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The Clay Hole University · Surface and Decoration

Applying Alcohol Inks to PotteryPrintable pottery guide

Work outside, drop and steer the ink, and seal it with a light first coat, with the order, the protective gear and the honest list of what the finished piece can claim all in front of you at the bench.

$10.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 23 printable pages
  • 8 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 Applying Alcohol Inks to Pottery printable guide?

It is the alcohol ink lesson on paper: what the ink does on six kinds of glaze, eight ways to put it on, why the first sealing coat is a light spray and never a brush, what can go wrong and what caused it, and the short list of what the finished piece can and cannot claim. Bench checklists for before you start and before you seal, a one page summary for beside the pot, and a log for every piece. Built to be printed and written on.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Applying Alcohol Inks to Pottery” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 23printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 8hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 12glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the bottle of ink you have not opened yet

Drop it, steer it, and seal it lightly

Alcohol ink is the quickest color in pottery and the least permanent. It is also solvent, so the work happens outside, in gloves and eye protection, and the spray varnish that protects it calls for a respirator made for vapor. That is not a list you want to scroll to with ink on your fingers.

The sealing is the other half. The first coat is a light mist from about a foot away, left to flash off before the next, and a brushed or heavy first coat drags the design into mud. The order matters more than the method. A page beside the pot keeps it in view, and a phone goes dark or ends up stained.

The guide keeps the order in front of you with two bench checklists, says plainly what the finished piece cannot be called, and leaves room for a piece log and a one page summary. The log is where the surface, the sealer and the coats get written down, so the next piece starts from a note and not a guess.

Look inside

Real pages, for the bench beside your work

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

  • Page 6 of the “Applying Alcohol Inks to Pottery” printable guide: what it does on your glaze, shown with the sample watermark
    What it does on your glazeSix cards, from glossy to crazed, saying what the ink does on each one, and where to test on a dark pot. The start of the shopping list sits underneath.
  • Page 7 of the “Applying Alcohol Inks to Pottery” printable guide: eight ways to apply it, shown with the sample watermark
    Eight ways to apply itThe bench list, then the first methods: dropping, blowing, alcohol dropping and felt stamping, each on its own short card.
  • Page 9 of the “Applying Alcohol Inks to Pottery” printable guide: sealing, shown with the sample watermark
    SealingTwo video picks and the first of the sealing steps, including the respirator and fire line for spray varnish and why the first coat is a mist.
  • Page 16 of the “Applying Alcohol Inks to Pottery” printable guide: every piece, and how it held up, shown with the sample watermark
    Every piece, and how it held upA log to write in: the surface, the methods, the sealer, the coats and how it held up. The last column is the one that pays, because the next piece starts from it.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

You do this outside, in gloves, with ink on your hands

Alcohol ink is fast and messy and it moves on its own. You are looking at the pot, not at a screen. Paper suits that.

  • The gear line stays in view

    Gloves, eye protection, and a respirator for vapor when you seal. On a page beside the pot it is there every time, and it does not need a clean finger to find.

  • The sealing order, written down

    A light mist, flash off, mist again, three coats before anything heavier. You can tick it off without losing your place.

  • A log that holds the recipe

    The piece log has a column for the surface, the methods, the sealer and the coats. By the time the sealer dries you will have forgotten what went on, and the page has not.

  • One page for the bench

    The one page summary has the order, the sealing rule, what you can claim and what each fault is telling you. It pins up beside the pot for the moments when your hands are full.

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.

  • Gear and fire, said plainly

    Spray varnish and isopropyl are fumes and a fire risk, so the guide says outside, upwind, a respirator made for vapor and nothing hot nearby. Nitrile gloves and eye protection are listed on the first page.

  • What you can claim is a short list

    Not food safe, not dishwasher safe, not microwave safe and not permanent. The guide says so, keeps ink off rims and inside surfaces, and cleans with a damp cloth and no soap.

  • The eight video picks, described honestly

    Each video is described by what its own description, chapter list and frames show. We did not watch them, so the notes do not claim more than that.

  • Written for any studio

    The Clay Hole’s own rules, such as working on the outside tables, 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 “Applying Alcohol Inks to Pottery” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

I love alcohol ink because it is the quickest color in the studio. You drop it, it moves on its own, and ten minutes later a plain white pot looks like it came out of a gallery.

Use it where the look is worth more than the durability: a planter, a vase, an ornament. Keep it away from anything a mouth touches.

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 piece log to write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
What do I need to try it?
Three or four ink colors, isopropyl alcohol, something that blows air, a felt applicator, nitrile gloves, eye protection, painters tape, a glossy glazed pot, a scrap tile and a spray sealer. The guide lists them on its first pages. Bring your own: we do not stock any of it.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Beginner in the University. The dropping and blowing are easy. The care goes into working outside, the protective gear and the sealing. If you have never used the ink before, read the free lesson first and keep the guide beside you for your first piece.
Can I use the ink on a mug I will drink from?
The guide says no to the inked part: alcohol ink is not food safe, dishwasher safe or microwave safe, and it is not permanent. Keep it off rims and inside surfaces and tape those areas before you start.
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, the bench checklists and the piece log are the ones worth having at the bench. 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 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.

Gloves on, light first coat, then leave it be

Work outside, drop the ink, steer it with air, let it dry overnight and seal it in three light coats. Those habits take minutes and decide whether the piece is still good next year. The guide keeps them in front of you at the bench.

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