You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 07.19

The Clay Hole University · Hand Building

Turning a Paper Pattern into a Three-Dimensional PotPrintable pottery guide

Designing your own slab pottery, on paper: a sketch at full size, a card stock mockup, a clay prototype and a template you trust, with the arithmetic for seams, fans and shrinkage and a log for every prototype you build.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 29 printable pages
  • 4 video picks
  • 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 Turning a Paper Pattern into a Three-Dimensional Pot printable guide?

It is the free “Turning a Paper Pattern into a Three-Dimensional Pot” lesson rebuilt for paper: how any form you can sketch breaks into flat pieces, why a tapered wall is cut as a fan and three ways to draw one, the measurements wall thickness changes, the paper mockup, planning the finished size for your clay’s shrinkage, curves paper cannot make, bases and feet, the clay prototype, and a template that survives wet clay. Built to be printed, kept beside the table and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Turning a Paper Pattern into a Three-Dimensional Pot” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 29printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 4hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 17glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone ready to stop following somebody else’s pattern

Paper agrees with everything. Clay does not.

A supplied pattern holds decisions somebody else made: the size, the slab thickness, the clay it was meant for and how much that clay shrinks. When those match yours, it works. When they do not, the piece comes out small, the seam will not close, or the rim refuses to sit level, and the pattern never says why.

This guide is the route to making those decisions yourself. A full-size sketch fixes the numbers. A taped card stock model tests the shape for the price of a sheet of paper. A clay prototype shows what paper cannot: slump, seams and the real fired size. The template keeps the answers.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: a log for every prototype and a one page reference that sits beside the slab. Write down the clay, the thickness, the shrinkage you scaled by and the size it came out, change one thing, and the next one comes out closer to the drawing.

Look inside

Real pages, ready for the table

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

  • Page 3 of the “Turning a Paper Pattern into a Three-Dimensional Pot” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before the first sketch: what you will learn, what you will need, what is worth knowing first, the common pitfalls and what success looks like.
  • Page 4 of the “Turning a Paper Pattern into a Three-Dimensional Pot” printable guide: four stages, each a cheaper test of the next, shown with the sample watermark
    Four stages, each a cheaper test of the nextThe opening of the guide and the method behind it: why a supplied pattern is somebody else’s decisions, and what the sketch, the paper, the clay and the template each test.
  • Page 19 of the “Turning a Paper Pattern into a Three-Dimensional Pot” printable guide: reading a prototype, shown with the sample watermark
    Reading a prototypeThree of the six failure cards, from sagging walls to a cracked floor, then the first of the questions that come up at the table.
  • Page 22 of the “Turning a Paper Pattern into a Three-Dimensional Pot” printable guide: every prototype, and what it taught you, shown with the sample watermark
    Every prototype, and what it taught youA log for every prototype you build: the clay and thickness, the shrinkage you scaled by, the fired size and the one change for next time, with two questions to answer after a few.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A page that lives beside the slab

Most of this guide is used at a table with a ruler, a pencil and clay on your hands. Paper goes there with you, and so does the pattern you are drawing.

  • The arithmetic at a glance

    Two tables: the print setting for each shrinkage our clays come in, and how to size a cylinder wall, a box, walls on a base and the fan for a tapered wall, each with a worked example.

  • The fan, three ways

    Roll it in paper with no numbers at all, draw it from your full-size profile with a string and a pencil, or let a free generator print it to scale.

  • A log for your own prototypes

    Columns for the clay, the thickness, the scale-up and the fired size. A few rows in, you know your clay’s real shrinkage instead of the maker’s average.

  • It does not mind clay

    A page can sit on the table next to a wet slab and a pattern half traced, and it never locks its screen while your hands are full.

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 our other lessons

    We checked it against our slab mug, joining, leather hard, slab roller, lidded box, drying and design lessons, so the guide says what those pages say about the same seam, slab and floor.

  • Checked at the source

    The template methods were read in the Ceramics Monthly and Pottery Making Illustrated articles they come from, and the way to measure your own shrinkage follows Digitalfire’s published shrinkage test.

  • The arithmetic, done by hand

    Every worked example was recomputed: the fan’s two radii and its angle, the cylinder wall, the box walls and each print setting, so the numbers agree with each other and with our calculators.

  • Written for a reader in any studio

    The lines about our own studio are written so they make sense to a potter designing at any table, at home or anywhere else.

  • Video notes that claim no more than the videos

    Each video note was written from the video’s own title and description, so it promises only what the video says it covers.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a page moves, we point the address at its new home 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 “Turning a Paper Pattern into a Three-Dimensional Pot” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

A supplied pattern is a set of answers somebody else worked out for their clay, their slab and their kiln. It is a fine place to start. It is a strange place to stay.

Start with something simple, a tapered cup or a five-sided box, and take it all the way round once. Then make the thing you actually had in mind.

Dan Pearce, founder of The Clay Hole
The series

Build a little pottery library

Each printable guide in The Clay Hole University series is one free lesson rebuilt for paper, with workbook pages, a glossary and a quiz whose answer key explains every answer. Its number never changes, so the guide you print this year sits in the same place in the series 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 the paper 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 arithmetic in two tables, a prototype log, a one page reference, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Do I need to be good at math?
No. One of the three ways to draw a fan needs no numbers at all, and a free generator can draw it for you. The arithmetic is there for checking a pattern, with every example worked through.
Do I need any special tools?
No. Card stock or tagboard, a ruler, tape, a pencil, string and scissors for the paper stages, and the slab tools you already use for the clay. The guide says what each one is for.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Intermediate. It assumes you can roll a slab and make a scored and slipped join, and the guide points to our free lessons on both if you cannot yet. It needs no drawing skill.
Do I need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it?
No. It works at any table, at home or in any studio. The few lines about our own studio, like the clays we stock and the certification for our slab rollers, are written so they make sense to a potter anywhere.
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 and the tables are black on white, so they print clearly in grey. Color is used for headings, small labels and the step numbers.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes. The prototype log, the one page reference and the two arithmetic tables are the pages most worth keeping beside the table. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and read 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 before your next session.
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.

Sketch, paper, clay, template

Draw it at full size, test it in paper, learn from it in clay, and keep what you learned on a template that lasts. The guide keeps all four in front of you at the table.

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