You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 05.07

The Clay Hole University Ā· The Pottery Wheel

Compressing the Floor and the RimPrintable pottery guide

Two moves, maybe fifteen seconds a pot, and the single biggest reason pots survive the shelf. The floor once, right after you open. The rim after every single pull. And six failures traced back to the step that was skipped.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 22 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 Compressing the Floor and the Rim?

It is the free lesson of the same name, rebuilt as a workbook. It starts with what compression actually does to the clay, then the seven floor steps, from choosing the width to sponging out the water. Then the open question: potters do not agree on why compression prevents S-cracks, and both camps give you the same four habits anyway. After that come the six rim steps you repeat between pulls, six things to press with, and six failures traced back to the step that caused them. On paper it adds a compression log, a one-page card for next to the splash pan, a quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? ā€œCompressing the Floor and the Rimā€ is free to read, and always will be.

  • 22printable pages, US Letter
  • 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 payoff you never get to see

Skip it and nothing bad happens on the wheel. Nothing bad happens that night. The pot looks perfect for weeks, and then it splits across the bottom on a shelf, or comes out of a glaze firing with a crack no glaze will ever hide.

That delay is exactly why people skip it. Nobody hands you a pot that did not crack and says well done. You just quietly stop losing work, which makes it very easy to forget why.

This guide keeps both moves where your wet hands can see them: a card for next to the splash pan, and a log that shows you, pot by pot, which step you skip when you are tired.

Look inside

Real pages, for next to the splash pan

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

  • Page 6 of the ā€œCompressing the Floor and the Rimā€ printable guide: the floor, shown with the sample watermark
    The floorThe first four floor steps: open to the width you want, measure with a needle tool before you touch it, slow the wheel, and press from the middle out.
  • Page 9 of the ā€œCompressing the Floor and the Rimā€ printable guide: the rim, between pulls, shown with the sample watermark
    The rim, between pullsThe rim opening page: ease off before the end of the pull, compress after every pull, and two fingers and a thumb, then the chamois and the leveling cut.
  • Page 13 of the ā€œCompressing the Floor and the Rimā€ printable guide: what happened to yours?, shown with the sample watermark
    What happened to yours?Six failures, from an S-shaped crack to a rim that dried wavy, each with what it really is, what to do, and a Me too box.
  • Page 14 of the ā€œCompressing the Floor and the Rimā€ printable guide: the compression log, shown with the sample watermark
    The compression logTen pots, one row each: the floor you measured, pulls and rim compressions, whether the rim was covered, and what happened after the firing.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

A card for when your hands are already wet

Both moves happen with clay to the elbow, right after you open and right after each pull. Nobody is scrolling a phone then.

  • The wheel card

    The seven floor steps, the six rim steps, the numbers, and what each failure is telling you, on one page.

  • A compression log

    Ten pots from the wheel to the kiln. After a few rows, the step you skip when you are tired is written right there.

  • The numbers, written down

    A floor about as thick as the base of the wall, about a quarter inch more if you will trim a foot, three or four passes, and one rim compression per pull.

  • Hands or drying?

    A pot that cracked even though you did all four habits goes in the log too. It usually points at drying rather than at your hands.

How the guide is built

Built for the fifteen seconds that count

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.

  • What you are actually doing

    Clay as flat little platelets with water between them, how opening and pulling drag them apart, and how compression presses them back together.

  • The floor, in seven steps

    Width first, measure before you touch it, slow wheel, middle outward, firm but not digging, right into the corner, then sponge out the water.

  • The open question

    Potters do not agree on why compression prevents S-cracks. Both explanations, put fairly, and the four habits both camps share.

  • The rim, in six steps

    A between-pulls habit, not a finishing step, ending with a rounded rim covered loosely for its first day.

  • Codes that keep working

    Five hand-picked videos, from Florian Gadsby to Mike Stumbras, each on a short Clay Hole address, so a printed copy keeps working when a video moves.

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€œCompressing the Floor and the Rimā€ lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no catch.

I have lost more pots to skipping these two moves than to every other mistake put together. Fifteen seconds a pot is not something anybody should have to pay to learn, 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 05.07, the seventh 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, or every printable we sell on one page.

  • 5guides in your cart1 on us
  • 9guides in your cart2 on us
Where this leads

From the wheel to the drying shelf

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 adds a compression log, a one-page wheel card, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Does compressing the floor really prevent S-cracks?
It is the habit nearly every teacher gives, but potters do not agree on why it works, and the guide says so. One camp says opening lines the clayā€™s particles up and compression presses them back down flat. The other says the cracks come from parts of the pot drying at different rates. Both camps tell you to do the same four things: compress the floor, keep it close to wall thickness, sponge the water out, and dry it evenly.
How thick should the floor be?
About the thickness of the base of the wall you are about to pull, which on a mug is somewhere around a quarter of an inch. If you plan to trim a foot ring, add about another quarter inch, because the foot is cut out of that floor. The guide has you measure it with a needle tool rather than guess.
I compress every pot and still get cracks. Why?
That is useful information. If you did all four habits and a pot still cracked, it usually points at drying rather than at your hands. The log has a column for what happened after drying and firing, and the failures page traces each kind of crack back to the step it comes from.
Why compress the rim after every pull, not once at the end?
Every pull stretches the rim thinner. Compressing once at the end does not undo four rounds of stretching, it just tidies up the survivor. Between pulls it adds maybe four seconds a pot.
I throw off the hump. Does it still work?
It is harder, because there is nothing firm under the base to press against, so the pressure just pushes into the hump. The same habits help everybody: keep the floor close to wall thickness, keep standing water out of it, and dry the piece slowly and evenly with the rim covered so it does not race ahead of the base.
Do I need special tools?
No. The pad of your finger is where everything starts, and a sponge, a wooden rib and a needle tool cover everything in the guide. A flexible metal rib helps in the inside corner, and a folded strip of plastic bag does the job of a chamois.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. Compression works the same on any wheel and with any clay. Where something is our studioā€™s, such as which members use the studio tools, the guide says so and dates it.
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 donā€™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.

