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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.

See every printable guide, or every printable we sell on one page.

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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.

Get the guide · $7.00

The Clay Hole University Printable Guide Terms

Licensing, safety, digital delivery, and refund terms for printable guides and paper templates

Your copy is yours. The work behind it is not.

These terms cover every printable guide and every paper template from The Clay Hole. In this section, "product" means the guide or template you bought, including its PDF file and everything in it. The rules below apply to both. Paper templates add one permission, in the next section, and nothing else in that section loosens anything here.

Your purchase gives one individual purchaser a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for personal use only. You may download the product 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.

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That means you may not share, forward, email, upload, post, publish, copy, reproduce, resell, sublicense, redistribute, or otherwise provide the product, or any substantial portion of it, to another person. That includes passing it on as a photo, scan, screenshot, tracing, printout, or recreation. 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 or templates 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.

Paper templates: make them, sell what you make

Everything in the section above applies to paper templates in full, including the template file, its patterns, and its design. This section adds one permission, and the credit that goes with it. It is the only exception to the personal-use rule above.

If you buy a paper template, you may use it to make ceramic pieces, and you may sell those pieces, in person or online. That permission belongs to the purchaser, and it covers the ceramic pieces only. It does not cover the template, its patterns, or any copy or version of them, which may not be shared, sold, or passed on in any form.

You may not claim that you created the design. The design of each paper template, including its shapes, proportions, patterns, and layout, was created by Dan Pearce. That stays true no matter how many pieces you make or sell. Do not describe the design as your own, and do not sell it as your own design.

Your final creative choices are yours. The glazes, colors, surface decoration, carving, texture, and any changes you make to the form belong to your finished piece, and you may claim them as your own work. The structural credit for the design stays with Dan Pearce.

Credit is required for pieces sold online. If you sell online a piece made from an Advanced, Expert, Insane, or Legendary template, your listing must credit Dan Pearce as the designer of the template and link to theclayhole.com. For example: Made from a paper template designed by Dan Pearce, https://theclayhole.com. Pieces made from Beginner and Intermediate templates do not need the credit, but you still may not claim the design as your own.

Templates marked NEW

Every paper template starts out marked NEW, as part of the New Pattern Program. NEW means nobody has built that template in clay yet. It does not mean the template is unfinished. Every template is audited at least three times for accuracy and is drawn to work as designed. The NEW mark comes off once someone builds the template and it checks out.

When you buy, claim, or download a template marked NEW, or a bundle, package, or collection that holds one, you accept that it has not been built yet, that you use it at your own discretion, and that you may need to adjust as you build if your project needs it.

A template marked NEW is covered by every one of these terms, exactly like any other template. If you find something indisputably wrong in one, the promise in "Refunds, mistakes, and making it right" below applies.

Pottery is wonderfully unpredictable. It also carries real risk.

We work hard to make The Clay Hole University and our paper templates 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 and templates 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 or template 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 or templates. 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 or template, 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 or template.

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Refunds, mistakes, and making it right

Except where the law requires otherwise, we do not offer refunds on any paper template or printable guide. Pottery has a hundred different ways to do most things, and every guide and template shows one of them. We put real work into making each one as accurate, thorough, and finished as we can, because we want you to love what you bought. A guide or template that you would have done differently, or a piece that surprises you in the kiln, is pottery being pottery, not a problem with the file.

Mistakes happen, even in work we care about this much. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not responsible for any cost or loss that comes with an error in what we send, whether that is clay, materials, firing costs, or your time.

What we will do is fix it. If you find something that is indisputably wrong in a guide or template (an actual error, not a different way of doing it), contact us and we will correct it within a week and upload the new document so you can download it.

Custom step illustrations from Clayla have one more promise. It is rare for an illustration not to work, but Clayla does not get every drawing right. If you buy one and it misses, text us the illustration and we will be happy to refund it.

Terms version 2026-11-15