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The Clay Hole University · Project Guides

Hanging Wall VasesPrintable pottery guide

Everything that decides whether a wall vase hangs flat, stays dry and stays up, in the order you make it: the flat back, the hanging hole, the glaze and the fixing.

$7.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 18 printable pages
  • 2 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 Hanging Wall Vases printable guide?

It is the wall vase on paper: four ways to build one, why the flat back bows and which side to cover while it dries, how big to cut the hanging hole and why a keyhole or two holes beat one, how to glaze the inside so it never seeps onto a wall, how to fire it flat on a kiln cookie, and what to hang it on. Built to be printed, ticked off at the bench and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Hanging Wall Vases” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 18printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 2hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 15glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the pot that lives on a wall

Easy to make, and easy to get wrong

A wall vase takes up no shelf, needs no wheel and holds a single stem, which is why so many people start with one. Then the front dries a little ahead of the back and the back rocks against the wall, or the hole comes out of the kiln too small for the nail, or a damp patch turns up on somebody’s paint six weeks after you stopped thinking about it.

None of that shows at the bench. It shows on a drying shelf, in the kiln and on a wall in somebody else’s house, so the guide puts each decision at the step where you can still make it: how big to cut the hole while the clay is soft, which side to cover while it dries, what to wax before the glaze goes on, and what to hang it from once it is full of water.

Nothing in it is hard to learn. The forming is ordinary hand building. The guide is for the parts that come after, set out so you can tick them off as you go.

Look inside

Real pages, for a bench with a slab on it

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

  • Page 3 of the “Hanging Wall Vases” 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 pitfalls, and what a wall vase that worked looks like.
  • Page 4 of the “Hanging Wall Vases” printable guide: four ways to build one, shown with the sample watermark
    Four ways to build oneTwo slabs, a thrown form cut in half, a thrown form pressed flat on one side, or a slab over a mold. Pick by what you already like making, with a short video beside the list.
  • Page 8 of the “Hanging Wall Vases” printable guide: hanging it safely, shown with the sample watermark
    Hanging it safelyWeigh it full, not empty, use two fixings, and put it on a stud or a proper anchor. Six short steps for getting a wall vase onto a wall and keeping it there, with a note pointing to a heavier hanging problem.
  • Page 11 of the “Hanging Wall Vases” printable guide: every wall vase, and what the kiln did to the hole, shown with the sample watermark
    Every wall vase, and what the kiln did to the holeA log to write in: how it was built, the hole you cut, the hole the kiln left you, whether the back stayed flat and what happened when you hung it.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

The rules for the hole are easy to forget at the bench

A wall vase is a few decisions made over a few days, with clay on your hands in between. Paper suits that.

  • The rules sit beside the steps

    Cut it soft, cut it big, put it in the thickest part of the back, clear the glaze out. Each one is next to the step that needs it, not somewhere in the middle of a video.

  • It holds still

    A page stays where you left it while you score and slip a seam with both hands. It does not go to sleep and it does not need clay wiped off the screen.

  • A number to write down

    The log has a column for the hole you cut and one for the hole the kiln left you. The second wall vase starts from a measurement instead of a hunch.

  • One page for the bench

    The one page summary has the building and drying, the hole, the glazing and firing, and the checks before it goes up. It pins up next to the slab roller.

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.

  • The right side covered

    The lesson said the front dries first and pulls the back into a bow, and then said to cover the back, which slows the slow side even more. The front is the fast side, so the front is the one to cover. The guide says so.

  • A kiln cookie under the flat back

    A glazed flat back sticks to the shelf, so the guide fires it on a kiln cookie or glaze catcher and says that any grinding of fired glaze off the back is wet and never dry.

  • A test that is honest about its length

    Fill it, leave it over paper overnight, look at the paper. The guide calls it two minutes of effort, because the test itself takes all night.

  • Notes that match the videos

    The note under each film was read against that film’s own page, so it promises only what is in it.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    Eight questions, 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.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Hanging Wall Vases” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

A wall vase looks like the easy pot.

So the work that matters happens early, while the clay is soft and you can still change your mind about a hole or a seam.

Almost everything that goes wrong is one side getting ahead of the other.

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.

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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 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?
No. Two of the four ways to build one start on the wheel, and two are pure hand building from slabs. Pick the one you already like making.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Intermediate, and not because the forming is hard. It is ordinary hand building. The failures come later and quietly: the back bows while it dries, the hole closes in the kiln, and a fixing that suited the empty piece lets go when it is full of water.
What do I need besides clay?
A rolling pin or slab roller, a hard rib, a needle tool and slip, a flat board and a sheet of plastic, a hole cutter or a knife, wax resist, a kiln cookie or glaze catcher, and a wall anchor or a stud to hang it on. The guide lists all of it on the dashboard.
Can I put a plant in it?
A small plant left in its own plastic pot, yes, and cut stems in water or dried stems. There is no drainage hole, because anything a wall vase drains, it drains onto the wall, so the guide keeps soil away from the clay.
How do I hang it?
Weigh it full, not empty, use two fixings if it has two holes, and put it on a stud or a proper wall anchor rather than a plain nail. The guide also says where not to hang one, and what to tell whoever you give it to.
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. It is designed to stay readable in grayscale, and the pages that matter most at the bench, the one page summary and the log, were checked that way on purpose.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The one page summary and the log are the two worth having by the bench. 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 bench 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.

Cover the front, cut the hole big, and test it over paper

Slow the front down so the back can catch up, cut the hole far bigger than the nail, glaze the inside properly and leave it over a sheet of paper overnight. Do those and the making is ordinary hand building. Skip any of them and the wall finds out, which is why this one is worth reading before you roll the slab rather than after.

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