You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 08.10

The Clay Hole University · Project Guides

How to Make Ceramic Spoons and LadlesPrintable pottery guide

Spoons, scoops and ladles, with the half inch that decides whether one survives, the ninety second step almost everyone skips, and the drying that quietly ruins the rest.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 34 printable pages
  • 9 video picks
  • 8-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 Ceramic Spoons and Ladles printable guide?

It is the whole spoon job on paper: how big to make each kind and how much clay to pull off the bag, four ways to shape the bowl, why a handle wants to be deeper rather than thicker, the six step join that decides everything, and how to dry, glaze and fire a thin part joined to a thick part so it comes out straight. Ladles get their own section, because every problem on a spoon is doubled on one.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Ceramic Spoons and Ladles” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 34printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 9hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 22glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
One half inch decides it

They all break in the same place

People who can throw a perfectly good mug make their first spoon, love it, and snap it in half in the sink four days later. That is not bad luck and it is not weak clay. A spoon is a lever with a weight on the end, so every load you put on the bowl arrives, multiplied, at the corner where the handle meets it.

Which is oddly good news. It means there is one thing to get right instead of twenty. Put a curve where that corner is, give the handle depth instead of leaving it a flat ribbon, and dry the whole thing lying supported. Three things, and the rest is detail.

All three happen at the bench, with clay on your hands, in the ninety seconds when you would rather be finished. None of them happens while you are scrolling.

Look inside

Real pages, for a wet bench and a drying shelf

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

  • Page 3 of the “How to Make Ceramic Spoons and Ladles” printable guide: what you will learn, and what goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    What you will learn, and what goes wrongThe whole guide in one spread before you start: what to have ready, what is worth knowing, the pitfalls, and what a finished one looks like.
  • Page 6 of the “How to Make Ceramic Spoons and Ladles” printable guide: seven parts, and only one of them is the bowl, shown with the sample watermark
    Seven parts, and only one of them is the bowlThe anatomy drawing with a numbered key beside it. The lip, the shoulder, the cross section, the taper, the tail and the rest, and what each one is actually for.
  • Page 11 of the “How to Make Ceramic Spoons and Ladles” printable guide: the section to take to the table, shown with the sample watermark
    The section to take to the tableA spoon fails at the shoulder, and the shoulder is made in about ninety seconds. Matching the stiffness first, then scoring properly, with the handle cards above it.
  • Page 22 of the “How to Make Ceramic Spoons and Ladles” printable guide: the first eight spoons, shown with the sample watermark
    The first eight spoonsA sheet you fill in: what it was, the clay, the method, how it dried and what came back out of the kiln. The pattern shows up in the drying column.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

The join takes ninety seconds and both hands are covered

Bowl and handle have to meet at the same stiffness, get scored, slipped, pressed, wiggled and then filleted on both sides and underneath, and the whole window is about a minute and a half before the clay has moved on. That is the worst possible moment to be looking for a phone.

  • It does not go dark

    A page sits there showing the six steps while you work. No timeout, no scrolling back to find where you were, no wet knuckle on a screen.

  • It is something you write on

    A sheet for the first eight spoons, and a quick reference of the sizes, the clays and the fault index. Print them again for the next batch.

  • The numbers are already worked out

    How long each kind finishes, how much clay to pull off the bag for it, and what it costs to fire, in one place instead of scattered through a long page.

  • It survives the studio

    Clay dust, slip and a wet bench. A printed page you can replace for nothing beats a phone you have to wipe.

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 anatomy drawing, with its key beside it

    Seven parts, numbered on the sketch and explained alongside it rather than underneath, so you can read the part and look at the place it names without turning anything over.

  • Every fault, not just the one you picked

    Eight ways a spoon goes wrong, each with the cause and what to change next time. On the web they are eight buttons and you only ever press one.

