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The Clay Hole University · Trimming, Handles and Drying

How to Tell If Your Pottery Is Bone DryPrintable pottery guide

The checks for a dry pot, on paper: why a piece that feels dry can still be wet in the middle, eight ways to test it and where each one fools you, what a low kiln hold does that the shelf cannot, and a log for the weights of your own pieces.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 22 printable pages
  • 16-term glossary
  • 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 Tell If Your Pottery Is Bone Dry printable guide?

It is the lesson on paper: why water left in clay breaks a pot in the bisque, where in a piece that water hides longest, eight ways potters check for dryness with what each one proves and where it lies, the kiln step that catches what the shelf cannot, and the moisture meter routine from Dan. Built to be printed, kept by the drying shelf and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “How to Tell If Your Pottery Is Bone Dry” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 22printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 9QR codes, each on a short Clay Hole address
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the potter who is never quite sure

It looks dry. Is it?

Clay stops looking wet long before it stops being wet. The outside pales and hardens within days, while the thickest part of the base can still be holding water, and that water is what breaks a piece in the bisque. Every quick check reads the skin, which is exactly where a thick piece fools you.

So the guide does not hand you one test. It gives you eight, in the same three part card: what you do, why it works, and where it lies to you. It says where in a piece the water hides longest, and why the base is the place to look, never the wall.

It also gives you something the checks cannot: a page for the weight of your own pieces, day by day. When two or three weights in a row agree and the color is even, you have a reason to believe the piece is ready, and a record of how long your own work takes.

Look inside

Real pages, for a shelf of drying pots

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

  • Page 3 of the “How to Tell If Your Pottery Is Bone Dry” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you touch a piece: what you will learn, what to have by the shelf, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, and what a good result looks like.
  • Page 4 of the “How to Tell If Your Pottery Is Bone Dry” printable guide: what actually breaks a pot, shown with the sample watermark
    What actually breaks a potThe first section: the facts about water and steam that every check later in the guide comes back to, with a note pointing at the lesson that checks the myth about trapped air.
  • Page 10 of the “How to Tell If Your Pottery Is Bone Dry” printable guide: the moisture meter routine, shown with the sample watermark
    The moisture meter routineDan’s shortcut, step by step, with a photograph of the meter: which setting to use, where to put the pins, and the threshold he settled on.
  • Page 15 of the “How to Tell If Your Pottery Is Bone Dry” printable guide: every piece, and when it was ready, shown with the sample watermark
    Every piece, and when it was readyA log to write in: the thickest part of each piece, its weight on three days and the day it passed. A few pieces in, you will know how long your own work takes.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A weight is something you write down

Checking for dryness happens at a shelf, with clay on your hands and no screen. Paper suits that.

  • The eight checks, laid out

    Every check has the same card: what you do, why it works and where it lies to you. A table after the cards puts how common each one is beside what it really proves.

  • It stays by the shelf

    A page stays where you put it. It does not lock its screen, and it does not mind a damp hand.

  • A log for weights

    Columns for the thickest part, three days of weights and the day the piece passed. A few weeks of entries tell you more than any single check.

  • One page to keep

    What to check, where each check lies, where the water hides and what to do when you are not sure fit on a single sheet. It pins up next to the shelf.

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.

  • Checked against our other lessons

    We read the free lesson against our lessons on firing, loading and drying. Where it said nothing about a bisque firing is dangerous to a dry pot, the guide now says it is the water that is the danger you can remove.

  • A candling rule with a source

    The lesson gave a rule of thumb for how long to hold a kiln low, with examples that disagreed with it. The guide says several hours and longer for thick work, and leaves the clock to the mirror.

  • Which steps are yours

    At The Clay Hole, staff load and unload every kiln. The guide says whose job the mirror test and the candling steps are, so you can tell the part that is yours from the part that is not.

  • A safety line on the tongue test

    One of the eight checks is to touch your tongue to bare clay. The guide adds speckled clay bodies to what to keep off it, and a rinse afterward.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    A short quiz, and an answer key that gives the reason behind every answer rather than only the letter.

  • 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 “How to Tell If Your Pottery Is Bone Dry” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Nearly all of them read the outside of the piece, and the outside is the part that dries first and tells you the least.

Whatever you use, use it on the thickest part of the piece, and remember that it only narrows the odds.

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 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, a log to write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Is this only for people who work at The Clay Hole?
No. The checks suit any studio, wherever it is. Where a rule is only ours, such as staff loading every kiln, the guide says so, so you can tell which line is a Clay Hole rule and which is a fact of the craft.
Do I need a moisture meter?
No. The guide lists one as optional. Color, the cheek test and weighing on a gram scale cost little or nothing, and the meter is there for people who want a number to watch.
Do I need to run my own kiln?
No. The mirror test and the candling steps are for whoever runs a kiln. Everything else in the guide is about the piece on the shelf, which is the part every maker controls.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Beginner. You need nothing but your hands and some patience to start, and the guide adds the checks that catch what your hands miss.
What do I need besides clay?
A gram scale and a tag and pen for each piece’s weight and date. A moisture meter is optional. The guide lists it all on the dashboard.
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. Nothing in it depends on color to make sense: 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 weights log are the two worth having by the shelf. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
Can I read it on a screen instead?
Yes. It is an ordinary PDF and it reads fine on a tablet or a phone. The workbook pages are the ones that want paper, because you write on them.
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 beside the shelf 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.

Test the base, then wait a little longer

Look at the thickest part of the piece, look for one even color, weigh it twice, and wait when you are not sure. The guide keeps the eight checks and their blind spots in front of you at the shelf.

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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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