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The Clay Hole University · Trimming, Handles and Drying

Making Your Own Damp BoxPrintable pottery guide

The whole box, in the order you build it: which tub, how much plaster it really takes, how to charge the slab, and the plaster-free version for a studio shelf.

$10.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 23 printable pages
  • 5 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 Making Your Own Damp Box printable guide?

It is the damp box on paper: how to pick a tub that seals, how to work out how much plaster your tub takes by weight, how to pour the slab, charge it and cover it, and what to do on a studio shelf where plaster is not allowed. Built to be printed, ticked off in the garage and kept beside the box.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Making Your Own Damp Box” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 23printable 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
For the project that has to wait

It is a tub with a slab in it

Most stalled projects stall on the calendar, not at the wheel. The handle needs a second night, the arm needs the body, the lid needs the jar, and clay does not wait. A damp box is a lidded tub with a slab of plaster in the bottom that gives water back to the sealed air, so whatever goes in at the stage you chose comes out at that stage.

The build is short, and two things decide whether it works. The first is the arithmetic: weigh the water that fills the tub, take two thirds of it, and the plaster is one and three sevenths of that. Skip the two thirds and the slab comes out about half as thick again as you meant. The second is the charge. Dark, damp and matte is right. Shiny, with a puddle on it, drowns everything you put in.

None of it is hard on its own. The guide puts each number beside a tick box, and it keeps the plaster-free version for a studio shelf next to the plaster one, because plaster never comes into a shared studio.

Look inside

Real pages, for a bench with a bucket on it

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

  • Page 3 of the “Making Your Own Damp Box” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you touch plaster: what you will learn, what to have on the bench, what is worth knowing, the pitfalls, and what a working box looks like.
  • Page 6 of the “Making Your Own Damp Box” printable guide: what you need on the bench, shown with the sample watermark
    What you need on the benchSix things, and one of them is vinegar. Step one starts underneath: the tub, and the arithmetic for how much plaster it takes.
  • Page 10 of the “Making Your Own Damp Box” printable guide: five videos, five potters, shown with the sample watermark
    Five videos, five pottersA QR code beside each film, so you can watch a pour on your phone and keep your gloves on. Three of the potters build a damp box, and none of them is one of us.
  • Page 16 of the “Making Your Own Damp Box” printable guide: every piece in the box, and when, shown with the sample watermark
    Every piece in the box, and whenA log to write in: the piece, the day it went in, its stage, when the slab was last recharged, the day it came out and what happened.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A box you cannot see into is easy to forget

A damp box is a few numbers, a bucket of plaster and a lid, and then weeks of waiting. Paper suits that.

  • The numbers sit beside the tick boxes

    The weight of the water, the two thirds, the ratio, the hour and the day sit next to the step that needs them, not in a video you have to scrub through with plaster on your gloves.

  • It can take a splash

    It lives on the bench next to a bucket of plaster. A page you spilled on is a page you print again.

  • A place to write what is inside

    The log has a column for the day each piece went in, its stage and when the slab was last recharged, so a lidded box stops being a mystery.

  • One page beside the box

    The one page summary has the six moves, the numbers, how to tell a charged slab from a drowned one and what to do when it goes wrong. It pins up beside the box.

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 plaster arithmetic, corrected

    The lesson said to weigh the water that fills the tub and call it the mix water. Plaster takes up room of its own, so that mixes about half as much plaster again as the tub holds. The guide and the free lesson now say to take two thirds.

  • Bleach and vinegar, kept apart

    The lesson offered vinegar or a few drops of bleach against mold and never said they must not meet. Together they give off chlorine gas, so the guide and the free lesson now say to keep to one.

  • A respirator, not just a mask

    The dust from mixing plaster is not for your lungs, so where the lesson said a mask, the guide says an N95 or better.

  • Videos described by what they show

    Five video notes are rewritten to claim only what the descriptions, chapter lists and frames support. One now points at the nearly five minutes of plaster arithmetic in a film on casting a slab.

  • Written for any studio

    Our rule that plaster never comes into the building is named as ours, so a reader working somewhere else knows which parts are a Clay Hole rule and which are the craft.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    Eight questions, and an answer key that gives the reason behind every answer rather than only the letter.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Making Your Own Damp Box” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

A damp box is the cheapest way I know to make it patient.

The plaster is the part that works, which is exactly why it lives at your house and not on our shelves.

Give the clay somewhere to wait and you will be surprised how much of the rest sorts itself out.

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.

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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 tick list at every step, 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 a wheel?
No. A damp box holds clay from any method, thrown or hand built, and the build itself needs no clay at all. It is a tub, a bag of plaster and some water.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Beginner. Nothing in it is hard to do with your hands. The care goes into the plaster arithmetic, the wait before the first charge and pouring off every drop of standing water afterwards.
What do I need?
A clear tub with a snap or gasket lid, No. 1 pottery plaster and a scale, an N95 or better, gloves and a flexible bucket, thin plastic mesh or damp newspaper, white vinegar, and a garage, porch or driveway to work in. The guide lists all of it on the dashboard.
Can I build one at the studio?
No. Plaster never comes into The Clay Hole, so a damp box with a plaster slab lives at home. The guide includes a plaster-free version for a studio shelf: a lidded tub with a wet sponge in a small container, or a bag with a damp paper towel.
Is working with plaster safe?
It has a few rules, and the guide gives them. Mix outdoors or in a garage, wear an N95 or better for the powder and gloves for your skin, never put a hand into setting plaster, and never let any plaster go down a sink. The free plaster mold lesson has the mixing method and the safety rules in full.
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 tick lists and the one page summary are set in plain dark text, so they read fine on a black and white printer.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The one page summary and the log are the two worth having beside the box. 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 bucket 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.

Give the clay somewhere to wait

Weigh the water and take two thirds, pour the slab low and leave it alone, charge it until it is dark and damp and pour off every drop that stands, and put mesh between the clay and the plaster. Do those and the lid does the rest. Skip the arithmetic or leave a puddle and the box works against you, which is why this one is worth reading before you open the bag of plaster rather than after.

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