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The Clay Hole University · Glazing

Brushing GlazePrintable pottery guide

Glazing with a brush, on paper: the checks before you pick up a brush, the three coat method and when it bends, which brush does which job, what each failed firing is telling you, and a log for what your own glazes do.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 23 printable pages
  • 1 video pick
  • 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 Brushing Glaze printable guide?

It is the free “Glaze Brushing Techniques, Coat by Coat” lesson rebuilt for paper: the seven checks before you load a brush, three coats in three directions, how to tell when a coat is dry, five brushes and what each is for, six ways a glaze goes wrong and what the kiln is telling you, and the rules that keep a shared glaze wall working. Built to be printed, kept beside the glaze wall and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Glaze Brushing Techniques, Coat by Coat” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 23printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 1video, with a QR code
  • 15glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone standing at a wall of glaze jars with a brush in hand

The hour at the glaze wall decides how it looks forever.

Most of what goes wrong with glaze is decided before the brush touches the pot: a dusty piece, a jar that was not stirred, a color nobody wrote down. The kiln then does exactly what it was told, and you only find out afterward.

The guide puts the whole routine in one place: the checks to run every time, three coats laid in three directions, how to tell when one is ready for the next, which brush suits which job, and what a streak, a bare patch or a run onto the cookie is trying to tell you.

It also gives you the thing a jar cannot: a page to write on. The glazes you used, the coats, the brush, how it looked wet and how it came out of the kiln. After a few pieces you will know what your own glazes do, and you will be able to repeat the good ones.

Look inside

Real pages, for a glaze wall

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

  • Page 3 of the “Brushing Glaze” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you pick up a brush: what you will learn, what to have with you, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, and what a good result looks like.
  • Page 7 of the “Brushing Glaze” printable guide: the right brush for the job, shown with the sample watermark
    The right brush for the jobFive brushes and what each is for, from the wide fan and hake to the sea sponge, with the honest sixth option.
  • Page 10 of the “Brushing Glaze” printable guide: when it goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    When it goes wrongEvery fault gets three lines: what happened, what to do next time, and what to do about the piece in your hand.
  • Page 16 of the “Brushing Glaze” printable guide: every piece, and how the glaze came out, shown with the sample watermark
    Every piece, and how the glaze came outA log to write in: the glazes, the coats and brush, how it looked wet and how it fired.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A routine and a log are things you keep beside you

Glazing happens at a table with a wet brush in your hand. Paper suits that.

  • The checks where you can see them

    The seven checks, the coat routine and the fixes sit on one page you can pin up beside the wall.

  • A reason for every rule

    The shared glaze wall only works because everyone treats it like their own. Each rule in the guide comes with the reason behind it.

  • A log for your own glazes

    Columns for the glazes, the coats and brush, how it looked wet and how it fired. A few pieces of notes beat a memory of what you did.

  • It does not mind a wet hand

    A page stays where you put it. It does not lock its screen while you are holding a brush.

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 glaze certification, the glaze index, the Food Safe Lookup and our other lessons. Where the lesson was out of step, the guide now says what those pages say.

  • Underglaze goes through the bisque first

    The lesson’s underglaze card now says underglaze is bisque fired before any glaze goes over it, and never to glaze straight over unfired underglaze.

  • A more careful food safety answer

    Not every glaze is made for food. The guide says the glaze is the half that varies and points you to the Food Safe Lookup before you commit.

  • Checks you can tick

    The seven checks before the brush are a tick list, and the three coats and the three things every piece needs before the kiln are numbered steps.

  • 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 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 “Glaze Brushing Techniques, Coat by Coat” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

The rules in here are not there to slow you down. Lots of members share one wall of glaze, and it only works because everybody treats it like their own.

Something will go wrong for everyone, eventually. That is not failure, it is tuition, and an instructor can usually save the piece.

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.
Is this only for people who work at The Clay Hole?
No. The coat method, the brushes and the fixes suit any studio, wherever it is. Where a rule is only ours, such as which brush or glaze opens at which Level, the guide says so, so you can tell a Clay Hole rule from a fact of the craft.
Does it cover dipping glazes?
Only enough to say why they are a different program. The guide is about the glazes you brush on. Dipping has its own lesson and its own training.
Do I have to be a member to use it?
You do not need to be a member to read it or to try the method at home. If you use The Clay Hole’s glaze wall, the guide explains the certification and the agreement that come first.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Beginner. You need a bisque fired piece and a willingness to wait for each coat. The glossary fills in the rest.
What do I need besides glaze?
Brushes, a spoon, a small cup for each glaze, a damp rag and a way to write down what you used. The dashboard lists it all.
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 log are the two worth having beside the wall. 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 and beside the wall 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.

Stir it, brush it, then put the brush down

Run the checks, lay the coats in three directions, wait for each to go chalky and leave it alone. The guide keeps the whole routine in front of you at the wall.

Get the guide · $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.

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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.

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Terms version 2026-09-19b