  • Ladles as their own section

    Six things that change when the bowl is four inches across and gets lifted full of hot soup on the end of a foot of clay. The angle, the hook, and where the handle actually attaches.

  • A cheat sheet and a quick reference, doing different jobs

    The lesson’s own sheet is the order of operations. The quick reference carries what it does not: the sizes, which clay, which method, the firing, and the fault index.

  • A sheet for the first eight spoons

    A spoon takes twenty minutes, so the fastest way to get good is to make several and write down what changed. One line each, filled in at the table and again after the kiln.

  • A quiz, an answer key and a glossary

    The same questions as the free lesson, with the reasoning behind every answer, and the words this job uses in plain language.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Ceramic Spoons and Ladles” lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no trial. This is the same teaching set for paper, so you can take it to the bench.

There is a shelf in my head with every broken spoon anybody has ever carried over to me on it, and they have one thing in common. Whatever else was different, the clay, the size, who made it, the break is in the same place.

The skill is a curve. Roll a soft coil into the corner where the handle meets the bowl and blend until your finger cannot find where the two pieces met. It takes a minute and a half and it is invisible once the glaze is on, which is exactly why people skip it.

Spoons are the least photogenic thing anybody makes here, and they are the thing people keep. Nobody photographs one. They just quietly become the one somebody reaches for.

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: the teaching in the order you do it, the numbers worked out, the things that go wrong with what to do about each one, workbook pages to fill in, and a quiz with the reasoning behind every answer. This one is number 08.10, in the project guides, and its number never changes.

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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 lesson is the same teaching and it stays free. This is that teaching rebuilt for paper: the sizes and clay weights in one table, the anatomy drawing with its key beside it, all eight faults laid out at once instead of behind buttons, a quick reference of the decisions and the numbers, a sheet for your first eight spoons, a glossary, and the quiz with an answer key. It is for the bench, not the sofa.
Do I need a wheel?
No. Three of the four ways to make the bowl need no wheel at all: press it over the back of a metal spoon, pinch it, or carve the whole spoon out of a solid blank. Only the fourth throws the bowl, and that one is really for ladles. The join, the handle, the drying and the glazing are identical whichever route you take.
Is this too advanced for me?
It is set at intermediate, and that is about timing rather than skill. Making the bowl is beginner work. What lifts it is that a spoon is two different thicknesses joined in the middle, so both halves have to be at the same stiffness when they meet and the drying has to be watched rather than left alone. Nothing in it is hard to do. All of it is easy to rush.
Will it print properly on my printer?
Yes. It is set for US Letter with margins that any home or office printer can hold, and it prints double sided if you want it to. Nothing runs into the gutter and nothing is cut off at the edge.
Does it work in black and white?
Yes. It was checked in grayscale as well as in color. The drawing, the key numbers, the tick boxes and the workbook rules all read without any color at all, so a mono laser printer loses nothing you need.
Can I just read it on a screen?
You can, and the links and codes work. But the whole argument for it is that a spoon is made with both hands busy and a join that does not wait. A page stays open and does not go dark, and you can put a thumbprint on it without caring.
Can I print only part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The cheat sheet, the quick reference and the sheet for your first eight spoons are the three worth having beside you, and they are on their own pages so you can print those and leave the rest on the screen.
How does delivery work?
It is an instant download. The moment the order goes through you get a link, and the file is yours to keep and to print as many times as you like on your own devices.
What happens if the guide is updated?
Guides get corrected and improved, and every edition carries its version number on the last page. When a new one is published, the code on that page takes you to the latest version.
Can I share it or use it with a class?
Your copy is yours: print it as often as you like, write on it, spill clay water on it. It is licensed for your own personal use rather than for passing on, and if you would like to use it with a group, ask The Clay Hole about group licensing.

Fillet the corner, and make five

One curve at the shoulder, a handle with some depth to it, and a week of drying lying supported. Download it, print the cheat sheet and the quick reference, and keep them beside you from the first blank to the kiln shelf.

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