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The Clay Hole University · Project Guides

A Ceramic Wall Clock That Actually WorksPrintable pottery guide

The four numbers that decide whether a handmade clock keeps time, the order they happen in, and how to stop a wide flat piece warping while you are not in the room.

$10.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 33 printable pages
  • 7 video picks
  • 7-question quiz + answer key

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

What is the A Ceramic Wall Clock That Actually Works printable guide?

It is the whole clock project on paper, in the order you actually do it: what to buy before you touch clay, the hole that cannot be redone, three ways to make the face, the drying discipline that keeps it flat, dividing a circle into twelve with a compass, and what to do when one of seven things has gone wrong. There is a page to keep on the table and a log to write down how each one came out.

Prefer to read it online first? The “A Ceramic Wall Clock That Actually Works” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 33printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 7hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 21glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
The one project you shop for first

The hardware does not shrink, and it does not care

Every other pot you make only has to satisfy you. A clock has to satisfy a threaded metal shaft that was made to a tolerance by a company that has never heard of clay. Your pot is going to shrink by roughly a tenth before the two ever meet, and almost everything that goes wrong with a handmade clock comes out of that one sentence.

So the order matters more than the skill does. Buy the movement before you cut a circle. Cut the hole generous while the clay is still soft, because a fired hole cannot be made bigger with anything you own. Buy the hands last, after the piece is fired and measured, because they are the only part of the project that does not shrink.

Get that order right and the rest of it is a good flat pot with a drawing on it, which is a genuinely lovely thing to spend an evening on. Get it wrong and you have a beautiful plate with a hole in the middle and nothing that will fit through it.

Look inside

Real pages, for a work table and a drying shelf

These are actual pages from the guide, shown here with the sample watermark. The full guide has none.

  • Page 3 of the “A Ceramic Wall Clock That Actually Works” printable guide: what you will learn, need and get wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    What you will learn, need and get wrongThe whole project laid out before you start, including the mistakes that only show up four days later.
  • Page 12 of the “A Ceramic Wall Clock That Actually Works” printable guide: flat is not free, shown with the sample watermark
    Flat is not freeNobody loses a clock to a bad drawing. They lose it to four days on a shelf while they were not watching, and this is how you stop that.
  • Page 19 of the “A Ceramic Wall Clock That Actually Works” printable guide: seven things that go wrong, and why, shown with the sample watermark
    Seven things that go wrong, and whyFind the one that just happened to you, and whether it is a ten dollar problem or a lost piece.
  • Page 21 of the “A Ceramic Wall Clock That Actually Works” printable guide: every clock, and how it came out, shown with the sample watermark
    Every clock, and how it came outThe clay, the size, the movement you bought, how long it dried and whether it stayed flat. Two or three of these and the guessing stops.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

The decisions are spread across two weeks, not an afternoon

A clock is not one session. It is a purchase, then a build, then a week of drying, then a bisque, then a glaze, then a day with a screwdriver. Every one of those is a chance to forget what the last one decided.

  • It is already open at the right page

    You come back to a piece on day four with dry hands and no memory of what you told yourself on day one. A page you left open says it back to you without unlocking anything.

  • The numbers stay put

    Four of them decide whether the clock works at all, and none of them are the sort of thing you remember correctly under a slab roller. They are on one page you can keep on the table.

  • You can take it to the shop

    The movement gets bought somewhere that is not your studio, from a listing full of numbers. The page that tells you which number matters goes in a pocket.

  • It has somewhere to write

    The only way to learn how fast your own room dries a wide flat slab is to write down what happened. There is a log for it, with room for the ones that warped.

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.

  • A section drawing with its key beside it

    The face, the hole, the movement, the shaft, the hands, the back rim and the keyhole, numbered, with the key on the same page rather than over the fold.

  • The four numbers, up front

    The hole, the dial thickness your movement must clear, the longest hand a standard motor will drive, and a finished size that keeps you inside all three.

