You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 05.15

The Clay Hole University · The Pottery Wheel

Throwing with Long FingernailsPrintable pottery guide

You do not have to cut them. Measure the overhang, learn five ways to replace a fingertip, and know which one to reach for at each part of the throw.

$3.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 35 printable pages
  • 19 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 printable edition of Throwing with Long Fingernails?

It is the free lesson of the same name, rebuilt as a workbook. It starts with the mechanism, because once you can picture what happens where the nail meets the wall you stop pressing harder and start moving the contact point instead. Then you measure your own overhang, which is the only measurement that matters, and find out what changes at an eighth of an inch, a quarter, a half and beyond. Then the five substitutions, the nine things to do before your hands are wet, and the whole throw one step at a time: centering, opening the floor, three ways to pull a wall, shaping, collaring and the rim. After that comes everything that is not the wheel, what clay does to a set and how to look after one, and seven things that go wrong with what each one means. On paper it adds a nail log, a one page card for the wheel, a quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? “Throwing with Long Fingernails” is free to read, and always will be.

  • 35printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 19hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

Nobody has to choose

People get told to cut them. It is offered as the only answer, usually by somebody who has never had to think about it, and plenty of potters quietly decide the wheel is not for them because of it.

It is not the only answer. A nail is not in the way, it is in front: the free edge reaches the clay before the pad does, and it feels nothing, so the wall goes thin exactly where you are about to stretch it hardest and the tear turns up on the next pull.

Once you know that, the whole thing becomes a swap rather than a sacrifice. Something soft, something rigid, or a different part of your own hand at each contact point. Five substitutions cover the entire throw, and this guide is mostly about which one to reach for when.

Look inside

Real pages, for propping up at the wheel

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

  • Page 5 of the “Throwing with Long Fingernails” printable guide: what a nail actually does, shown with the sample watermark
    What a nail actually doesSix parts of the mechanism, from the free edge to the rotation, and what they add up to: pressing harder does not close the gap, it drives the edge deeper.
  • Page 6 of the “Throwing with Long Fingernails” printable guide: measure your overhang, shown with the sample watermark
    Measure your overhangThe only measurement that counts, and what changes at an eighth of an inch, a quarter, a half and three quarters, plus the two second pad test on a table.
  • Page 7 of the “Throwing with Long Fingernails” printable guide: five ways to replace a fingertip, shown with the sample watermark
    Five ways to replace a fingertipThe sponge, the knuckle, the side of the finger, the rib and the tool, each with the contact point it replaces and what it is best at.
  • Page 25 of the “Throwing with Long Fingernails” printable guide: the nail log, shown with the sample watermark
    The nail logEight pots, one row each: what you put between the nail and the clay inside and out, what the wall showed afterwards, and the one thing to change next time.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

Something to look at without touching it

Deciding which substitution to reach for happens mid pot, with both hands wet and a wall going soft. A page you can glance at beats anything you have to pick up first.

  • The nail card

    The five substitutions, the list to run before the wheel turns, and the questions to ask when a pot starts going wrong, on one page.

  • A nail log

    Eight pots, one row each. Inside contact, outside contact, what the wall showed, and what you will change next time.

  • Your own measurement

    The overhang table stays useful as nails grow out and get cut back, because the advice changes with the length rather than with the person.

  • The setup list

    Nine things to do before your hands are wet, starting with soap scraped under the nails, and none of them possible once they are.

How the guide is built

Built for a swap, not a sacrifice

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 you need, the traps, and what success looks like.

  • The mechanism first

    Six things happening where the nail meets the wall, so every fix later on makes sense instead of being a rule to remember.

  • Your length, not a general answer

    Measure the overhang from where the pad stops to the tip, then read the advice for that length.

  • Five substitutions, mapped to the throw

    Centering, opening, three ways to pull a wall, shaping, collaring and the rim, with the contact point named at each one.

  • The rest of the studio, and the nails themselves

    Where long nails are an advantage off the wheel, what clay does to a set, and where care stops and a doctor starts.

  • Codes that keep working

    Nineteen videos, ten of them from potters throwing with the nails on, each on a short Clay Hole address, so a printed copy keeps working when a video moves.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

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

People get told to cut their nails as though it were the price of admission. It is not, and I am not willing to let anybody talk themselves out of the wheel over it, 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 05.15, the fifteenth guide in The Pottery Wheel. The series is designed to live together in a binder, section by section, so the craft ends up on your shelf in the order you learn it.

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
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Where this leads

The same moves, without the nails in the picture

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 nail log, a one page card for the wheel, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Do I have to cut my nails?
No. That is the whole reason the lesson exists. Every contact point a fingertip normally makes has a substitute that works, and at longer lengths the tools are genuinely better at the job than fingers were.
How long is too long?
It depends on your overhang, not on the whole nail. Measure from where the soft pad stops to the tip. At about an eighth of an inch ordinary technique still works. At a quarter you will feel it opening and pulling the inside wall. At a half, fingertips are out of the job entirely. Past three quarters everything is tool work, and the tools do it well.
Does this work with acrylics, gels and extensions?
Yes. The substitutions are about shape and hardness, not about what the nail is made of. There is a separate section on what wet studio work does to a set, how to protect one, and why the set life is shorter than usual.
What if I am a beginner?
Good. This is a beginner level guide and nothing in it is a new skill, it is a swap. Learning the sponge pull first is easier than learning the fingertip pull and then unlearning it.
Why does my wall have a spiral running up it?
Because the free edge landed before the pad did and the wheel brought the same clay past it sixty to a hundred times a minute, so the cut is a spiral rather than a scratch. The fix is not to press more carefully, it is to put something between the nail and the clay, or to roll the hand so a different part arrives first.
Is clay under my nails a problem?
The clay itself is not dangerous, and soap scraped under the nails before you start keeps most of it out. The thing to look after is the skin: leave the cuticles alone, because that seal is what keeps water and germs out of the nail fold, and skin beside a nail that goes red, puffy or tender wants a doctor rather than more balm.
Are long nails ever an advantage?
Off the wheel, often. Collaring, trimming and carving are all easier with long nails than pulling is, and the guide says where each one helps rather than pretending the whole studio is a problem.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. Nails, clay and wheels behave the same everywhere. Where something is our studio’s, such as our tool rules, our clay or our firing schedule, the guide says so and dates it.
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 check that every QR code still scans from a soft grayscale home print.
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.

Keep the nails. Move the contact point.

Print it, prop the card up at the wheel, and log your first eight pots.

Get the printable · $3.00

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