The floor once. The rim every pull.

Print it, keep the wheel card next to the splash pan, and log your next ten pots.

Get the printable · $5.00

The Clay Hole University Printable Guide Terms

Licensing, safety, digital delivery, and refund terms

Your copy is yours. The guide is not.

Your purchase gives one individual purchaser a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for personal use only. You may download the guide to your own devices, print copies for your own use, write all over them, spill clay water on them, replace a coffee-damaged copy, and generally use the heck out of what you bought.

What you may not do is distribute the guide to anyone else, whether you charge for it or not.

That means you may not share, forward, email, upload, post, publish, copy, reproduce, resell, sublicense, redistribute, or otherwise provide the guide, or any substantial portion of it, to another person. You may not place it in a shared drive, group chat, membership library, online community, file-sharing service, studio resource folder, classroom packet, employee handbook, course, workshop, or other shared collection. You may not make copies for students, members, employees, friends, classes, studios, schools, groups, or organizations.

You may not remove or obscure copyright notices, watermarks, attribution, or other ownership information, or sell, republish, or commercially exploit modified or derivative versions of the guide.

Purchasing the guide does not transfer ownership of its copyrighted text, photographs, illustrations, graphics, layouts, worksheets, or other original content. Those rights remain with The Clay Hole and their respective rights holders. Copyright law protects the expression contained in these guides, while ideas, methods, techniques, and processes may have different legal treatment.

If you would like to use one of our guides with a class, studio, school, team, or other group, contact The Clay Hole about permission or group licensing. Please do not make twenty copies and call it manifesting.

Pottery is wonderfully unpredictable. It also carries real risk.

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.

These guides are provided for general educational and informational purposes. They are not a substitute for hands-on training, competent supervision, your studioā€™s safety procedures, applicable laws or codes, Safety Data Sheets, or the instructions and warnings supplied by the manufacturers of your clay, glaze, chemicals, tools, kilns, equipment, protective gear, or other materials.

Studios, kilns, clay bodies, glazes, firing schedules, electrical systems, ventilation systems, equipment, environmental conditions, application thicknesses, material formulations, and individual techniques vary enormously. Something that works beautifully in one situation may fail spectacularly in another. That is part of pottery. Occasionally, it is a very expensive part of pottery.

You are responsible for determining whether any technique, material, combination, firing schedule, tool, or process described in a guide is appropriate and safe for your specific circumstances before using it.

Use appropriate protective equipment. Use adequate ventilation and dust control. Read manufacturer instructions and Safety Data Sheets. Follow your studioā€™s rules. Obtain qualified instruction when a process or piece of equipment requires it. Test materials and techniques before committing important work to them. If you do not understand how to perform something safely, do not proceed until you do.

Never assume that a ceramic surface, glaze, clay body, firing method, finished vessel, repair, decoration, or other result is food-safe, microwave-safe, dishwasher-safe, oven-safe, structurally sound, chemically stable, or suitable for any particular purpose solely because it appears in or is discussed in one of our guides. Verify suitability independently when it matters.

Ceramics also refuses to sign contracts promising beautiful results. Colors change. Glazes move. Kilns have opinions. Pots crack. Materials interact unexpectedly. Manufacturers reformulate products. Equipment behaves differently. The Clay Hole does not guarantee any particular aesthetic, functional, firing, glazing, structural, or other result.

By choosing to use the information in a guide, you accept responsibility for your own materials, equipment, workspace, safety decisions, testing, methods, and results. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, The Clay Hole and its owners, employees, contributors, and affiliates are not responsible for injury, illness, property damage, lost work, failed projects, kiln or equipment damage, financial loss, or other loss arising from or related to your use of, or reliance upon, the guide.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any right or liability that applicable law does not allow us to exclude or limit.

Digital guides, immediate delivery, and refunds

These are digital products delivered electronically and made available for use immediately after purchase. Unlike a physical book, a downloaded digital file cannot meaningfully be returned to us once it has been delivered.

By completing your purchase and requesting immediate access to the guide, you consent to digital delivery beginning immediately. Where applicable law provides a cancellation or withdrawal period for digital content, you acknowledge that beginning the download, access, or delivery of the digital content may cause that cancellation or withdrawal right to end.

Once access to or delivery of the purchased digital guide has begun, the purchase is final and non-refundable except where a refund, replacement, cancellation, or other remedy is required by applicable law.

If the file you receive is corrupted, inaccessible, materially different from what was described, or there is a genuine technical problem with delivery, please contact us. We would much rather fix the problem than leave you staring angrily at a PDF that refuses to PDF.

Terms version 2026-09-19b