You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 10.01

The Clay Hole University · Surface and Decoration

How to Use UnderglazePrintable pottery guide

Underglaze on paper: what it is for, the house rules that keep a shared shelf open, eighteen techniques with a verdict on each, how to brush it on without streaks, the firing order, and a log for what your own colors do.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 30 printable pages
  • 14-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 Use Underglaze printable guide?

It is the free lesson rebuilt for paper: what underglaze is and why it is for drawing, the seven house rules and the reason behind each, the two brands and who can reach them, eighteen techniques with a verdict on each, how to brush it on, the firing order, and the seven ways it comes out wrong. Built to be printed, kept beside the glaze wall and written in.

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

  • 30printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 7QR codes, each on a short Clay Hole address
  • 14glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone standing in front of a wall of colored bottles

The bottle looks like paint. It is not.

Most trouble with underglaze starts in the first minute. The color is clay, made to stay exactly where you put it, so it holds a drawn line better than anything else on the shelf and does a slow, costly job of covering a whole pot. A glaze does that in one coat.

The guide puts the whole picture in one place: what it is for, which brands and Levels can reach it, eighteen techniques with a verdict on each, how to put it on so the brush marks fill in, the firing order that keeps it clean, and what to do when it comes out pale, peeling or chipped.

It also gives you the thing a bottle cannot: a page to write on. The technique, the color, the coats, the stage of the clay, the clear you used and how it fired. After a few pieces you will know what your own colors do.

Look inside

Real pages, for a glaze wall

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

  • Page 3 of the “How to Use Underglaze” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you pick up a brush: what you will learn, what to have with you, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, and what a good result looks like.
  • Page 7 of the “How to Use Underglaze” printable guide: brands and levels, shown with the sample watermark
    Brands and levelsThe two brands, which Level opens each, and what to do instead when your Level does not open it yet.
  • Page 9 of the “How to Use Underglaze” printable guide: eighteen techniques, shown with the sample watermark
    Eighteen techniquesEvery technique gets a verdict on its card, how it goes right, and where the first mistake usually happens. This page opens with sgraffito and mishima.
  • Page 23 of the “How to Use Underglaze” printable guide: every piece, and how the color came out, shown with the sample watermark
    Every piece, and how the color came outA log to write in: the technique, the color and brand, the coats and the clay stage, the clear on top and how it fired.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

Rules and a log are things you keep beside you

Underglaze work happens at a table with color on your hands. Paper suits that.

  • The rules where you can see them

    Where it goes, how it goes on and what to do when it goes wrong sit on one page you can pin up beside the wall.

  • A verdict on every technique

    Each of the eighteen cards says go for it, small pieces only, or ask first, so you can tell at a glance what needs a question before you start.

  • A log for your own colors

    Columns for the technique, the color and brand, the coats and clay stage, the clear glaze and how it fired. A few pieces of notes beat a memory of what you did.

  • It does not mind a wet hand

    A page stays where you put it. It does not lock its screen while you are holding a brush.

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 the studio’s own rules

    We checked the lesson against The Clay Hole’s glaze and underglaze certification, the glaze index and the Food Safe Lookup. Where the lesson was silent or out of step, the guide now says what those pages say.

  • A more careful food safety sentence

    The lesson said a clear glaze is what makes a mug food safe. Not every clear is rated for food, so the guide says to check the one you pick.

  • A safer way to scrape

    The mishima card now says to scrape while the pot is still leather hard, so you get curls and not silica dust.

  • Numbered rules and a drawn key

    The seven rules are numbered, so the line that says read rule two points at something, and the three layer cross section comes with its own key.

  • 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 Use Underglaze” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

So the rules in this guide are not there to say no. Each one protects something a lot of members share, and each one comes with its reason.

If you want to try something this guide does not cover, ask an instructor first.

