many of your own devices as you like. Please do not pass the file on, upload it or use it with a class or a group without asking us first.

Check the stage, choose one, leave the rest plain

Look at the pot, name the stage, answer the questions and pick a single texture for a single zone. Those habits take a minute and decide whether the texture is still there after the glaze. The guide keeps them in front of you at the bench.

Get the guide · $20.00

The Clay Hole University Printable Guide Terms

Licensing, safety, digital delivery, and refund terms

Your copy is yours. The guide is not.

Your purchase gives one individual purchaser a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for personal use only. You may download the guide to your own devices, print copies for your own use, write all over them, spill clay water on them, replace a coffee-damaged copy, and generally use the heck out of what you bought.

What you may not do is distribute the guide to anyone else, whether you charge for it or not.

That means you may not share, forward, email, upload, post, publish, copy, reproduce, resell, sublicense, redistribute, or otherwise provide the guide, or any substantial portion of it, to another person. You may not place it in a shared drive, group chat, membership library, online community, file-sharing service, studio resource folder, classroom packet, employee handbook, course, workshop, or other shared collection. You may not make copies for students, members, employees, friends, classes, studios, schools, groups, or organizations.

You may not remove or obscure copyright notices, watermarks, attribution, or other ownership information, or sell, republish, or commercially exploit modified or derivative versions of the guide.

Purchasing the guide does not transfer ownership of its copyrighted text, photographs, illustrations, graphics, layouts, worksheets, or other original content. Those rights remain with The Clay Hole and their respective rights holders. Copyright law protects the expression contained in these guides, while ideas, methods, techniques, and processes may have different legal treatment.

If you would like to use one of our guides with a class, studio, school, team, or other group, contact The Clay Hole about permission or group licensing. Please do not make twenty copies and call it manifesting.

Pottery is wonderfully unpredictable. It also carries real risk.

We work hard to make The Clay Hole University accurate, useful, practical, and ridiculously thorough. But pottery is a hands-on craft involving countless variables that no written guide can completely control or anticipate.

Depending on what you are doing, ceramics may involve extreme heat, kilns, electricity, gas, flame, sharp tools, spinning machinery, heavy equipment, pressurized equipment, silica-containing dust, fumes, chemicals, raw materials, stains, oxides, glazes, combustible materials, hot surfaces, breakable objects, and other hazards capable of causing serious injury, illness, property damage, fire, or worse.

These guides are provided for general educational and informational purposes. They are not a substitute for hands-on training, competent supervision, your studio’s safety procedures, applicable laws or codes, Safety Data Sheets, or the instructions and warnings supplied by the manufacturers of your clay, glaze, chemicals, tools, kilns, equipment, protective gear, or other materials.

Studios, kilns, clay bodies, glazes, firing schedules, electrical systems, ventilation systems, equipment, environmental conditions, application thicknesses, material formulations, and individual techniques vary enormously. Something that works beautifully in one situation may fail spectacularly in another. That is part of pottery. Occasionally, it is a very expensive part of pottery.

You are responsible for determining whether any technique, material, combination, firing schedule, tool, or process described in a guide is appropriate and safe for your specific circumstances before using it.

Use appropriate protective equipment. Use adequate ventilation and dust control. Read manufacturer instructions and Safety Data Sheets. Follow your studio’s rules. Obtain qualified instruction when a process or piece of equipment requires it. Test materials and techniques before committing important work to them. If you do not understand how to perform something safely, do not proceed until you do.

Never assume that a ceramic surface, glaze, clay body, firing method, finished vessel, repair, decoration, or other result is food-safe, microwave-safe, dishwasher-safe, oven-safe, structurally sound, chemically stable, or suitable for any particular purpose solely because it appears in or is discussed in one of our guides. Verify suitability independently when it matters.

Ceramics also refuses to sign contracts promising beautiful results. Colors change. Glazes move. Kilns have opinions. Pots crack. Materials interact unexpectedly. Manufacturers reformulate products. Equipment behaves differently. The Clay Hole does not guarantee any particular aesthetic, functional, firing, glazing, structural, or other result.

By choosing to use the information in a guide, you accept responsibility for your own materials, equipment, workspace, safety decisions, testing, methods, and results. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, The Clay Hole and its owners, employees, contributors, and affiliates are not responsible for injury, illness, property damage, lost work, failed projects, kiln or equipment damage, financial loss, or other loss arising from or related to your use of, or reliance upon, the guide.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any right or liability that applicable law does not allow us to exclude or limit.

Digital guides, immediate delivery, and refunds

These are digital products delivered electronically and made available for use immediately after purchase. Unlike a physical book, a downloaded digital file cannot meaningfully be returned to us once it has been delivered.

By completing your purchase and requesting immediate access to the guide, you consent to digital delivery beginning immediately. Where applicable law provides a cancellation or withdrawal period for digital content, you acknowledge that beginning the download, access, or delivery of the digital content may cause that cancellation or withdrawal right to end.

Once access to or delivery of the purchased digital guide has begun, the purchase is final and non-refundable except where a refund, replacement, cancellation, or other remedy is required by applicable law.

If the file you receive is corrupted, inaccessible, materially different from what was described, or there is a genuine technical problem with delivery, please contact us. We would much rather fix the problem than leave you staring angrily at a PDF that refuses to PDF.

Terms version 2026-09-19b