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The Clay Hole University · Other Ways to Find, Fire, and Form

Finding and Harvesting Wild ClayPrintable pottery guide

Wild clay on paper: where it hides, the three signs that give it away, five tests you can do standing in the hole, whose ground it is and how to dig without getting hurt, plus a log for every site you test.

$10.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 28 printable pages
  • 7 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 Finding and Harvesting Wild Clay printable guide?

It is the free “Finding and Harvesting Wild Clay” lesson rebuilt for paper: where clay hides and why, the three signs of clay in the ground, five tests you can do in the hole, the rules for each kind of land, the safety rules for digging, what to bring, how to get it out, and what goes wrong on a first trip. Built to be printed, taken in the car and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Finding and Harvesting Wild Clay” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 28printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 7hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 10glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone who has looked at a hillside and wondered what is under it

Go look at the ground.

There is free clay under a great deal of the ground you already walk on. Almost nobody looks, because it is buried and dry clay in the ground looks like rock. The guide teaches you where to look, what the three signs are and how to tell clay from the silt that fools everybody.

It gives you the part that has to be right before the shovel comes out: whose ground it is, how to dig without getting hurt, and why you take less than you want to on a first trip.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: a log to write in. Whose ground it was, what the tests said and what you took. A few trips of notes will show you which banks were worth going back to.

Look inside

Real pages, for the car and the hole

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

  • Page 3 of the “Finding and Harvesting Wild Clay” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before any digging: what you will learn, what you would need, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls and what a good trip looks like.
  • Page 7 of the “Finding and Harvesting Wild Clay” printable guide: what clay looks like, shown with the sample watermark
    What clay looks likeThe three signs of clay in the ground, starting with the crackled ground most people walk past.
  • Page 10 of the “Finding and Harvesting Wild Clay” printable guide: whose ground it is, shown with the sample watermark
    Whose ground it isA table of the kinds of land, where each one stands and what to do, so you know before you unload a shovel.
  • Page 21 of the “Finding and Harvesting Wild Clay” printable guide: every site i tested, and what i found, shown with the sample watermark
    Every site I tested, and what I foundA log to write in: whose ground it was, what the rub, ribbon and coil tests said, what you took and whether to go back.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A bank, a bottle of water and a page you can drop

Digging is done with muddy hands, often with no signal. Paper suits that.

  • Tests where you can see them

    The rub, the ribbon, the coil and the thumbnail are on pages you can prop beside the hole, in order, with what each result means.

  • A reason for every rule

    Never undercut a face, take less than you want to, label at the hole. Each comes with its reason, so the rule is still there when you are tired.

  • A log for your own sites

    Columns for whose ground it was, what the tests said, what you took and whether to go back. A few lines of notes beat a memory of which bucket was which.

  • It does not mind a muddy hand

    A page stays where you put it. It does not lock its screen, and you can wipe it down.

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.

  • Read against the studio’s own rules

    We checked the lesson against The Clay Hole’s rules and our other lessons. Where the lesson was out of step, the guide now says what those pages say.

  • No outside clay in our kilns

    The lesson invited members to bring wild clay for a test. The guide says that no outside clay goes in our kilns, wild clay included, and points to part two for where else you can fire it.

  • Safety where the lesson was thin

    A fitted N95 for dry clay, never working under an overhang, never climbing into an excavation, and keeping away from ground that may be contaminated.

  • Plainer numbers

    A bucket of damp clay is heavy, so the guide says to fill it a third full, which matches the daily limit for the ground it describes.

  • Video notes that say what the videos say

    Each video note was rewritten from the video’s own description and chapter list, so it claims no more than they show.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a page 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 “Finding and Harvesting Wild Clay” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

There is free clay under a great deal of the ground you already walk on. Almost nobody looks, because it is buried, and dry clay in the ground looks like rock.

Find a cut bank you are allowed to stand on, wet a pinch, roll a coil and bend it around your finger. A few minutes with your hands will tell you more than a week of reading.

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.

See every printable guide

  • 5guides in your cart1 on us
  • 9guides in your cart2 on us
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 log to write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Can I fire wild clay at The Clay Hole?
No. No outside clay goes in our kilns, wild clay included, and the guide says so plainly. It is about finding and digging the clay. Where and how to fire it is the subject of part two, which is a separate free lesson.
Is it safe to dig clay?
The guide has a page on exactly this: never undercutting a bank, never working above or below someone, a fitted N95 for dry clay, staying out of washes in bad weather and away from old workings. It is not a substitute for your own judgment on the day.
Do I need permission to dig?
Often, yes, and it depends on whose ground it is. The guide has a table for private land, public land and the places where you cannot collect at all, and tells you to confirm with whoever manages the ground. It is a general picture and not legal advice.
Do I need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it?
No. The method works anywhere. Where a line is only ours, the guide says so.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Intermediate. Nothing in it is hard to do, and the glossary fills in the words.
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. 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 site log are the two worth having in the car. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
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 before the weekend.
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.

Take less than you want to

Find the bank, run the coil test and label it at the hole. The guide keeps every step in front of you.

Get the guide · $10.00

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.

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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 studio’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 studio’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.

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Terms version 2026-09-19b