  • Three ways to make the face, side by side

    Slab into a slump mold, flat slab with no mold, or thrown on the wheel, each with what it costs you later rather than which one we prefer.

  • A shrinkage table for our own clays

    What a half inch hole finishes at in each body on our shelf, and how much clearance that leaves on the shaft. Checked against each clay’s own published figure.

  • Seven faults, diagnosed

    Written so you can find the one that just happened to you, and told plainly when the answer is that the piece cannot be saved.

  • A quiz with an answer key that explains itself

    Every answer says why it is the answer, so a wrong one teaches you something instead of just being wrong.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “A Ceramic Wall Clock That Actually Works” lesson at The Clay Hole University, which anybody can read without paying us anything.

A clock is the first project most people make that somebody else sees every single day for thirty years. That felt like a reason to write the boring parts down properly, not to skip them.

The University is free and stays free. The guides are the version rebuilt for paper with an unreasonable amount of care, and buying one keeps the free side going.

Thank you. Genuinely.

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: the teaching in the order you do it, the numbers where you need them, a quiz with an answer key that explains itself, and somewhere to write down what actually happened when you tried it.

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, or every printable we sell on one page.

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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?
Same teaching, rebuilt for paper. The lesson is written to be read on a screen with a toggle at the top and a copy button further down. The guide is written to be printed, carried and written in: the order you do things, a section drawing with its key beside it, a shrinkage table, a page to keep on the table, a log for every clock you make, and a quiz with an answer key. The lesson stays free whether you buy this or not.
Do I need a slab roller or a wheel?
No. The guide covers three ways to make the face and one of them is a rolled slab dried flat between two boards, which needs no mold and no wheel at all. Under about eight inches that is the easiest possible first attempt. A shallow slump mold makes a better clock and a wheel makes a different one, and both are covered if you have them.
Will it print properly on my printer?
Yes. It is set for standard letter paper with sensible margins, and it is built to be readable on a cheap home printer rather than to look expensive on an expensive one.
Does it work in black and white?
Yes. Color is used to organize the page rather than to carry information, so nothing becomes ambiguous when it comes out gray. The section drawing is a line drawing and prints cleanly either way.
Can I read it on a screen instead?
Of course. It is a normal PDF and it reads fine on a phone or a tablet. It is just built with the assumption that at some point it will be on a table with clay on it.
Can I print only part of it?
Yes, and plenty of people do. The page near the back holds the whole project in short lists, so printing that one sheet gives you the working version. The log page is worth printing on its own too, one for each clock.
Is it too early for me?
Probably not. This is a beginner project and the guide says so. The hard part is not your hands, it is the order, and that is exactly the part a printed guide is good at. If you have never rolled a slab, the guide names the lessons that cover it.
What about the clock movement itself?
The guide tells you which one to buy and, more usefully, which single specification on the listing decides whether it will fit fired stoneware at all. It also covers torque, tick against silent sweep, what is in the hardware bag and the order the washers go on. We do not sell movements and we do not earn anything if you buy one.
How does delivery work?
It is a digital download. The link arrives the moment the order goes through, and you download the file to your own devices and keep it.
What happens when the guide is updated?
Guides get corrected and improved over time, and every edition carries its version number on the last page. There is a code in the back that always points at the newest one.
Can I share it?
It is licensed to you, for your own use, on as many of your own devices as you like, and you can print it as many times as you want. Please do not forward, post or resell it. If you would like to use it with a group or a class, ask us about permission and we will sort something out.

Buy the movement, then start the clay

One evening, one flat pot with a hole in the middle, and a week of leaving it alone. Then it hangs on a wall and tells somebody the time every day for thirty years, which is a job not many pots ever get.

Get the guide · $10.00

The Clay Hole University Printable Guide Terms

Licensing, safety, digital delivery, and refund terms for printable guides and paper templates

Your copy is yours. The work behind it is not.

