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The Clay Hole University · Surface and Decoration

Geometric Carving and FacetingPrintable pottery guide

The whole job, in the order you do it: how thick to throw, how to divide a pot before the first cut, why every facet is cut with its opposite, and how to lay out a pattern that closes up when it comes back round.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Advanced
  • 25 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 Geometric Carving and Faceting printable guide?

It is the faceting lesson on paper: soft facets with a wire on the wheel, crisp facets with a rasp at leather hard, how to divide a rim with a folded strip of paper, why facets are cut in opposite pairs, how to lay out a geometric pattern so it meets itself, how to pierce a wall and dry it, and which glazes show an edge. Built to be printed, worked through at the bench and kept by the wheel.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Geometric Carving and Faceting” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 25printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 6hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For a pot that has to come out even

The layout is the work, and the cut is one stroke

A facet takes a few seconds to cut and a minute to plan, and the minute is the part that decides the pot. Cut by eye and every facet is judged against the last one, so the small errors add up until the final facet is either a sliver or a slab.

What makes a faceted pot come out right is unglamorous: a wall thrown thick enough to spend, a strip of paper folded into equal parts, opposite facets cut in pairs so any error is shared, and a pattern carved from marks made in advance and not from the last line you cut. Each one is easy to skip with wet hands.

The guide puts each check next to the step that needs it, with a tick list at the end of every step. It also has a page to write down every pot: how thick you threw it, how many facets, and what the edges did.

Look inside

Real pages, for a bench with a wire on it

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

  • Page 3 of the “Geometric Carving and Faceting” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you touch clay: what you will learn, what to have on the bench, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, what success looks like, and where to log every pot.
  • Page 10 of the “Geometric Carving and Faceting” printable guide: drying it evenly and glazing for the edges, shown with the sample watermark
    Drying it evenly and glazing for the edgesThe drying and glaze step: a margin note on why one faceted pot dries at two speeds, how to choose a glaze that shows an edge, and a tick list to work through before the glaze goes on.
  • Page 12 of the “Geometric Carving and Faceting” printable guide: the videos, and what goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    The videos, and what goes wrongThree of the six videos, each with what it shows and a code to watch it, then the start of the six things that go wrong, each with a fix for next time and a fix for this piece.
  • Page 18 of the “Geometric Carving and Faceting” printable guide: every pot, and how it turned out, shown with the sample watermark
    Every pot, and how it turned outA log to write in: the wall, the number of facets, when you cut, the tool and what happened, with two questions under it. A few rows in and the next pot starts from a measurement instead of a guess.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A strip of paper and a pencil, and a page beside them

A faceted pot is a few measurements, a layout and one confident stroke, all done with clay on your hands. Paper suits that.

  • The layout sits beside the cut

    Dividing the rim, the order of the cuts and the marks for a pattern are each next to the step that needs them, not somewhere in a long video.

  • It holds still

    A page stays where you put it while you hold a wire taut between both thumbs. It does not lock its screen, and it does not mind clay water.

  • A count to write down

    The log has columns for the wall, the number of facets, when you cut and the tool you used. The next pot starts from a measurement and not a hunch.

  • One page for the wheel

    The one page summary has soft or crisp, the numbers, the order of the cuts and what to change when it goes wrong, for when your hands are full of clay.

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.

  • Corrected, in the guide and the lesson

    The lesson had the wall of a faceted pot the wrong way round: a facet is a flat cut off a curved wall, so the wall is thinnest in the middle of each flat and thickest at the edges. It also said the bat pins give quarters, when two pins give halves. Those and a few more are fixed in the guide and in the free lesson.

  • Video notes that say what the video shows

    We checked every note in the free lesson against the video’s own description, chapters, frames and captions, and rewrote the ones the videos do not bear out, in the guide and in the lesson.

  • Written for any studio

    Where the lesson talks about The Clay Hole, the guide says so and dates it, so a reader working somewhere else knows which line is a Clay Hole fact 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.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a video moves, we repoint the address and your printed copy still goes to the right place.

  • A page to keep by the wheel

    The one page summary is the whole job on a single sheet: soft or crisp, the numbers, the order of the cuts, and what to change when it goes wrong.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Geometric Carving and Faceting” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

A facet has to come from somewhere, and where it comes from is the extra wall you threw for it.

I would rather you were bored for sixty seconds than sorry for an evening.

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

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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 tick list at the end of every step, a log to write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Do I need a wheel?
For soft facets, yes: they are cut within minutes of throwing. Crisp facets are cut at leather hard with a rasp, a plane or a knife, and a hand built cylinder with a thick wall facets the same way. Laying out and carving a geometric pattern, and piercing, need nothing that spins except something to turn the pot on.
Does it teach carving a clean line?
It covers the layout, and what geometric work adds to a carved line, which is keeping every line the same depth. The cut itself, the stage of the clay, a sharp tool and one pass, is the free “Carving Pristine Lines” lesson, and the guide points you there.
Does it cover piercing?
Yes, in a short section: cutting a geometric grid right through the wall at leather hard, from the outside, and drying a pierced pot slowly. One of the videos is a pierced bowl from layout to cutting.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Advanced. You need to throw a straight walled cylinder with an even wall and tell soft from leather hard by feel. The new skills are dividing a pot before the first cut and making each cut in one stroke.
What do I need besides clay?
A cutting wire or a wire on a frame, a rasp, a plane or a fettling knife, a strip of paper and a needle, a pencil and a flexible ruler or masking tape, a small V tool or needle for carved lines, and a banding wheel or anything that turns the pot. The guide lists all of it on the dashboard.
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 pot log are the two worth having by the wheel. 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 the wheel 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.

Divide first, then cut

Throw the wall thick, fold a strip of paper, cut a facet and then its opposite. Those three habits take a few minutes and decide whether the facets come out even. The guide keeps them in front of you at the bench.

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