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The Clay Hole University · Electives

Keep Trying New Things Until One Sings to YouPrintable pottery guide

Finding your direction on paper: a map of pottery sorted by what you already like, the three-tries rule, a four week sampler with the wheel left out, and a log for every direction you try.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: All levels
  • 21 printable pages
  • 5 video picks
  • 7-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 Keep Trying New Things Until One Sings to You printable guide?

It is the free “Keep Trying New Things Until One Sings to You” lesson rebuilt for paper: why the wheel is a hard first impression, a map of directions sorted by what you already like doing, the rule that you try anything three times before you decide, a four week sampler, and the six signs that one direction is singing. Built to be printed, kept in your class bag and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Keep Trying New Things Until One Sings to You” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 21printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 5hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 10glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone who came in for the wheel and is not sure it is for them

Pottery is not one thing.

Most people walk in wanting the wheel, fight a lump of clay for three weeks and decide they are not a pottery person. Meanwhile somebody across the room is carving a slab box that would stop you in your tracks. The wheel is a wonderful tool and a hard first impression.

The guide gives you the order of things: a map of the directions, sorted by what you already enjoy, then the three-tries rule, three tries on three separate visits before you let yourself have an opinion. Then a four week sampler with the wheel left out on purpose, so the rest of the room gets a fair hearing.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: a log to write in. Which direction, the date of each try, and whether you lost track of time. A few directions in, you will know which one you think about in the car.

Look inside

Real pages, for your class bag

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

  • Page 3 of the “Keep Trying New Things Until One Sings to You” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before the first try: what you will learn, what you need, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls and what a good result looks like.
  • Page 5 of the “Keep Trying New Things Until One Sings to You” printable guide: the wheel problem, shown with the sample watermark
    The wheel problemWhy the wheel gets all the attention, and why it makes a hard first impression.
  • Page 11 of the “Keep Trying New Things Until One Sings to You” printable guide: how it works here, shown with the sample watermark
    How it works hereWhat is open to every Level, what has a short certification, and why most of the map is available the first night.
  • Page 14 of the “Keep Trying New Things Until One Sings to You” printable guide: every direction i tried, and what each try told me, shown with the sample watermark
    Every direction I tried, and what each try told meA log to write in: the direction, the date of each of three tries, and whether you lost track of time.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A map, a rule and a page to write on

Choosing a direction happens over weeks, at a table, with clay on your hands. Paper suits that.

  • The map where you can see it

    Twelve ways into pottery, sorted by what you already like, on pages you can lay on the table and circle.

  • A reason for the rule

    Three tries on three visits comes with its reason: the first try is confusion, the second is mechanics, and only the third is an opinion.

  • A log for your own tries

    Columns for the direction, the date of each try and whether you lost track of time. A few lines beat a memory of which evening was which.

  • It goes in the class bag

    A page does not lock its screen and does not need charging. It sits beside the clay and takes a smudge.

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 other lessons. Where it was out of step, the guide now says what those pages say: the slab rollers and slab molds are open to every Level after a short certification, and the underglaze wall opens with the brush-on glaze and underglaze one.

  • Studio numbers dated

    The guide gives the studio’s slab mold count and square footage as of the edition date, read from our fact sheet rather than remembered.

  • Video notes that say what the videos say

    Each of the five video notes was checked against the video’s own description and chapter list, and three were reworded so they claim no more than those show.

  • Raku told straight

    Raku runs in scheduled workshops, each with a waiver and a safety meeting in person. The guide says that, and sends you to the onsite instructor for the rest.

  • A search line for every video

    On paper a video cannot play, so each one has its title and channel to search for, and a code that opens it.

  • 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 “Keep Trying New Things Until One Sings to You” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Most people walk in wanting the wheel, fight a lump for three weeks and decide they are not a pottery person. Meanwhile someone across the room is carving a slab box you would stop and stare at.

If you want to try it with us, tell the onsite instructor what you liked doing before clay and ask where to start. We would love to see which one gets you.

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.
Do I need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it?
No. The map and the three-tries rule work at any studio. Where a line is only ours, such as what is open to every Level, the guide says so.
Is the wheel left out?
Only from the sampler, on purpose, so the rest of the room gets a fair hearing. The guide also covers what to do if the wheel turns out to be the one.
How many times should I try something?
Three, on three separate visits. The first try is confusion, the second is mechanics, and only the third is an opinion. The log has room for all three.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked for all levels. It assumes nothing, and the glossary fills in the words.
Do the videos play on paper?
No. Each video has its title and channel to search for and a code that opens it. The five videos come from other makers, and none of them is ours.
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, 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 in your class bag. 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 for your next class night.
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.

Forty directions, three tries each

Read the map, pick the one you doubt, try it three times and write it down. The guide keeps the rule and the log in front of you.

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