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The Clay Hole University Ā· Project Guides

A Teapot, Spout and AllPrintable pottery guide

The whole teapot, in the order you build it: where the spout has to sit, the strainer holes that come before it, and a lid that stays in when you pour.

$10.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Advanced
  • 31 printable pages
  • 8 video picks
  • 7-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 printable guide A Teapot, Spout and All?

It is the teapot on paper: the one height that decides whether it pours, three ways to make the spout, why the strainer holes are cut first, a lid that stays in when you tip the pot, where the handle goes, and the slab and pinch routes for anybody without a wheel. Built to be printed, kept on the bench and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The ā€œBuilding a Teapot, Spout and Allā€ lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 31printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 8hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 20glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the pot that has to pour

It is only a bowl with a plumbing problem

Almost every part of a teapot is something you already know how to make. A round pot, a lid, a pulled handle. What turns them into a teapot is a tapered tube stuck to the side at an angle, and one height that decides whether the finished thing pours or dribbles down its own belly.

That height is set before the spout goes anywhere near the pot, and nothing fixes it afterwards. The guide starts there, then works through the parts in the order they can be done: the strainer holes first, while you can still reach the wall, then the spout, then the handle last.

None of it is a secret. It is a lot of small decisions that all have to agree, which is exactly what paper is good at. The steps are numbered, the sizes sit in one table, and you can leave it open beside the wheel with clay on your hands.

Look inside

Real pages, for a bench with a teapot on it

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

  • Page 3 of the ā€œA Teapot, Spout and Allā€ printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you touch clay: what you will learn, what to have on the bench, what is worth knowing, the pitfalls, and what a teapot that works looks like.
  • Page 6 of the ā€œA Teapot, Spout and Allā€ printable guide: a teapot in section, shown with the sample watermark
    A teapot in sectionThe cutaway drawing with the fill line dashed across it, and the seven numbered parts explained beside it. Everything on it is decided before the spout is attached.
  • Page 13 of the ā€œA Teapot, Spout and Allā€ printable guide: a lid that stays in, shown with the sample watermark
    A lid that stays inGallery or flange but never both, the air hole, and how to keep the lid in the pot when you tip it. Then the note on fitting it at every stage, wet sanding only.
  • Page 24 of the ā€œA Teapot, Spout and Allā€ printable guide: every teapot, and how it poured, shown with the sample watermark
    Every teapot, and how it pouredA log to write in: the clay, where the tip landed against the lid seat, how many holes you cut, the pour test at bisque and the result after the glaze firing. The second one starts from numbers instead of memory.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A teapot is a lot of small decisions

Six parts have to agree with each other, across two working days, with clay on your hands in between. Paper suits that.

  • The order is written down

    Holes before spout, handle last, lid in the pot from the drying shelf to the end of the glaze firing. Three of the steps become impossible if you do them out of sequence, and the numbered build keeps you honest.

  • The sizes sit in one table

    Wall thickness, collar height, tip opening, hole count and how much longer to throw the spout, side by side, not scattered through a long video.

  • It holds still

    A page stays where you left it while you scribe a spout against a pot with both hands. It does not time out, and it does not need slip wiped off the screen.

  • A test to write down

    Pour water through it at the bisque, before the glaze goes on, and note what happened. That is the last cheap moment to change the tip, and the log has a column for it.

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.

  • Wet, every time

    Where the lesson ground or sanded fired clay without saying wet, the guide says wet and never dry. Dry grinding puts silica dust in the air.

  • A glaze for a hot drink

    The inside of a teapot holds tea for a long time. The guide says the glaze has to be one its maker rates for food, and points to the Food Safe Lookup for which ones are.

  • Video notes that match the video

    Where a note said a film showed something it does not, the guide says what is on screen. A drip fix that uses a strip of soda can is described as that, and a slab and coil teapot is not called a pinch teapot.

  • Written for any studio

    Our cone numbers and our firing rules are named as ours, so a reader working somewhere else knows which parts are a Clay Hole fact and which are a rule of the craft.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    An answer key that gives the reason behind every answer rather than only the letter, with a few of the reasons written out in full for print.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link 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 ā€œBuilding a Teapot, Spout and Allā€ lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

A teapot is meant for a table. It gets set down in front of other people, it has to do something, and everybody watching knows within a second whether it worked.

No other pot tells you so plainly what you got right.

A teapot that works is a very easy thing to be proud of.

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.

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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?
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, numbered steps, a log to write in, a quick reference, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Do I need a wheel?
No. The spout, the lid and the handle can be thrown, and the guide also walks through a slab route and a pinch route, with the rules that do not change because the body did.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Advanced, and not because any one part is new. A teapot is six parts that all have to agree, so a mistake in one shows up in the others. If you can throw a mug and pull a handle, you already know how to make every part of it.
How big should a first teapot be?
Small. A pot that holds two cups teaches you everything a large one does, and it costs far less when it goes wrong. The guide says how much clay to weigh out.
Can I put it on the stove?
No. Stoneware fired to our glaze temperature is not flameware and a burner will crack it. It is happy with boiling water poured into it as long as the walls are even, and the guide explains why.
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. It is designed to stay readable in grayscale, and the pages you will actually use at the bench, the numbered steps, the short lists and the quick reference, were built with that in mind.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The three short lists and the quick reference are the pages worth having by the wheel. 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. The log wants paper, because you write on it.
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 the wheel 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.

Settle the height first, and the rest is assembly

Work out where the top of the spout opening has to sit, cut the strainer holes before the spout goes on, and keep the lid in the pot from the drying shelf to the end of the glaze firing. Do those three things and the rest is parts you already know how to make. Skip any one of them and no amount of skill will fix a teapot that pours out of the spout while you fill it.

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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.

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