You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 05.04

The Clay Hole University · The Pottery Wheel

Coning Up and DownPrintable pottery guide

Squeeze in low so the clay climbs, lean your weight down through it, and do it twice. The setup that decides most of it, four ways to cone, six silhouettes that tell you what went wrong, and nine fixes.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 23 printable pages
  • 7 video picks
  • 7-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 Coning Up and Down?

It is the free lesson of the same name, rebuilt as a workbook. It starts with the three jobs coning does (finding the air your wedging missed, evening out hard and soft patches, lining the particles up), then the eight setup steps that decide most of it before the wheel turns. Then going up, coming down, four ways to cone, six silhouettes and what each one is telling you, nine faults and their fixes, and how to know you are done. On paper it adds a coning 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? “Coning Up and Down” is free to read, and always will be.

  • 23printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 7hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 15glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

The fight was lost before your hands went up

Coning looks like a flourish, a little showing off before the real work starts. It is the least glamorous thing that happens at a wheel, and it is where a lot of beginners spend twenty minutes wrestling one lump.

Almost every coning problem is decided in the ninety seconds before the wheel starts turning: a flat bottom, a timid slap, elbows floating in the air, a seat too low to lean. The rest comes off a short list, and nothing on the list is that you are bad at this.

That list is what this guide puts on paper. Read the silhouette, find the fix, and write the lump down.

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 “Coning Up and Down” printable guide: setup, before the wheel turns, shown with the sample watermark
    Setup, before the wheel turnsThe first six of eight setup steps, from wedging it and meaning it to wet hands, not a wet lump, with a side note for anyone whose back complains.
  • Page 11 of the “Coning Up and Down” printable guide: six silhouettes, shown with the sample watermark
    Six silhouettesThe blunt cone you want, then the mushroom, the screw, the needle, the crater and the lean, each with its cause and its fix.
  • Page 12 of the “Coning Up and Down” printable guide: the coning log, shown with the sample watermark
    The coning logOne row a lump: the clay and its weight, trips up and down, the silhouette you saw, and how you knew it was done.
  • Page 20 of the “Coning Up and Down” printable guide: the quiz, shown with the sample watermark
    The quizSeven questions, from the shape you are aiming for to where the pressure comes from on the way down. The full guide explains every answer.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

A card you can read at arm’s length

Coning is ninety seconds with both hands on the clay. Nobody is going to scroll back mid-pass to check which hand braces the side.

  • The coning card

    Setup, going up, coming down, the six silhouettes, which method for which lump, and when you are done, on one page.

  • A coning log

    One row a lump. After a few sessions the fault you make most often is written down, with its fix right beside it.

  • Read the silhouette

    Look at the outline against whatever is behind the wheel. The shape tells you the fix before you touch anything.

  • Knowing when to stop

    Twice up, twice down. Still fighting on the fifth trip means cut it open and wedge it again. It was never your hands.

How the guide is built

Built for the ninety seconds before the pot

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.

  • Setup first

    Eight steps before the wheel turns, from rounding the bottom to elbows planted on your thighs and a seat high enough to lean.

  • Up, then down

    Squeeze in, not up, and stop lower than you think. Then one hand flat on top, one bracing the side, and your weight doing the work.

  • Four methods, nine fixes

    The two-hand squeeze, the anchored arm, pushing and pulling for bigger lumps, and leaning it over, then the nine things that go wrong.

  • Seven videos worth your time

    From potters including Florian Gadsby and Kara Leigh Ford, with a code beside each one that goes straight to it.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every QR code points at 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 “Coning Up and Down” lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no catch.

Coning is a private, slightly ugly ninety seconds that happens before anything anybody will ever see. You are free to be terrible at it for a few weeks, and learning it should not cost anybody a thing, 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 05.04, the fourth 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

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

Once the clay goes quiet

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 coning log, a one-page coning card, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary, all laid out to print cleanly.
Do I have to cone at all?
You can skip it, and people do. The guide explains the three jobs coning does, so you know what you are giving up: the air your wedging missed, hard and soft patches that center at different speeds, and particles lined up so a wall stretches later instead of tearing.
My cone mushrooms every time. Will this help?
It is the first fault in the troubleshooting pages. Your side hand went soft while the top hand kept pressing, so the clay escaped sideways. Squeeze the side in harder, or lean the cone over from the side instead of pressing straight down on it.
How many times should I cone?
Twice up, twice down. If it takes three, take three. Every trip works more water in, and if it still will not settle on the fifth, the problem was decided at the wedging table, not by your hands.
How much clay should I practice with?
One to four pounds a lump while you learn, with the two-hand squeeze. The guide also covers pushing and pulling for roughly six pounds and up, and the anchored arm for tired arms and shaky hands.
How do I know I am actually done?
Three tests, all in the guide: a fingertip against the side feels nothing moving, a needle tool line runs the whole way around, and the buzzing in your palms fades out on the way down.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. Nothing in it depends on our studio. It is about clay, a wheel and your own hands.
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 every QR code is checked to still scan 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.

Squeeze in. Lean down. Twice.

Print it, keep the card by the wheel, and write every lump down on the log.

Get the printable · $5.00

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