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

Horsehair and Feather RakuPrintable pottery guide

A decorative raku technique on paper: how hair, feathers and sugar burn marks into a hot pot, how to prepare a pot that will take them, the order of firing day, and a log for every pot you decorate.

$12.505 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Advanced
  • 28 printable pages
  • 9 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 Horsehair and Feather Raku printable guide?

It is the free “Horsehair and Feather Raku” lesson rebuilt for paper: why the marks form, the temperature window, a pot the tongs can hold, a polished surface, the steps of firing day in order, four ways to bring in color, six faults and what each one is telling you. Built to be printed, read days before the firing and written in. It is decorative work only, and it prepares you for a workshop rather than replacing one.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Horsehair and Feather Raku” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 28printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 9hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 10glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone who has seen a pot with a line nobody could draw on purpose

The mark takes a second. The preparation takes weeks.

You lift a glowing pot, lay a strand of hair or the edge of a feather against it, and the mark burns itself into the clay almost at once. There is no glaze and no brush. What decides the result is everything you did before the pot came out.

The guide gives you that order: why the carbon stays in the surface, the window of heat where it takes, a pot the tongs can hold, a surface polished enough to hold a sharp line, and then hair first, feathers next, sugar last, and stop.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: a log to write in. The surface, how long you waited, what you laid on and how it came out. A few firings of notes show you what your own timing looks like.

Look inside

Real pages, for reading before the fire

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

  • Page 3 of the “Horsehair and Feather Raku” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before anything gets near a kiln: what you will learn, what you would need, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls and what a good result looks like.
  • Page 5 of the “Horsehair and Feather Raku” printable guide: how the mark forms, shown with the sample watermark
    How the mark formsNothing is painted on. The pot stains itself, and a magnified sketch of the pot wall shows why every rule in the guide exists.
  • Page 6 of the “Horsehair and Feather Raku” printable guide: the temperature window, shown with the sample watermark
    The temperature windowA scale drawn to size: too cool, the working window and too hot, with what each one does to a strand of hair.
  • Page 22 of the “Horsehair and Feather Raku” printable guide: every pot i decorated, and how it came out, shown with the sample watermark
    Every pot I decorated, and how it came outA log to write in: the surface, how long you waited, what you laid on and how the marks came out.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

Read it cold, days before the fire

The decoration is over in about two minutes and cannot be paused. Learning it from a page you have already read suits that.

  • The order, where you can find it

    Every step of firing day is on the page in order, with the reason for each. Nothing to scrub through with a glove on.

  • A reason for every rule

    Hot enough, and hands slow. The window runs from about 900 to 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit, and each rule comes with the reason, so you know what you are looking at when a mark fades.

  • A log for your own pots

    Columns for the surface, how long you waited, what you laid on and how it came out. A few lines of notes beat a memory of how long thirty seconds felt.

  • A page stays where you put it

    It does not lock its screen, and you can set it down and come back to it. Reading it on paper before the firing means the order is already in your head on the day.

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.

  • Not a substitute for the team

    The guide teaches the order and the preparation. It does not replace the people at the kiln or the in person safety meeting that everyone sits through, and it says so.

  • Decorative, and plainly so

    A horsehair pot has no glaze, a low firing and a surface made of soot. The guide says it is not food safe and not watertight, and that sealing it does not change that.

  • Plainer promises about workshops

    Where the lesson pointed at our raku workshops, the guide sends you to ask the team first, and does not promise a bare polished pot can come along or be refired.

  • Video notes that say what the videos say

    Every video is another potter’s work, printed with its own QR code. Each note was written 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 “Horsehair and Feather Raku” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Horsehair raku is over almost before it starts. You lay a strand of hair against a glowing pot, and in about a second there is a line nobody could draw on purpose.

If you want to try it, come and ask us. Somebody here will be glad to talk it through.

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 get a pot ready for this one

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 practice this at home?
No, and the guide is plain about it. The technique needs a propane raku kiln, open sky, protective gear and other people. At home you prepare the pot, and the guide is built for that part.
Does the guide replace a workshop or the safety meeting?
No. It teaches the order and the preparation. At The Clay Hole the waiver and the in person safety meeting apply to everyone, and the guide says the team stays beside you at the kiln.
Do I need the raku safety certification first?
No. The guide describes it as worth doing, and it is not required. It does not replace the safety meeting or the waiver.
Can I bring a bare horsehair pot to a workshop?
Ask the team first. The guide says to ask before you build one, because a polished bare pot is not what a glaze raku firing usually asks for. We are not promising it here.
Is a horsehair pot food safe?
No. It has no glaze, a low firing, an open body and a surface made of soot, so it is decorative only and not watertight. Sealing it with wax or sealer does not change that, and the guide says so.
Can I refire a horsehair pot if I do not like it?
The guide says sometimes, but it cannot promise it. It would take another raku firing, so ask the team before you plan on it.
Are the videos yours?
No. Each one is another potter’s work. The guide prints each with its own QR code and a short note on what the video shows, and nothing in the guide depends on watching them.
Do I need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it?
No. The guide teaches the preparation and the order of the steps for anyone. Where a line is only ours, such as how our workshops run, the guide says so.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Advanced. It helps to have thrown or built and fired a few pieces first, 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 pot log are the two worth having with you. 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 read 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.

Hot enough, and hands slow

Prepare the pot, learn the order, and keep the team beside you at the kiln. The guide keeps every step in front of you before the fire.

Get the guide · $12.50

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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.

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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.

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Terms version 2026-09-19b