You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 08.16

The Clay Hole University · Project Guides

Lidded Jars with a GalleryPrintable pottery guide

The whole lidded jar, in the order you make it: the rim you leave heavy on purpose, the ledge you cut in it, the number you measure before the pot leaves the wheel, and the ten days after that decide whether the lid still fits.

$10.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Advanced
  • 33 printable pages
  • 6 video picks
  • 6-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 Lidded Jars with a Gallery printable guide?

It is the lidded jar on paper: what a gallery is and why it can only be cut while the pot is wet and turning, how to size the opening, starting weights for four common jars, the eight throwing steps, three ways to cut the ledge, how to measure the collar with calipers, the lid in seven steps, three kinds of knob, trimming the lid on its own jar, and how to keep the pair together through drying, bisque and glaze. Built to be printed, written in and kept by the wheel across the three visits a jar takes.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Lidded Jars with a Gallery” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 33printable pages, US Letter
  • 6quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 6hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 21glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the pot that has to agree with something

The ledge takes a few minutes. The fit takes ten days

A mug is finished when you say it is. A jar with a lid is not, because the lid is a second pot that has to match the first one exactly, after both of them have dried, been fired and shrunk. Most of the throwing is throwing you already know.

What is new is the order. The gallery is cut from clay you left behind on purpose while the pot was still spinning, so it cannot be added later. The number that decides whether the lid fits is taken with calipers before the pot comes off the wheel. And then the jar and its lid have to get through a week of drying together, which is a stretch nobody films.

That order is what this guide is for. It puts the decisions where you will be standing when you make them, and it gives the waiting a list to come back to.

Look inside

Real pages, for a bench with calipers on it

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

  • Page 3 of the “Lidded Jars with a Gallery” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginSix boxes on one page: what you will learn, what to have on the bench, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, what success looks like and how to practice. Read it before you throw and again before you glaze.
  • Page 4 of the “Lidded Jars with a Gallery” printable guide: the anatomy of a gallery, shown with the sample watermark
    The anatomy of a galleryThe jar cut in half, with seven numbered parts and the key beside the drawing rather than a page away from it. It is the picture to keep in your head while you cut the ledge.
  • Page 6 of the “Lidded Jars with a Gallery” printable guide: two questions decide the pot, shown with the sample watermark
    Two questions decide the potWill the jar ever be carried with the lid on, and can what goes in it get back out? Two boxes, two answers, and the shape of the pot is chosen before any clay is weighed.
  • Page 26 of the “Lidded Jars with a Gallery” printable guide: every jar, and the number you measured, shown with the sample watermark
    Every jar, and the number you measuredA log to write in: the clay you used for the body and the lid, the number you took at the collar, how many days it took to dry and what actually happened. Two rows in and the second jar starts from a number instead of a memory.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

You will be reading it with slip on your hands

A lidded jar is made in short bursts at the wheel with days of waiting between them. Paper suits both.

  • It holds still

    A page stays where you left it while you cut a ledge with both hands, and it does not time out or need slip wiped off the screen.

  • Ten days in the middle

    The fit is settled somewhere in the week and a half after you wire the lid off, with nobody watching. A list to come back to beats a video you would have to rewatch to find the one line about the plastic.

  • A number to write down

    The measurement that matters is taken with calipers, at one place, while the pot is wet. The guide has a page for it, beside how long the pair took to dry.

  • It stays by the bench

    The plan across three visits belongs next to the wheel, and the one page summary belongs above the drying shelf, because that is where the question actually gets asked.

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.

  • The table, run again

    The lid is roughly a quarter of the body in every row of the jar table, as the text says. We recomputed each one before it went in.

  • Sanded wet, every time

    The lesson told you to smooth a high spot on bisque dry. The guide says wet sandpaper or a wet sanding sponge, never dry, because dry sanding bisque puts silica dust in the air. The free lesson has been corrected too.

  • The kiln rule, put back

    The glazing list now says what the studio has always said: a kiln cookie or a glaze catcher goes under the pair, every time, with no exceptions.

  • A food jar, done properly

    Sugar, coffee and cookie jars hold food, so the guide says the glaze inside has to be one its maker rates for that, and points you to the studio’s food safe glaze lookup.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    Six questions, 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 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 “Lidded Jars with a Gallery” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Most of what I teach at the wheel is about feel. This is the one job where I would ask you to trust a number over your hands.

The jar and its lid have to get through a week of drying as a pair, then two firings, and the only thing you can do about any of it is be dull and consistent.

When they come out of the kiln, bring the good ones and the bad ones. The bad ones are more use to me.

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, or every printable we sell on one page.

