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The Clay Hole University · Surface and Decoration

Applying Pottery Inks: Prisme, Enamel and GlassPrintable pottery guide

Know which of the three paints is in your hand, put it on in thin coats, bake the two that bake in a cold oven, leave Prisme alone, and say only what the finished piece can honestly claim.

$10.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 22 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 Applying Pottery Inks: Prisme, Enamel and Glass printable guide?

It is the pottery inks lesson on paper: the three paints that go on a finished pot and the one thing that differs between them, what to put them on, how to put them on in thin coats with one confident pass, how Prisme makes its own cells and is never baked, the cold oven rule that stops pots cracking, and what you can and cannot say about the result. Eight faults are set out with what caused each. A bench checklist with tick boxes, a one page summary, and a log for every piece. Built to be printed and written on.

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

  • 22printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 6hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 11glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the pot that is already out of the kiln

Dry a full day, then a cold oven

Prisme, the enamel colors and the glass colors all go onto a pot that has already been fired, and none of them goes back in a kiln. Two of them bake in a kitchen oven and one only ever air dries. Mixing those up is how a finished pot gets spoiled, and the difference is easy to lose in a screen full of other tabs.

The details are small and they matter. Stir the bottle, do not shake it. One confident pass, then walk away. Twenty four hours of air drying before any bake. The pot goes into a cold oven and cools inside it with the door shut. A page on the bench keeps those in front of you while your hands are wet.

The guide puts them in order, names what goes wrong and what caused it, and leaves room for a piece log and a one page summary. The log is where the paint, the coats and the drying time 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 5 of the “Applying Pottery Inks: Prisme, Enamel and Glass” printable guide: the three paints, shown with the sample watermark
    The three paintsEnamel, glass and Prisme side by side, with the markers, the outliner and the thinner that go with them, and the one thing that differs: what happens after the color goes on.
  • Page 9 of the “Applying Pottery Inks: Prisme, Enamel and Glass” printable guide: the bake, shown with the sample watermark
    The bakeThe cold oven rule and the steps around it, with the two video picks. The oven part happens at home, and the page says so.
  • Page 10 of the “Applying Pottery Inks: Prisme, Enamel and Glass” printable guide: what goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    What goes wrongThe start of the fault section. Each fault says what caused it and what to do about it, from a cracked pot to a Prisme that made no cells.
  • Page 15 of the “Applying Pottery Inks: Prisme, Enamel and Glass” printable guide: every piece, and how it turned out, shown with the sample watermark
    Every piece, and how it turned outA log to write in: the paint and color, the coats, how long it dried, whether it was baked and what happened. The last column is the one that pays.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

You do this with wet hands and a window open

Painting a pot is done at the bench, looking at the pot and not at a screen. Paper suits that.

  • The bake rule stays in view

    The pot goes in cold and cools inside. It is the one step that can break a finished piece, and on a page beside the oven it is there every time.

  • A checklist with boxes

    One list for before you paint and one for before the pot goes in the oven. Tick them with a pencil, and nothing gets skipped because the screen went dark.

  • A log that holds the recipe

    The piece log has columns for the paint, the coats, how long it dried, the bake and what happened. By the time the oven is cool you will have forgotten what went on, and the page has not.

  • One page for the bench

    The one page summary has the three paints, the bake, what you can claim and what each fault is telling you. It pins up beside the bottles for the moments your hands are busy.

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.

  • Food safety, said plainly

    The makers say to decorate only surfaces that will not touch food, and they call Prisme decorative only. The guide keeps every one of these off rims, insides and anything a mouth meets, and says so in the claims list.

  • Prisme kept apart

    Prisme is never baked and needs days to cure. The guide gives it its own rules, and says to lay the piece flat and keep Prisme to flat areas.

  • The bake at home

    The baking needs a kitchen oven, so the guide says that part happens at home, with the label on the bottle winning if it gives a different time or temperature.

  • Written for any studio

    The Clay Hole’s own rules, such as using these paints on the outside tables and never inside the studio, are named as Clay Hole rules, 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 Pottery Inks: Prisme, Enamel and Glass” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

These paints are for one job: putting color on a pot that has already been through the kiln. They are tougher than craft paint, and they are nowhere near a fired glaze.

Paint one confident pass and walk away. Let it dry a full day. Put the pot in a cold oven, and let it cool with the door shut. Mask the rim.

Read the bake page twice if you only read one. It is the part where a finished pot can break, and the fix costs nothing.

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 tile 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?
A pot that is already finished, one of the paints, a fine brush, a toothpick, some markers, alcohol and a lint free cloth, and a kitchen oven at home for the bake. The guide lists them on its first pages.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Beginner in the University. The painting is simple. The care goes into the clean surface, the full day of drying and the cold oven. Read the free lesson first if you like, and keep the guide beside you for your first piece.
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 piece log are the two 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.

Dry a full day, cold oven, mask the rim

Know which bottle is in your hand, put it on in thin coats, let it dry for a full day, and put the pot into a cold oven. Those habits take minutes and decide whether a finished pot stays whole. The guide keeps them in front of you at the bench.

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