You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 05.09

The Clay Hole University · The Pottery Wheel

Collaring In to Narrow a NeckPrintable pottery guide

You are not making the pot smaller. You are making the wall thicker. Five grips, twelve steps, the collar and pull rhythm, and how many passes your neck is really going to take.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 26 printable pages
  • 5 video picks
  • 8-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 printable edition of Collaring In to Narrow a Neck?

It is the free lesson of the same name, rebuilt as a workbook. It starts with the one idea everything else hangs on: a collar does not remove clay, it relocates it into a thicker wall. Then the three facts behind every collaring failure, five grips and when to reach for each, the twelve steps in the order they actually happen, the collar and pull rhythm, where else a collar belongs, and seven ways it goes wrong. On paper it adds a passes table, a collar log, a one-page card for beside the wheel, a quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? “Collaring In to Narrow a Neck” is free to read, and always will be.

  • 26printable pages, US Letter
  • 12step method, start to finish
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 5hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

The move that runs backwards

Collaring in is how a cylinder becomes a bottle, how a jar gets a shoulder, and how a wide floppy rim finally settles down. It is also the move that kills more pots than any other, not because it is difficult, but because it is backwards.

Clay does not squash into less room. Squeeze a spinning wall inward and the clay has to go somewhere, so every pass leaves the wall thicker. Pull the top third thin, collar at throwing speed, or press with two fingertips, and you get a twist or an oval instead of a neck.

The fix is a rhythm and a count: collar, then pull, a quarter inch of diameter at a time. This guide keeps the count, the grips and the fixes on paper beside the wheel, so you stop one pass before you want to.

Look inside

Real pages, for beside the wheel

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

  • Page 5 of the “Collaring In to Narrow a Neck” printable guide: the one idea, shown with the sample watermark
    The one ideaWhy a collar makes the wall thicker instead of the pot smaller, with a drawing of the same cylinder before and after.
  • Page 7 of the “Collaring In to Narrow a Neck” printable guide: five ways to hold it, shown with the sample watermark
    Five ways to hold itThe one rule under every grip, then the linked ring, laced fingers, the claw and the single C, each with when to reach for it.
  • Page 11 of the “Collaring In to Narrow a Neck” printable guide: how many passes, shown with the sample watermark
    How many passesCollar, pull, collar, pull, and a table of starting diameters against neck sizes, worked at the lesson’s quarter inch of diameter per pass.
  • Page 16 of the “Collaring In to Narrow a Neck” printable guide: the collar log, shown with the sample watermark
    The collar logOne neck, one row: how wide it started and finished, the passes it took, which of the seven symptoms turned up, and whether you stopped in time.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

A count you can see between passes

Collaring is a count and a feel, done with slick hands on a slow wheel. The count belongs on paper, where you can glance at it between a collar and a pull.

  • The collar card

    The twelve steps, the five grips, the seven ways it goes wrong and the pass count, on one page.

  • A passes table

    Find your starting diameter and your neck, and see how many collars and pulls you are signing up for before you start.

  • A collar log

    One row a neck, whole bottle or drill rep, so the symptom that keeps coming back shows itself after a few sessions.

  • Seven ways it goes wrong

    An oval, a twist, a rippled rim, a groove, a heavy funnel, a fold and a neck that will not narrow, each traced back to one of three facts.

How the guide is built

Built for a move that runs against instinct

Every guide in the series is designed as a workbook first and a document second. For this one, that means:

  • A learning dashboard before page one

    What you will learn, what you need, the traps, and what success looks like.

  • The one idea first

    A collar relocates clay into a thicker wall. Once you believe that, most of the mistakes stop happening.

  • Three facts, then five grips

    Speed works against you, clay has a limited number of good passes, and a thin wall does not collar, it wrings. Then five ways to buy more points of contact.

  • Twelve steps and a rhythm

    Four before your hands touch the wall, then the pass itself, then what happens between passes: collar, pull, collar, pull.

  • The web planner, on paper

    The lesson’s pass planner becomes a printed table, worked from its own quarter inch of diameter per pass.

  • Codes that keep working

    Five hand-picked videos, including a drill you can repeat twenty times in an evening, each on a short Clay Hole address.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Collaring In to Narrow a Neck” lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no catch.

Collar, then pull. Nobody told me that clearly for an embarrassingly long time. Nobody should have to pay to hear it, so the lesson stays free.

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
Collect them

Build a little pottery library

Every guide carries a permanent number. This one is 05.09, the ninth guide in The Pottery Wheel. The series is designed to live together in a binder, section by section, so the craft ends up on your shelf in the order you learn 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

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Where this leads

From a neck to a whole bottle

These lessons pick up where this one leaves off. Each one is free to read now.

Good questions

Before you buy

Is this different from the free lesson?
The teaching is the same, and the free lesson is complete. The printable turns the lesson’s pass planner into a table, and adds a collar log, a one-page collar card, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Why does my neck keep going oval?
Two points of contact. Two fingertips pressing from opposite sides make an oval every time, because you are applying force at two points on a circle. Spread the contact around with the linked ring, or lace your fingers for six or eight points, and you get a circle back.
Why did my neck twist off?
A thin wall does not collar. It wrings. Leave the top third deliberately heavy before you start, slow the wheel, and squeeze while your hands travel upward, never while parked. The guide traces each of the seven symptoms back to the three facts behind them.
How many passes will my neck take?
Take about a quarter inch of diameter per pass. Subtract the neck from the starting diameter, multiply the difference in inches by four, and round up. Four inches down to one is twelve collars and twelve pulls. The table in the guide lets you see what you are signing up for before you start.
How slow should the wheel be?
Slower than you threw the cylinder, but never stopped. Somewhere well under half of throwing speed, and slower still as the neck narrows. Double the speed and you have roughly four times the force fighting you.
Can I collar a pot that has gone leather hard?
No. Collaring relocates clay, and leather hard clay has stopped being willing to move. If a stiff form needs narrowing, that is a carving and joining problem rather than a shaping one.
Is collaring only for bottle necks?
No. Most people meet it trying to make a bottle and never use it again, which is a waste of a perfectly good technique. One gentle pass at the rim tightens a cylinder before you shape it, and a collar at the shoulder closes a form. The guide has six cards on where to put the collar, including one on where not to.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. The move is the same on any wheel and with any clay, and nothing in it depends on our studio.
Do I need a fancy printer?
No. It is designed 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.
Can I print it in black and white?
Yes. Nothing depends on color, and we check that every QR code still scans from a soft grayscale home print.
Can I use it on an iPad or laptop instead?
Yes. Every QR code in the guide is also a tappable link, so on a screen you just tap instead of scanning.
How do I get it after I buy?
Right after checkout you get a download link by email and on your order confirmation page. Each link works up to seven times.
What if the guide gets updated?
Every edition carries a version number. When we correct or improve a guide, everyone who bought it gets an email with the new edition at no charge.
Can I share it with my class or studio?
Please don’t. It is licensed for your own personal use. Anyone can read the full lesson free online, and the printable is here if they want their own copy.

Collar, pull, collar, pull.

Print it, keep the collar card by the wheel, and go make four bad ones.

Get the printable · $5.00

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