These terms cover every printable guide and every paper template from The Clay Hole. In this section, "product" means the guide or template you bought, including its PDF file and everything in it. The rules below apply to both. Paper templates add one permission, in the next section, and nothing else in that section loosens anything here.

Your purchase gives one individual purchaser a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for personal use only. You may download the product 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 product 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 product, or any substantial portion of it, to another person. That includes passing it on as a photo, scan, screenshot, tracing, printout, or recreation. 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 product, including patterns, outlines, or designs based on it.

Purchasing the product does not transfer ownership of its copyrighted text, photographs, illustrations, graphics, designs, patterns, shapes, 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 and templates, while ideas, methods, techniques, and processes may have different legal treatment.

If you would like to use one of our guides or templates 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.

Paper templates: make them, sell what you make

Everything in the section above applies to paper templates in full, including the template file, its patterns, and its design. This section adds one permission, and the credit that goes with it. It is the only exception to the personal-use rule above.

If you buy a paper template, you may use it to make ceramic pieces, and you may sell those pieces, in person or online. That permission belongs to the purchaser, and it covers the ceramic pieces only. It does not cover the template, its patterns, or any copy or version of them, which may not be shared, sold, or passed on in any form.

You may not claim that you created the design. The design of each paper template, including its shapes, proportions, patterns, and layout, was created by Dan Pearce. That stays true no matter how many pieces you make or sell. Do not describe the design as your own, and do not sell it as your own design.

Your final creative choices are yours. The glazes, colors, surface decoration, carving, texture, and any changes you make to the form belong to your finished piece, and you may claim them as your own work. The structural credit for the design stays with Dan Pearce.

Credit is required for pieces sold online. If you sell online a piece made from an Advanced, Expert, Insane, or Legendary template, your listing must credit Dan Pearce as the designer of the template and link to theclayhole.com. For example: Made from a paper template designed by Dan Pearce, https://theclayhole.com. Pieces made from Beginner and Intermediate templates do not need the credit, but you still may not claim the design as your own.

Templates marked NEW

Every paper template starts out marked NEW, as part of the New Pattern Program. NEW means nobody has built that template in clay yet. It does not mean the template is unfinished. Every template is audited at least three times for accuracy and is drawn to work as designed. The NEW mark comes off once someone builds the template and it checks out.

When you buy, claim, or download a template marked NEW, or a bundle, package, or collection that holds one, you accept that it has not been built yet, that you use it at your own discretion, and that you may need to adjust as you build if your project needs it.

A template marked NEW is covered by every one of these terms, exactly like any other template. If you find something indisputably wrong in one, the promise in "Refunds, mistakes, and making it right" below applies.

Pottery is wonderfully unpredictable. It also carries real risk.

We work hard to make The Clay Hole University and our paper templates 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 and templates 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 or template 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 or templates. 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 or template, 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 or template.

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

Digital guides and templates, 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 or template, 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 or template 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.

Refunds, mistakes, and making it right

Except where the law requires otherwise, we do not offer refunds on any paper template or printable guide. Pottery has a hundred different ways to do most things, and every guide and template shows one of them. We put real work into making each one as accurate, thorough, and finished as we can, because we want you to love what you bought. A guide or template that you would have done differently, or a piece that surprises you in the kiln, is pottery being pottery, not a problem with the file.

Mistakes happen, even in work we care about this much. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not responsible for any cost or loss that comes with an error in what we send, whether that is clay, materials, firing costs, or your time.

What we will do is fix it. If you find something that is indisputably wrong in a guide or template (an actual error, not a different way of doing it), contact us and we will correct it within a week and upload the new document so you can download it.

Custom step illustrations from Clayla have one more promise. It is rare for an illustration not to work, but Clayla does not get every drawing right. If you buy one and it misses, text us the illustration and we will be happy to refund it.

Terms version 2026-11-15