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The Clay Hole University · Surface and Decoration

How to Make Your Own UnderglazesPrintable pottery guide

Underglaze from the stain up, on paper: what each ingredient does, a base recipe from the company that makes Mason stains, how to mix and weigh a batch, and a log for every color you test.

$7.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 22 printable pages
  • 3 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 How to Make Your Own Underglazes printable guide?

It is the free “How to Make Your Own Underglazes” lesson rebuilt for paper: the six ingredients and the job each one does, the base recipe in grams, the mixing steps and the weight check, a ladder of test tiles for every new color, and the stains that need extra care. Built to be printed, kept beside the scale and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “How to Make Your Own Underglazes” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 22printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 3hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 18glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone who has looked at a bottle of underglaze and wondered what is in it

Your color, on purpose.

An underglaze is mostly color. A ceramic stain does the work, a little clay makes it stick to the pot and shrink with it, a little frit and feldspar glue it on in the firing, and gum and glycerin make it brush like paint.

Weigh those out yourself and the decision about how much stain, how much clay and how much glass a color gets is yours. The guide gives you the base recipe in grams, the reason behind every ingredient, and the two numbers you will move when a tile comes out wrong.

Then it gives you what a web page cannot: a log with a row for every color you mix, and a one page reference to keep beside the scale. A few rows in, you know your base better than any recipe could tell you.

Look inside

Real pages, ready for the bench

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

  • Page 3 of the “How to Make Your Own Underglazes” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before the first section: what you will learn, what you will need, what is worth knowing first, the common pitfalls and what success looks like.
  • Page 10 of the “How to Make Your Own Underglazes” printable guide: the colors that need extra care, shown with the sample watermark
    The colors that need extra carePinks and crimsons, chrome greens, cobalt blues, bright reds, blacks and pale yellows, each with the reason it misbehaves. Then the start of the safety rules for the powders.
  • Page 12 of the “How to Make Your Own Underglazes” printable guide: what goes wrong, and what it means, shown with the sample watermark
    What goes wrong, and what it meansSix results a tile can show, from flaking to bleeding to a jar that set like a brick, each with its cause and the change to make. Then the questions that come up most.
  • Page 15 of the “How to Make Your Own Underglazes” printable guide: every color, mixed, tiled and logged, shown with the sample watermark
    Every color, mixed, tiled and loggedA log with a row for each color: the stain and how much went in, the coats, the clear over it, the edges and the bond, and whether to keep it or change it.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A page that lives beside the scale

Most of what this guide teaches happens with powder on the scale and a tile in your hand. Paper is already there.

  • A row for every color

    The log records the stain and the grams, the coats, the clear and what the fired tile showed, so the color that worked can be made again.

  • The recipe at the scale

    The dry base in grams, the stain range, the liquid and the weight check on one reference page you can pin up where you mix.

  • A fix for every tile

    Flaked, bled, pale or a pink that died: each result is written next to the one change that answers it, so the next tile is a decision rather than a guess.

  • Powder hands are welcome

    A printed page does not mind a dusty bench or a damp towel, and it does not lock its screen while you are weighing.

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 our other lessons

    We checked the lesson against our lessons on using underglaze, Mason stains, engobes, test tiles and mixing glazes, so the guide says what those pages say about the same materials and rules.

  • A recipe that names its source

    The base recipe says where it comes from: Mason Color Works, the company that makes Mason stains, as published on Vince Pitelka’s website. The color notes follow Mason’s own guidance on pinks, greens and blues.

  • Safety from primary sources

    The respirator rule and the reason for it come from NIOSH on silica and from the safety data for the materials in the recipe, not from habit.

  • Written for a reader in any studio

    The lines about our own studio say so, and the one fact that can change over time carries the month it was true.

  • Video notes that claim no more than the videos

    Each video note was written from the video’s own title, description and chapters, so it promises only what the video says it covers.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a page moves, we point the address at its new home 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 “How to Make Your Own Underglazes” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Every bottle of underglaze on a shelf is a decision somebody else made about how much stain, how much clay and how much glass a color gets.

Wear the respirator for the powders, start with one color you cannot buy, and let the tiles settle every argument.

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.

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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, the recipe set to print, a log for every color you mix, a one page reference, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Will the recipe work at my cone?
The base is rated cone 6 to cone 10. The guide explains why the flux in an underglaze is tuned to a temperature, so you can judge a recipe written for another range, and it treats every new color as a tile before a pot.
What do I need to buy?
A Mason stain or an equivalent, plus the base materials from a ceramic supplier: a soda feldspar, a frit, kaolin, ball clay, zircopax, CMC gum and glycerin. You will also want a gram scale, an eighty mesh sieve and a respirator with P100 cartridges. The guide lists each one with the job it does.
Do I need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it?
No. The chemistry works wherever you fire. The one section about our own studio is labeled as ours, so it reads clearly to a potter anywhere.
Can I fire a homemade underglaze at The Clay Hole?
Yes, once the studio team has seen the recipe and a fired test tile. The section about our studio sets out the two rules that still apply: it goes on raw clay, and it is bisque fired before any glaze touches it.
Is this too advanced for me?
It is marked Intermediate. It assumes you have used underglaze and know a bisque firing from a glaze firing. No glaze chemistry is needed, 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 and the tables are black on white, and the pictures print clearly in grey. Color is used for headings and small labels.
Can I read it on a screen?
Yes. Every code in the guide is also a link you can tap, so it works on a tablet or a laptop as well as on paper.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The color log and the one page reference are the two worth keeping beside the scale. 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 before your next batch.
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.

Stain, clay, glass and a tile

Six ingredients, one recipe and a row of tiles for every color. The guide keeps all of it beside the scale while you mix.

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Pottery is wonderfully unpredictable. It also carries real risk.

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.

These guides 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.

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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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