You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 07.11

The Clay Hole University · Hand Building

Imprinting TexturesPrintable pottery guide

The oldest texture there is: lay something on soft clay, roll it in, peel it off. Three things nobody tells you decide whether you get a crisp leaf or a smear.

$7.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 26 printable pages
  • 5 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 Imprinting Textures printable guide?

It is a printable workbook edition of The Clay Hole University’s free “Imprinting Textures” lesson. Lay something on soft clay, roll it in, peel it off. People have been doing it for as long as there has been clay, it is the easiest texture there is, and it is the one people are most disappointed by, because the difference between a crisp leaf and a smear is three things nobody mentions: how soft the slab is, which side of the leaf goes down, and how you lift it. The guide takes the whole thing in order, with a tick list at every step: rolling the slab thicker than feels right, picking the object and turning it the right way, rolling and lifting, then shaping, drying and glazing something whose surface is the point. On paper it adds a log of ten objects and what each one printed like, the whole technique on one page, a printed quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Imprinting Textures” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 26printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 5hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

A bag of leaves beats most things you can buy

This is the cheapest technique in pottery and the one with the widest gap between a good result and a bad one. The same leaf, on the same clay, gives you a crisp print or a gray smear depending on three decisions you make in about four seconds, and none of them is obvious from watching.

So the guide is built around those decisions rather than around the idea. Which things print crisp, which burn away in the kiln, and which stick and lock in. How thick the slab has to start, because a quarter inch slab with a rope pressed into it is an eighth of an inch under the rope. Why you move the board and not the slab once it is textured.

Then there is the part that decides how it looks at the end. A carved surface is full of ridges and valleys, which is exactly the condition where a glaze stops being a flat color, and three coats of an opaque will bury an evening’s work. That is a line worth having in front of you at the glaze bucket rather than in a tab.

Look inside

Real pages, for a table and a bag of leaves

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

  • Page 5 of the “Imprinting Textures” printable guide: the five minute version, shown with the sample watermark
    The five minute versionThe whole technique up front, so you can start tonight and read the detail as you go.
  • Page 7 of the “Imprinting Textures” printable guide: pick the object and turn it the right way, shown with the sample watermark
    Pick the object and turn it the right wayWhat prints crisp, what the kiln removes, and what locks in and will not come out.
  • Page 13 of the “Imprinting Textures” printable guide: six ways it goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    Six ways it goes wrongEach one with what actually caused it, which means each one is something you can stop doing.
  • Page 10 of the “Imprinting Textures” printable guide: ten objects, and what each one printed like, shown with the sample watermark
    Ten objects, and what each one printed likeOne line per object: what it was, how soft the slab was, and how the print actually came out.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

You have a rolling pin in one hand and a leaf in the other

This is a table, a slab and a bag of found objects, and the things that decide the result are a thickness, a direction and a way of lifting.

  • Three lists you will actually use

    What prints crisp, what burns away, what sticks. Printed, so you can hold something up against them before you commit a slab.

  • The thickness, with the reason

    A quarter inch slab with a rope pressed into it is an eighth of an inch under the rope. Roll thicker than feels right, and the page says how much thicker.

  • A tick list at every step

    Put the page down, do the thing, pick it back up, with clay on both hands. That is how this work actually goes.

  • Ten objects, logged

    Half of learning this is finding out what your own things do. A line per object turns a bag of junk into a tool kit you know.

How the guide is built

Built for a table and a bag of found objects

Every guide in the series is designed as a workbook first and a document second. For this one, that means:

  • A learning dashboard before page one

    What you will learn, what is on the table, the mistakes that get made first, and what a slab at the right softness feels like.

  • The whole technique in a five minute version, up front

    Before any of the detail, so you can start tonight and read the rest as you go.

  • Three lists of objects, with verdicts

    What prints crisp, what the kiln removes and what locks in, each with the reason, so you can judge something we never thought of.

  • Four steps in full, with tick lists

    The slab, the object, rolling and lifting, then shaping and glazing, as things to work through rather than paragraphs to re-read.

  • Videos you can reach from a printed page

    Five videos, each with a note on why it is worth your time and a code that goes straight to it.

  • Plain words for the jargon

    A sixteen term glossary, written the way we would explain it sitting across the table from you.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Imprinting Textures” lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no catch.

There is no faster way in this building to make a slab look like it was made by somebody who knew what they were doing, and the whole tool kit is a leaf. Something that cheap to learn has no business being behind a paywall, so the lesson stays free.

The University is free and stays free. The guides are the version rebuilt for paper with an unreasonable amount of care, and buying one keeps the free side going.

Thank you. Genuinely.

Dan Pearce, founder of The Clay Hole
Collect them

Build a little pottery library

Every guide carries a permanent number. This one is 07.11, in the hand building section, alongside pinching, coiling and slab work. The number never changes and never gets reused, so a shelf of them stays in order.

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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Where this leads

What to make once the leaf prints clean

These lessons pick up where this one leaves off. Each one is free to read now.

Good questions

Before you buy

Is this different from the free lesson?
The teaching is the same, and the free lesson is complete. The printable adds a log of ten objects and what each one printed like, the whole technique on one page, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Do I need any equipment?
A rolling pin, a table and things you already own. The guide’s own line is that a bag of textures in your locker is a better tool kit than most things you can buy.
What can I press into clay?
The guide gives three lists with the reason behind each: what prints crisp, what the kiln removes, and what locks in and will not come out. That way you can judge something we never listed.
Why did my leaf come out as a smear?
Almost always one of three things: the slab was too soft, the leaf went down the wrong side up, or it was slid instead of peeled. The guide takes each one in turn.
How thick should the slab be?
Thicker than feels right, and the guide gives the figure with the arithmetic. The impression takes clay away, so a thin slab has nothing to give under the deepest part.
Can I leave the leaf in and let it burn out?
For most organic things yes, and the guide says what that leaves behind. It also names the exceptions, including shells, which do not burn out and pop a crater out of the surface later.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes, more than most. It needs a table and two hands. The page about our own clay is marked as ours, and the studio numbers carry the date they were true.
Do I need a fancy printer?
No. It is designed 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.
Can I print it in black and white?
Yes. Nothing depends on color, and we looked at the workbook pages in grayscale to be sure.
Can I use it on an iPad or laptop instead?
Yes. Every QR code in the guide is also a tappable link, so on a screen you just tap instead of scanning.
How do I get it after I buy?
Right after checkout you get a download link by email and on your order confirmation page. Each link works up to seven times.
What if the guide gets updated?
Every edition carries a version number. When we correct or improve a guide, everyone who bought it gets an email with the new edition at no charge.
Can I share it with my class or studio?
Please don’t. It is licensed for your own personal use. Anyone can read the full lesson free online, and the printable is here if they want their own copy.

Print it, and go and roll a leaf into a slab

Roll it thicker than feels right, put the underside of the leaf down, and peel rather than slide. Write down what the object was and how it came out. Ten lines later you will know exactly what your own bag of textures does.

Get the printable · $7.00

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