You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 06.17

The Clay Hole University · Advanced Throwing

How to Make a Ceramic Urn with a LidPrintable pottery guide

A lidded jar with three extra responsibilities: a specific volume, a lid that seats with dignity, and a pot built to last generations.

$12.505 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 19 printable pages
  • 4 video picks
  • 5-question quiz + answer key

Flip through the free sample
  • Instant download
  • Prints on any home printer
  • The full lesson stays free online
The printable, at a glance

What is the How to Make a Ceramic Urn with a Lid printable guide?

It is a printable workbook edition of The Clay Hole University’s free “How to Make a Ceramic Urn with a Lid” lesson. It starts with the arithmetic, one cubic inch of interior per pound of body weight, then the lid and the seal, then the whole build both ways, thrown on the wheel or built entirely by hand. On paper it adds a worksheet for the seven decisions you make before the first wedge, a one page card, a quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? The “How to Make a Ceramic Urn with a Lid” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 19printable pages, US Letter
  • 5quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 4hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

There is no second attempt at this one

An urn is the most meaningful commission a potter ever takes, and it is also the only pot where coming up short is a heartbreak no glaze can fix. The volume has to be right, the lid has to seat with dignity in a hard moment, and it has to be built to last generations.

Families in the middle of loss often need a vessel faster than clay allows, which is exactly why the kindest urns are usually made ahead, with time to spare and steady hands. An urn that never gets used spends its life as a beautiful lidded jar, which is no failure at all.

So this guide front loads everything: the arithmetic before any clay moves, seven decisions written down before the first wedge, and the two things that stop a lid welding itself shut for good. You are allowed to make one before anyone needs it.

Look inside

Real pages, for a pot with no second attempt

These are actual pages from the guide, shown here with the sample watermark. The full guide has none.

  • Page 5 of the “How to Make a Ceramic Urn with a Lid” printable guide: the capacity math, shown with the sample watermark
    The capacity mathThe one number that cannot be wrong, the gallon gut check, and how to verify it on the fired pot rather than the wet one.
  • Page 6 of the “How to Make a Ceramic Urn with a Lid” printable guide: throwing the urn, shown with the sample watermark
    Throwing the urnThe wheel path, step by step, from weighing for the volume rather than the vibe.
  • Page 9 of the “How to Make a Ceramic Urn with a Lid” printable guide: the urn plan, shown with the sample watermark
    The urn planSeven decisions to settle on paper before the first wedge, because every hard moment in this build gets easier if it was decided in advance.
  • Page 10 of the “How to Make a Ceramic Urn with a Lid” printable guide: the urn worksheet, shown with the sample watermark
    The urn worksheetWhere those seven decisions get written down, alongside the volume arithmetic for your own pot.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

Why this one, above all, belongs on paper

This is a commission with a deadline you did not choose and no room to be wrong. Everything that can be settled in advance should be, in writing.

  • The arithmetic gets done before the clay

    Volume, destination, shrinkage allowance. All of it cheaper to work out at a table than to discover on a fired pot that is beautiful and too small.

  • It holds the seven decisions

    Style, seal, lid, inscription, glaze, timing and destination, written down before the first wedge. Every hard moment in the build gets easier if it was decided already.

  • It keeps the measurements you were given

    If the urn is bound for a niche, you got those dimensions in writing from somebody. The worksheet is where they live so they are not a text message you lose.

  • One card lives by the wheel for good

    The capacity rule, the lid and seal decisions and the build sequence on a single page you can pull out of the binder.

How the guide is built

Built to be filled in before anything is thrown

Every guide in the series is designed as a workbook first and a document second. For this one, that means:

  • A learning dashboard before page one

    What you will learn, what you need, the mistakes that get made first, and what a finished urn has to do that an ordinary jar does not.

  • The capacity math, first and plainly

    One cubic inch of interior per pound of body weight, the gallon gut check, and why the fired measurement is the only one that counts.

  • Both paths, in full

    Thrown on the wheel, or coil and slab built with no wheel at all, so you can use the method you actually have and skip the other.

  • The lid, the seal and the mouth

    A lid that seats and can be sealed for good, the opening wide enough for the bag to go in whole, and the waxing and firing that stop a lid welding shut.

  • Personalizing, and firing to last

    Inscriptions carved or inlaid, imagery in underglaze, and a glaze that behaves rather than an experiment over carved letters.

  • Plain words for the jargon

    A sixteen term glossary, written the way we would explain it standing next to you.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “How to Make a Ceramic Urn with a Lid” lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no catch.

Every potter I know who has been asked for an urn wished they had made one already. Making one before anybody needs it is the whole advice, and it should not cost anybody anything to hear it, so the lesson stays free.

The University is free and stays free. The guides are the version rebuilt for paper with an unreasonable amount of care, and buying one keeps the free side going.

Thank you. Genuinely.

Dan Pearce, founder of The Clay Hole
Collect them

Build a little pottery library

Every guide carries a permanent number. This one is 06.17, the seventeenth guide in Advanced Throwing. The series is designed to live together in a binder, section by section, so the craft ends up on your shelf in the order you learn it.

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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Where this leads

What to learn alongside this one

These lessons pick up where this one leaves off. Each one is free to read now.

Good questions

Before you buy

Is this different from the free lesson?
The teaching is the same, and the free lesson is complete. The printable adds a worksheet for the seven decisions and the volume arithmetic, a one page card, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
How big does an urn need to be?
The funeral industry rule is roughly one cubic inch of interior per pound of body weight before cremation, so a standard adult urn is built to about 200 cubic inches. The guide gives you the arithmetic and a gut check rather than one size.
How wide should the opening be?
About four inches, so the closed bag the ashes arrive in can go in whole rather than being opened and poured. Ask the crematory what size bag they use, because it varies, and err generous.
Do I need a wheel?
No. The guide teaches the whole craft both ways, thrown and built entirely by hand, so you can read the method you will actually use and skip the other.
How do I stop the lid welding shut?
Keep the gallery and the underside of the lid bare or waxed, wipe those surfaces again after glazing, and fire the lid on the pot. On a casserole a welded lid is a bad afternoon; on an urn it cannot be undone.
Is it too soon to make one?
No, and the guide opens by saying so. Potters practise this form on ordinary days so their hands are ready on the day it matters, and an urn nobody needs is simply a beautiful lidded jar.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. The arithmetic, the lid and both build paths are the same anywhere. Anything specific to our studio is marked as ours, and the studio numbers carry the date they were true.
Do I need a fancy printer?
No. It is designed 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.
Can I print it in black and white?
Yes. Nothing depends on color, and we looked at the workbook pages in grayscale to be sure.
Can I use it on an iPad or laptop instead?
Yes. Every QR code in the guide is also a tappable link, so on a screen you just tap instead of scanning.
How do I get it after I buy?
Right after checkout you get a download link by email and on your order confirmation page. Each link works up to seven times.
What if the guide gets updated?
Every edition carries a version number. When we correct or improve a guide, everyone who bought it gets an email with the new edition at no charge.
Can I share it with my class or studio?
Please don’t. It is licensed for your own personal use. Anyone can read the full lesson free online, and the printable is here if they want their own copy.

Practise the form before the day it matters

Print it tonight. Fill in the worksheet first, decide all seven things while nothing is at stake, and then go and make one nobody needs yet.

Get the printable · $12.50

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