You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 07.03

The Clay Hole University · Hand Building

How to Make a Slab MugPrintable pottery guide

A rectangle and a circle, and four minutes that decide the whole mug: the slab thickness, the seam, the joint where the wall meets the floor, and the moment the handle goes on.

$7.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 36 printable pages
  • 8 video picks
  • 7-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 Slab Mug printable guide?

It is a printable workbook edition of The Clay Hole University’s free “How to Make a Slab Mug” lesson. A slab mug is a rectangle wrapped into a cylinder and a circle stuck underneath it, and almost everything that goes wrong happens in about four minutes of the evening. The guide walks the whole build in order, from rolling a slab thicker than feels right, through the template arithmetic worked out for you, to closing the seam, putting a floor in and three ways to attach a handle. On paper it adds a line for each of your first eight mugs, the whole mug compressed onto one page, a printed quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? The “How to Make a Slab Mug” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 36printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 8hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

The seam fails weeks later, in the kiln

A slab mug does not come apart while you are looking at it. It comes apart in a glaze firing, as a hairline crack running dead straight up the wall, and a straight crack is a seam that was never really joined. By then it is three weeks later and you have no idea which step you skipped.

So the parts that matter are not the ones that look dramatic. Bevel both ends the opposite way. Score both faces, not one. Blend a thin coil down the inside, which is the step that actually holds. Those are four lines on a page, and they are the difference between a mug and a lesson.

The rest is arithmetic you should not have to do twice. How long the rectangle has to be for the circle you cut, how thick the slab starts, how long to leave it before you bend it. Worked out, printed, and sitting on the table while your hands are covered in slip.

Look inside

Real pages, for a table and a rolling pin

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 Slab Mug” printable guide: the whole mug in eight moves, shown with the sample watermark
    The whole mug in eight movesThe five minute version up front, so you can start tonight and read the detail as you go.
  • Page 14 of the “How to Make a Slab Mug” printable guide: closing the seam, shown with the sample watermark
    Closing the seamThe step that fails, in four parts, with the diagram: opposing bevels, both faces scored, pressed until slip squeezes out, and a coil blended inside.
  • Page 24 of the “How to Make a Slab Mug” printable guide: when it goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    When it goes wrongEach fault with what actually caused it, which means each one is something you can stop doing.
  • Page 18 of the “How to Make a Slab Mug” printable guide: the first eight slab mugs, shown with the sample watermark
    The first eight slab mugsOne line per mug. The seam gets better and the handle stops being a guess, and this is where you watch it happen.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

Both hands are in slip for most of it

Slab work is a table, a rolling pin and a lot of wet clay on your fingers, and the thing you need at the worst possible moment is a number or the order of four small steps.

  • The arithmetic is done for you

    How long the rectangle has to be for the circle you cut, printed, so you are not doing it with a wet phone and a calculator app.

  • Four steps, in order, at the seam

    Bevel, score both faces, press and compress, blend a coil inside. Miss the last one and the mug is fine until the kiln.

  • A tick list at every step

    Put the page down, do the thing, pick it back up. That is how the guide is laid out, because that is how the work actually goes.

  • Eight mugs, not one

    A line per mug for the slab thickness, the seam and the handle turns eight attempts into something you can read back.

How the guide is built

Built for a table, not a four minute demonstration

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 is on the table, the mistakes that get made first, and what soft leather hard feels like when a slab is ready to bend.

  • The whole mug in eight moves, up front

    The five minute version before any of the detail, so you can start tonight and read the rest as you go.

  • Seven steps in full, with tick lists

    Rolling the slab, cutting the template, wrapping the former, closing the seam, the floor, the handle and the drying, each as things to work through rather than paragraphs to re-read.

  • The seam, with its own diagram

    Four numbered parts on one drawing, because this is the joint that decides whether the mug survives the kiln.

  • Videos you can reach from a printed page

    Four builds by four potters, four different ways, each with a note on why it is worth your time and a code that goes straight to it.

  • Plain words for the jargon

    A sixteen term glossary, written the way we would explain it sitting across the table from 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 Slab Mug” lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no catch.

A slab mug is the first thing most people make that they actually use every morning, and it is usually taught as if the seam does not matter. It matters more than anything else on the page, so the lesson stays free and says so plainly.

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 07.03, in the hand building section, alongside pinching, coiling and slab work. The number never changes and never gets reused, so a shelf of them stays in order.

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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Where this leads

What to build once the seam holds

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 line for each of your first eight mugs, the whole mug compressed onto one page, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Do I need a wheel or a slab roller?
Neither. A rolling pin, a table and two guide sticks will roll a slab big enough for a mug, and the guide says what changes if you do have a slab roller.
How thick should the slab be?
Thicker than feels right, and the guide gives the figure with the reason. Thin slabs warp, and you need room to texture without going through the wall.
Why does my mug crack up the side in the kiln?
A seam that was never really joined. A dead straight crack is the signature. The guide gives the four steps that close one properly, and the one everybody skips.
How do I get the handle to stay on?
Three ways to make one and the attaching method for each, plus what a handle needs that the wall does not. Handles come off for a different reason than seams open.
Is this too basic if I already throw?
Hand building is a different set of instincts, and a slab mug catches people who throw well. If you have never closed a seam, none of your wheel skill helps you here.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes, more than most. It needs a table and two hands. The page about our own clay 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.

Print it, and go and roll a slab

Roll it thicker than feels right, let it firm up while you cut the template, and close the seam properly the first time. Keep the page open at the seam diagram and write down what the slab thickness was. The eighth mug is the one you will keep.

Get the printable · $7.00

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