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The Clay Hole University · Surface and Decoration

Mishima, Slip Inlaid into Carved LinesPrintable pottery guide

Mishima in the order you do it: the six moves, the stage the clay has to be at, the ten seconds that decide the scrape, three other ways in, and what to do when a line vanishes, goes gray or fires pale.

$10.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 25 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 Mishima, Slip Inlaid into Carved Lines printable guide?

It is mishima on paper: why the line sits in the clay and never rubs off, the six moves in order, the stage to carve at and how deep to cut, why underglaze is the fill to learn first and what slip does differently, the moment to scrape, three other ways in (wax first, inlay after the bisque and stamped), and six ways it goes wrong with what caused each. Built to be printed, kept at the bench and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Mishima, Slip Inlaid into Carved Lines” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 25printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 5hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 18glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the line that vanished under the rib

Mishima is decided by a wait, not by a steady hand

Most people who try mishima lose the drawing at the same moment, which is right after they finish filling it. The fill is still shiny, the rib goes across it, and a crisp line turns into a gray haze around every cut. It looks like a mistake of skill. It is a mistake of timing.

Everything else is small and easy to rush: clay firm enough that a fingernail marks it and a fingertip does not, a cut about a millimeter deep with the tool held upright, a fill put in proud and in two thin coats, a color strong enough to survive the scrape and the kiln, and a pot covered loosely for the first day so the fill and the wall dry together.

The guide puts those moves in the order you do them, with a tick list for each of the three steps, and ends with a page to log every piece and how the line came out.

Look inside

Real pages, for a bench with a rib and a pot of underglaze on it

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

  • Page 3 of the “Mishima, Slip Inlaid into Carved Lines” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you touch clay: what you will learn, what to have on the table, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, and what a good line looks like.
  • Page 9 of the “Mishima, Slip Inlaid into Carved Lines” printable guide: the scrape, shown with the sample watermark
    The scrapeThe heart of the technique: wait for the fill to go matte, hold a metal rib at a low angle and plane the surface in light passes. Why it smears if you rush it, and why scraping bone dry is a dust problem.
  • Page 10 of the “Mishima, Slip Inlaid into Carved Lines” printable guide: three other ways in, shown with the sample watermark
    Three other ways inThe scraping tick list and the three variations: wax first, inlay after the bisque, and stamped mishima, each with the problem it solves and what it costs.
  • Page 18 of the “Mishima, Slip Inlaid into Carved Lines” printable guide: mishima log, shown with the sample watermark
    Mishima logA log to write in: how deep you cut, what you filled with, how long the fill waited before the rib, and how the line came out. A few rows in, you can see which wait to change.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

Your hands are covered in fill

Mishima is done in short bursts with one hand full of tool and the other steadying a pot. Paper suits that.

  • A tick list for each step

    Carving, filling and scraping each have their own list, so you can carve tonight, fill next week and find your place again.

  • It holds still

    A page stays where you put it while you carve. It does not lock its screen, and it does not mind underglaze.

  • A place to write the wait

    The waits that decide a piece are not obvious until it is out of the kiln, so the log has a column for how long the fill waited and another for how the line came out.

  • One card for the bench

    The mishima card has the moves, the numbers and what each fault is telling you on a single page, ready to pin up beside the table.

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.

  • Video notes that say what the video shows

    Five notes in the free lesson described things the videos do not show, including a wax demonstration with no wax in it. We checked each against the video’s own description, chapter list and frames, and the guide says only what they support.

  • Underglaze and the bisque

    The guide says that underglaze put on bisque goes back for a second bisque before any glaze touches it, and that at The Clay Hole underglaze usually goes onto raw clay.

  • A fill that shrinks less, not never

    The lesson said underglaze cannot shrink. The guide says it carries much less clay than slip and shrinks far less, which is the real reason to learn it first.

  • Written for any studio

    Where the free lesson says here or the studio, the guide says The Clay Hole, so a reader working somewhere else knows which line is a Clay Hole habit and which is a rule of the craft.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    A short quiz, 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 “Mishima, Slip Inlaid into Carved Lines” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Mishima looks like a drawing skill. It is not.

That moment is the wait. I would rather you spent it on something else than stand over the pot.

Every one of them is a small change in how long you waited.

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, six numbered moves, a tick list for each of the three steps, a log to write in, a one page card, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Is mishima the same as sgraffito?
No, they are opposites. Sgraffito puts a coat of color on the clay and scratches it off to show the clay underneath, so the line is the clay. Mishima carves a line into bare clay and puts color into the line, so the line is the color. The guide explains the difference and points you at the free sgraffito lesson.
What do I fill the lines with?
Underglaze straight from the bottle is the one to learn first, because it carries much less clay than slip and shrinks far less. Slip colored with a stain is the traditional fill and it fails more often. The guide covers both, and the stage of the clay each one wants.
What do I need besides clay?
A carving tool that matches the drawing, a thin metal rib, underglaze in a strong color, a small pointed brush, a barely damp sponge and a soft pencil. The dashboard lists all of it, and the guide says what to add for the wax method.
Can I use any clay?
Any clay you can carve at leather hard. A pale, smooth body shows fine lines best, and a dark line on a pale pot is the classic look. The guide also covers how to get white lines on a dark pot with an engobe.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Intermediate. If you can carve a clean line at leather hard you can do every move in it. What takes practice is the timing, and the log is there to help you build it.
Does it say how The Clay Hole does things?
Yes, and it marks those lines. Where the free lesson talks about the studio, the guide says The Clay Hole, so you know which line is a studio habit and which is a rule of the craft.
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. Nothing in it depends on color to make sense: 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 mishima card and the log are the two worth having by the bench. 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 table 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 once, wait for matte, scrape in light passes

Carve at firm leather hard, fill in two thin coats, wait until the shine is gone, then take the surface off with a rib in light passes. Those moves decide whether the line is still crisp when it comes out of the kiln, and the guide keeps them in front of you at the bench.

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