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

  • 5guides in your cart1 on us
  • 9guides in your cart2 on us
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 techniques and the fixes suit any studio, wherever it is. Where a rule is only ours, such as which Level opens which brand or the free certification, the guide says so, so you can tell which line is a Clay Hole rule and which is a fact of the craft.
Which underglazes does it cover?
The rules name Speedball and Amaco Velvet, because those are the two lines The Clay Hole stocks and fires. The techniques and the fixes apply to underglaze in general.
Do I have to be a member to use it?
You do not need to be a member to read it or to try the techniques at home. If you use The Clay Hole’s shelf, the guide explains the Level and the free certification that come first.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Beginner. You need to have made a piece in clay and to know roughly what leather hard and bone dry mean. The glossary fills in the rest.
What do I need besides underglaze?
Soft brushes, a cup, a scrap slab to practice on, and a clear glaze for anything you eat or drink from. The dashboard lists it all.
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 log are the two worth having beside the wall. 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 and beside the wall 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.

Draw with it, ask before you cover a pot

Keep the rules where you can see them, put it on in thin coats, and let it go through the bisque before any glaze touches it. The guide keeps the whole routine in front of you at the wall.

Get the guide · $5.00

The Clay Hole University Printable Guide Terms

Licensing, safety, digital delivery, and refund terms

Your copy is yours. The guide is not.

Your purchase gives one individual purchaser a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for personal use only. You may download the guide to your own devices, print copies for your own use, write all over them, spill clay water on them, replace a coffee-damaged copy, and generally use the heck out of what you bought.

What you may not do is distribute the guide to anyone else, whether you charge for it or not.

That means you may not share, forward, email, upload, post, publish, copy, reproduce, resell, sublicense, redistribute, or otherwise provide the guide, or any substantial portion of it, to another person. You may not place it in a shared drive, group chat, membership library, online community, file-sharing service, studio resource folder, classroom packet, employee handbook, course, workshop, or other shared collection. You may not make copies for students, members, employees, friends, classes, studios, schools, groups, or organizations.

You may not remove or obscure copyright notices, watermarks, attribution, or other ownership information, or sell, republish, or commercially exploit modified or derivative versions of the guide.

Purchasing the guide does not transfer ownership of its copyrighted text, photographs, illustrations, graphics, layouts, worksheets, or other original content. Those rights remain with The Clay Hole and their respective rights holders. Copyright law protects the expression contained in these guides, while ideas, methods, techniques, and processes may have different legal treatment.

If you would like to use one of our guides with a class, studio, school, team, or other group, contact The Clay Hole about permission or group licensing. Please do not make twenty copies and call it manifesting.

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.

You are responsible for determining whether any technique, material, combination, firing schedule, tool, or process described in a guide is appropriate and safe for your specific circumstances before using it.

Use appropriate protective equipment. Use adequate ventilation and dust control. Read manufacturer instructions and Safety Data Sheets. Follow your studio’s rules. Obtain qualified instruction when a process or piece of equipment requires it. Test materials and techniques before committing important work to them. If you do not understand how to perform something safely, do not proceed until you do.

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.

Ceramics also refuses to sign contracts promising beautiful results. Colors change. Glazes move. Kilns have opinions. Pots crack. Materials interact unexpectedly. Manufacturers reformulate products. Equipment behaves differently. The Clay Hole does not guarantee any particular aesthetic, functional, firing, glazing, structural, or other result.

By choosing to use the information in a guide, you accept responsibility for your own materials, equipment, workspace, safety decisions, testing, methods, and results. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, The Clay Hole and its owners, employees, contributors, and affiliates are not responsible for injury, illness, property damage, lost work, failed projects, kiln or equipment damage, financial loss, or other loss arising from or related to your use of, or reliance upon, the guide.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any right or liability that applicable law does not allow us to exclude or limit.

Digital guides, immediate delivery, and refunds

These are digital products delivered electronically and made available for use immediately after purchase. Unlike a physical book, a downloaded digital file cannot meaningfully be returned to us once it has been delivered.

By completing your purchase and requesting immediate access to the guide, you consent to digital delivery beginning immediately. Where applicable law provides a cancellation or withdrawal period for digital content, you acknowledge that beginning the download, access, or delivery of the digital content may cause that cancellation or withdrawal right to end.

Once access to or delivery of the purchased digital guide has begun, the purchase is final and non-refundable except where a refund, replacement, cancellation, or other remedy is required by applicable law.

If the file you receive is corrupted, inaccessible, materially different from what was described, or there is a genuine technical problem with delivery, please contact us. We would much rather fix the problem than leave you staring angrily at a PDF that refuses to PDF.

Terms version 2026-09-19b