  • 5guides in your cart1 on us
  • 9guides in your cart2 on us
Sits next to

Three guides 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 cross-section with its key beside it, numbered steps for the jar and the lid, a plan for the three visits with a tick box for every item, a jar 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. This is a wheel guide: the jar, the lid and the closed form route are all thrown. The ledge is cut with your fingers or a small tool while the pot is still spinning, which is the reason it cannot be added later.
Do I need calipers?
The measuring depends on them. You read the inside face of the collar with one pair, write the number down and check the lid against it. The guide explains how to read them, and the lids lesson it points to covers what to do if you only own a single ended pair.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Advanced, and not because anything in it is a new hand skill. The decision that matters is made in wet clay in the first few minutes and cannot be revisited, and two pieces have to agree with each other across drying and two firings. If you can throw a cylinder, belly it out and collar the top in, you have the hands for it, and the guide suggests planning on the first two being practice.
Can I use it for a jar that holds food?
The guide tells you to glaze the inside of the jar and the lid, and to use a glaze its maker rates for ware that holds food. It points you to The Clay Hole’s food safe glaze lookup to find which ones those are. The glaze is what decides whether a jar is fit for food, so the guide does not promise it for you.
Will it work with my kiln?
The teaching about the ledge, the measuring and the drying does not depend on your kiln. The firing numbers are given as ours and dated: cone 05 for the bisque and cone 5½ for the glaze, meaning cone 5 with a twelve minute hold. Check them against what you fire to.
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 tables and the tick boxes are black on white, and the pages that matter most at the wheel, the plan and the one page summary, read the same without color.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The plan, the one page summary and the jar log are the three 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.

Cut the ledge in the first few minutes. Then be dull for ten days

Leave the rim heavy, take the number before the pot comes off the wheel, and keep the pair together from the moment you wire the lid off. Do those three and the rest is throwing you already know. Skip any of them and no amount of skill later will make the lid fit, which is why this one is worth reading before you start rather than after the first one rocks.

Get the guide · $10.00

The Clay Hole University Printable Guide Terms

Licensing, safety, digital delivery, and refund terms for printable guides and paper templates

Your copy is yours. The work behind it is not.

These terms cover every printable guide and every paper template from The Clay Hole. In this section, "product" means the guide or template you bought, including its PDF file and everything in it. The rules below apply to both. Paper templates add one permission, in the next section, and nothing else in that section loosens anything here.

Your purchase gives one individual purchaser a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for personal use only. You may download the product 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 product 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 product, or any substantial portion of it, to another person. That includes passing it on as a photo, scan, screenshot, tracing, printout, or recreation. 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 product, including patterns, outlines, or designs based on it.

Purchasing the product does not transfer ownership of its copyrighted text, photographs, illustrations, graphics, designs, patterns, shapes, 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 and templates, while ideas, methods, techniques, and processes may have different legal treatment.

If you would like to use one of our guides or templates 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.

Paper templates: make them, sell what you make

Everything in the section above applies to paper templates in full, including the template file, its patterns, and its design. This section adds one permission, and the credit that goes with it. It is the only exception to the personal-use rule above.

If you buy a paper template, you may use it to make ceramic pieces, and you may sell those pieces, in person or online. That permission belongs to the purchaser, and it covers the ceramic pieces only. It does not cover the template, its patterns, or any copy or version of them, which may not be shared, sold, or passed on in any form.

You may not claim that you created the design. The design of each paper template, including its shapes, proportions, patterns, and layout, was created by Dan Pearce. That stays true no matter how many pieces you make or sell. Do not describe the design as your own, and do not sell it as your own design.

Your final creative choices are yours. The glazes, colors, surface decoration, carving, texture, and any changes you make to the form belong to your finished piece, and you may claim them as your own work. The structural credit for the design stays with Dan Pearce.

Credit is required for pieces sold online. If you sell online a piece made from an Advanced, Expert, Insane, or Legendary template, your listing must credit Dan Pearce as the designer of the template and link to theclayhole.com. For example: Made from a paper template designed by Dan Pearce, https://theclayhole.com. Pieces made from Beginner and Intermediate templates do not need the credit, but you still may not claim the design as your own.

Templates marked NEW

Every paper template starts out marked NEW, as part of the New Pattern Program. NEW means nobody has built that template in clay yet. It does not mean the template is unfinished. Every template is audited at least three times for accuracy and is drawn to work as designed. The NEW mark comes off once someone builds the template and it checks out.

When you buy, claim, or download a template marked NEW, or a bundle, package, or collection that holds one, you accept that it has not been built yet, that you use it at your own discretion, and that you may need to adjust as you build if your project needs it.

A template marked NEW is covered by every one of these terms, exactly like any other template. If you find something indisputably wrong in one, the promise in "Refunds, mistakes, and making it right" below applies.

Pottery is wonderfully unpredictable. It also carries real risk.

We work hard to make The Clay Hole University and our paper templates 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 and templates 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 or template 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 or templates. 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 or template, 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 or template.

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

Digital guides and templates, 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 or template, 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 or template 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.

Refunds, mistakes, and making it right

Except where the law requires otherwise, we do not offer refunds on any paper template or printable guide. Pottery has a hundred different ways to do most things, and every guide and template shows one of them. We put real work into making each one as accurate, thorough, and finished as we can, because we want you to love what you bought. A guide or template that you would have done differently, or a piece that surprises you in the kiln, is pottery being pottery, not a problem with the file.

Mistakes happen, even in work we care about this much. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not responsible for any cost or loss that comes with an error in what we send, whether that is clay, materials, firing costs, or your time.

What we will do is fix it. If you find something that is indisputably wrong in a guide or template (an actual error, not a different way of doing it), contact us and we will correct it within a week and upload the new document so you can download it.

Custom step illustrations from Clayla have one more promise. It is rare for an illustration not to work, but Clayla does not get every drawing right. If you buy one and it misses, text us the illustration and we will be happy to refund it.

Terms version 2026-11-15