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The Clay Hole University · Trimming, Handles and Drying

How to Trim and Turn PotteryPrintable pottery guide

Everything between a firm pot and a finished foot: the three tests for when it is ready, the few tools worth owning, fourteen steps in order, and what to do when the tool skips or the base cracks.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 32 printable pages
  • 9 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 Trim and Turn Pottery printable guide?

It is the trimming session on paper: how to tell when a pot is ready, the tools worth owning, how to center an upside-down pot and lock it down, fourteen numbered steps from a dry wheel head to a signed foot, what a foot ring is for, and eighteen answers for when it goes wrong. Built to be printed, kept by the wheel and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “How to Trim and Turn Pottery” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 32printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 9hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 26glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the pot that is finally firm enough

Most of trimming happens before the tool touches the pot

A pot goes back on the wheel upside down and you cut away the clay it did not need. The cutting takes a few minutes. Everything that decides whether it goes well is settled before the first cut: how firm the pot is, how it is centered, and how thick the floor is when you measure it.

That is why this one earns its place on paper. The three moisture tests, the needle measurement and the five turn check are things you want in front of you with clay on your hands, not paused on a video at the wrong second.

The guide sets out the fourteen steps in order, with the reason behind each, and then eighteen answers for the things that go wrong: the tool that skips, the pot that leaves the wheel, the S shaped crack that turns up weeks later.

Look inside

Real pages, for a wheel with a pot upside down on it

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

  • Page 3 of the “How to Trim and Turn Pottery” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you touch clay: what you will learn, what to have at the wheel, what is worth knowing, the pitfalls, and what a good trim looks like.
  • Page 13 of the “How to Trim and Turn Pottery” printable guide: the foot, and what it is for, shown with the sample watermark
    The foot, and what it is forA labeled cross section with its key beside it: the ring, the hollow, the floor, the outside line and the wall, then four bottoms that are all fine.
  • Page 18 of the “How to Trim and Turn Pottery” printable guide: eighteen things that go wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    Eighteen things that go wrongSymptoms in the order they show up in a session, each with what caused it and what to do about it. The first four are here, and almost none of the causes is that you are bad at this.
  • Page 24 of the “How to Trim and Turn Pottery” printable guide: every pot you trim, and what its floor told you, shown with the sample watermark
    Every pot you trim, and what its floor told youA log to write in: the shape, how firm it was, the floor, the foot and what happened. By the fifth row you have numbers of your own.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A floor you measured is a floor you remember

Trimming is a run of small decisions made with a tool in one hand and a pot spinning under it. Paper suits that.

  • The tests sit beside the steps

    The cheek, fingernail and lift tests are on the same pages as the steps that depend on them, so you check the pot before you check the tool.

  • It holds still

    A page stays where you left it while both hands are braced against the wheel pan. It does not time out, and clay does not care about it.

  • A number to write down

    The log has a column for how firm the pot was and one for the floor. The tenth pot starts from measurements instead of a hunch.

  • One page for the wheel

    The one page summary has the three tests, all fourteen steps in order and the numbers that matter. It is the sheet to have by the wheel when your hands are muddy.

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.

  • Numbered, not just listed

    The lesson’s fourteen steps are a tick list on a phone. On paper they are numbered, so an answer that says you skipped step three points at something you can find.

  • A drying answer that agrees with our drying lesson

    To hold the trimming window the guide says a bag with a little air left in and no gaps, which is the setting the studio’s own drying lesson gives, and not a bag laid loosely over the top.

  • The kiln cookie, put back

    A flat bottom still fires on a kiln cookie or glaze catcher, like every other piece at The Clay Hole. The guide says so where the lesson had the bare bottom on the shelf.

  • A burnish warning

    A burnished shine does not come through a bisque and glaze firing. The guide says so in the card that suggests one, and points at terra sigillata.

  • Written for any studio

    Our tools, our wheels and our membership levels are named as The Clay Hole’s and dated, so a reader working somewhere else knows which parts are ours and which are a rule of the craft.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a video 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 Trim and Turn Pottery” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Is it cool against your cheek? Does a fingernail leave a clean dent? It takes ten seconds.

The bottom of a pot is where your throwing tells the truth.

You will feel the difference before you can explain it.

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, the fourteen steps numbered, a log to write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Do I need a wheel?
Yes. Trimming here means putting a leather hard pot upside down on the wheel and cutting the foot. Hand built pieces are finished a different way, and the guide only touches on them.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Intermediate. The cutting is not the hard part. You need a pot you threw well enough to trim, clay at the right firmness and a tool sharp enough to take a ribbon, and the guide is mostly about the first two. If you can center and throw a mug, you are ready.
What do I need besides clay?
A wheel, one sharp loop tool, a needle tool for measuring the floor, three or four small lumps of soft clay to hold the pot down, and a damp sponge or a chamois. A foam bat, a chuck or a chum helps with anything soft, narrow or delicate at the rim. The dashboard lists it all.
Do I need a Giffin Grip?
No. The guide teaches the coil method first, on purpose, and the fact check section says why. A grip is a convenience for repetition and worth having later.
Will it work in a humid climate?
Yes. The three moisture tests work anywhere, because they read the pot and not the air. The guide says plainly that the studio is dry, which narrows the window, and points at a lesson on dry and damp climates for the rest.
Does it cover trimming while you throw?
It points at it. Finishing the foot while the pot is still soft is a different route with its own lesson, and the guide’s Keep going page sends you there.
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. It is designed to stay readable in grayscale, and the pages that matter most at the wheel, the fourteen steps and the one page summary, were checked that way on purpose.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The one page summary and the log are the two worth having by the wheel. 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 wheel 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 pot first, and the rest is fourteen steps

Get the firmness right, measure the floor before the first cut and lock the pot down before you touch it with the tool. Do those three and the rest is a foot you already know how to cut. Skip any of them and no amount of skill with a loop tool will save it, which is why this is worth reading before the next pot is ready rather than after.

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