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The Clay Hole University · Trimming, Handles and Drying

Adding Feet and Foot Rings to Bowls and PlattersPrintable pottery guide

The whole job, in the order you do it: whether to cut a foot out of the base or add one on, how wide, tall and thick the ring should be, how to hold a wide pot still, and what the kiln shelf does to it afterwards.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 29 printable pages
  • 9 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 Adding Feet and Foot Rings to Bowls and Platters printable guide?

It is the bottom of the pot on paper: how to tell whether to cut a ring out of the base or add one on, how to hold a wide pot still and true it, how to cut a foot ring and how to add a coil ring, step by step, a table of ring sizes for bowls, plates and platters, and what to do about each way it goes wrong. Built to be printed, worked through at the wheel and kept on the bench.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Adding Feet and Foot Rings to Bowls and Platters” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 29printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 9hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 17glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the pot that rocks

The trouble at the bottom is made weeks before you see it

A wide flat bottom is the one part of a pot that nothing else can rescue. It rocks on the table, it drags on the kiln shelf, and it dries more slowly in the middle than at the rim. A foot is the fix, and there are only two ways to get one: cut it out of clay that is already there, or add it on afterwards.

One question decides which: how much clay is under the floor right now? The guide gives the answer in inches for a bowl, a plate and a platter, so you are not guessing with a loop tool in your hand. Then it sets out each side in the order you do it, including the part nobody warns you about, which is holding a fourteen inch piece of leather hard clay still.

It ends at the kiln, where the foot meets the shelf: wax, an undercut, and a cookie or a glaze catcher under every piece. There is a page to write down every foot you make and how it sat, and a page to keep by the wheel.

Look inside

Real pages, from a bench with slip on it

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

  • Page 3 of the “Adding Feet and Foot Rings to Bowls and Platters” 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 common pitfalls, and what a good foot looks like.
  • Page 6 of the “Adding Feet and Foot Rings to Bowls and Platters” printable guide: the fork in the road, shown with the sample watermark
    The fork in the roadThe bowl sliced down the middle with its five numbered parts, and the one question that decides whether you cut a ring out or add one on.
  • Page 17 of the “Adding Feet and Foot Rings to Bowls and Platters” printable guide: when it goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    When it goes wrongThe start of the troubleshooting section: what caused each fault and what to do differently next time, starting with the added foot that cracked away from the base.
  • Page 22 of the “Adding Feet and Foot Rings to Bowls and Platters” printable guide: every foot, and how it sat, shown with the sample watermark
    Every foot, and how it satA log to write in: the width across the rim, the ring, its height, the floor you left, and whether the pot sat flat. A few rows in and the next foot starts from a number instead of a guess.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

Sizes are not something you remember with clay on your hands

A foot is a handful of measurements and a few careful checks, made with a wet pot on the wheel. Paper suits that.

  • The sizes sit beside the steps

    How wide the ring is, how tall it stands and how much floor is left are each next to the step that needs them, with a table from a small bowl to a large platter.

  • The fork is one question

    Cut or add is decided by a single measurement. It is on the one page summary with the answer in inches, so you check it before the tool touches the clay.

  • A number to write down

    The log has columns for the width, the ring height and the floor you left. The next foot on that shape starts from a measurement instead of a hunch.

  • One page for the wheel

    The one page summary has whether to cut or add, the numbers, the checks before the first cut and what to look at when it goes wrong. It pins up beside the wheel.

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 fork that adds up

    The lesson said to cut a ring out of any base with more than a quarter inch of clay under it. The lesson’s own floor rule cannot allow that. The guide and the free lesson now give the measurement that does.

  • A ring size table

    The free lesson has a sizer that runs in a browser. On paper it is a table for bowls, plates and platters, worked out from the same rules.

  • Video notes that say what the video shows

    Notes in the free lesson described things the videos do not show. We checked each against the video’s own description, chapters and frames, and rewrote them in the guide and in the lesson.

  • Careful at the sanding table

    A rocking foot is fixed by wet sanding, in safety glasses and an N95 or better. The guide says so everywhere it mentions sanding, and the free lesson now does too.

  • 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.

  • A page to keep by the wheel

    The one page summary is the whole job on a single sheet: whether to cut or add, the numbers, the checks before the first cut, and what to look at when it goes 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 “Adding Feet and Foot Rings to Bowls and Platters” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

If you have ever picked up a bowl you were proud of and found a crack across the middle, or set a platter down and felt it rock, the fault was almost certainly at the bottom, and it was made weeks before you noticed.

None of it is about talent. It is one question you ask before a tool touches the clay: is there enough here to cut a ring out of, or do I have to build one?

Read it once, watch a video or two, then keep the steps beside the wheel.

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, a ring size table, a log to write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer. Where we found something in the free lesson that did not add up, we corrected it in both.
How do I know whether to cut a foot or add one?
Turn the piece over and ask how much clay is under the floor. On a bowl, about three eighths of an inch or more means there is enough to cut a ring out of. On a plate or platter it is about half an inch. Less than that, add one. The guide walks through both sides.
Does it cover hand built pieces?
Yes. Half of the guide is about adding a foot to a piece that never had one: a coil ring, a strip ring, a thrown ring and separate feet, with the coil ring written out step by step.
Do I need a wheel?
To cut a ring out of a thrown base, yes. The added feet on a slab, pinch or coil piece are made by hand, and the guide also shows how to true an added ring on the wheel afterwards if you have one.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Intermediate. You need to be able to trim a leather hard pot on the wheel, or to build a wall and join a coil. The new skills are holding a wide pot still and reading how much clay you have to spend.
What do I need besides clay?
A leather hard bowl or platter, a wheel, a loop tool, a rib and a needle tool, thin foam or a folded damp towel, soft clay for wads, slip made from the same clay for an added foot, wax resist, and a kiln cookie or glaze catcher for the glaze firing. The guide lists all of it on the dashboard.
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 tables and the diagram are readable in black and white, and color is used for headings and small labels.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The ring size table, the log and the one page summary 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 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 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.

Ask the one question first

Turn the piece over and ask how much clay is under the floor. Keep the footprint a quarter to three eighths of an inch wide, leave at least three sixteenths of floor, and put a cookie under the piece in the kiln. Those checks take a few minutes and decide whether the pot sits flat. The guide keeps them in front of you at the bench.

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