You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 06.10

The Clay Hole University · Advanced Throwing

Neriage, Throwing with Colored ClayPrintable pottery guide

The color is not on the pot. It is in it, all the way through the wall, and getting it there is a counting problem before it is a throwing problem.

$10.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Advanced
  • 33 printable pages
  • 8 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 Neriage, Throwing with Colored Clay printable guide?

It is a printable workbook edition of The Clay Hole University’s free “Neriage, Throwing with Colored Clay” lesson. It covers why two clays have to shrink the same before you do anything else, making colored clay, four ways to build the block, wedging by the count so the pattern survives, the nine steps at the wheel, and the reveal that brings the pattern back. On paper it adds a row for every lump you build, a diagnosis section for the nine ways it goes wrong, a one page card for beside the wheel, a quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Neriage, Throwing with Colored Clay” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 33printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 8hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

The pattern is decided before the wheel is switched on

Neriage goes wrong in the wedging, not at the wheel. Fold it one time too many and the pattern you spent an afternoon building turns into grey mud. Fold it one time too few and it is a stripe rather than a marble.

That means the number of folds is the single most important thing about the lump in your hands, and it is a number you cannot recover by looking at it. By the time you can see what you did, you have already done it.

So this guide is built to be open while you count. The pairing written down before you start, the fold count written down before you throw rather than after, and a row on the log for what came out. Next time that row is worth more than the pot was.

Look inside

Real pages, for a technique you have to count

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

  • Page 4 of the “Neriage, Throwing with Colored Clay” printable guide: the pattern is the wall, shown with the sample watermark
    The pattern is the wallThe one idea the whole technique rests on: the color is in the clay, all the way through, not painted on afterwards.
  • Page 8 of the “Neriage, Throwing with Colored Clay” printable guide: making colored clay, shown with the sample watermark
    Making colored clayStains, proportions and what actually happens when you mix them in, laid out as a process rather than a recipe to guess at.
  • Page 21 of the “Neriage, Throwing with Colored Clay” printable guide: nine ways it goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    Nine ways it goes wrongEach one with what really caused it, and a box to tick for the ones that keep happening to you.
  • Page 22 of the “Neriage, Throwing with Colored Clay” printable guide: the colored clay log, shown with the sample watermark
    The colored clay logOne row per lump: the pairing, the fold count written down before you throw, and what the pattern actually did.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

Why colored clay, of all things, belongs on paper

Everything that decides a neriage pot is a number settled before you throw, and none of it can be recovered afterwards by looking. Paper is where those numbers live.

  • It stays open while your hands are in the clay

    Wedging colored clay is not a moment to be waking a screen with stained fingers. Prop it up and work down the count.

  • It makes you write the number before you need it

    The fold count goes on the page before you throw, not after, because afterwards you will be guessing and the guess will be wrong.

  • It turns a long process into something repeatable

    A row per lump, with the pairing and the count. Two or three rows in and you can actually aim at a pattern instead of hoping for one.

  • One card lives by the wheel for good

    The pairing rule, the fold table, the moves at the wheel and the reveal, all on a single page you can pull out of the binder.

How the guide is built

Built for a technique that is decided before you throw

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 on the table, the mistakes that get made first, and what a good block looks like before it ever meets a wheel.

  • The complete lesson, redesigned for paper

    Pairing, making colored clay, four ways to build the block, wedging by the count, the nine moves at the wheel, and the reveal.

  • Shrinkage first, because nothing else matters if it is wrong

    Two clays that shrink differently will crack apart in drying or firing. The guide ranks our clay bodies by shrinkage so the pairing is a decision and not a gamble.

  • The reveal, and the one glaze mistake

    Bringing the pattern back after throwing, and the glazing choice that hides everything you just spent a day building.

  • Videos you can reach from a printed page

    Eight videos chosen for what they show rather than who made them, each with a note on why it is worth your time and a code that goes straight to it.

  • Plain words for the jargon

    A sixteen term glossary, from neriage and nerikomi to the loaf, the fold and the reveal, written the way we would explain it at the wheel.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

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

Colored clay looks like something only a specialist does, and it is not. It is a counting problem and a shrinkage problem, and both of those can be explained in an afternoon. So the lesson stays free, for anybody, anywhere.

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 06.10, the tenth guide in Advanced Throwing. 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

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Where this leads

What to learn once a pattern survives the throw

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 row for every lump you build, a diagnosis section with boxes to tick, a one page card for beside the wheel, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Why does shrinkage matter so much?
Two clays that shrink at different rates will pull apart from each other, in drying or in the kiln. It is the failure that ruins the most neriage, and it is entirely avoidable by pairing properly before you start.
How many folds is right?
It depends on the pattern you are after, which is why the guide gives you a fold table and a place to write your own count rather than one number. Too many and it is mud, too few and it is a stripe.
Do I need special stains?
You need body stains rather than glaze colorants, and the guide explains the difference and why encapsulated stains behave the way they do. It does not tell you which brand to buy.
Will the pattern show after glazing?
Only if you glaze it in a way that lets it. There is a specific glazing mistake that hides the whole thing, and it has its own section, because it is heartbreaking to make that one after a day of work.
Is this wasteful of clay?
Your first blocks will not be pretty, and the guide says so plainly and tells you to make the ugly one first. It also covers what can be reclaimed and what cannot, which matters more with colored clay than with anything else.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. The technique is the technique wherever you work. The shrinkage ranking is ours and is marked as ours, and the studio numbers carry the date they were true, so you can run the same test on your own clay.
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 looked at the workbook pages in grayscale to be sure.
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.

Make the ugly one first

Print it tonight. Write the pairing down, write the fold count down before you throw, and keep the first block even though it will be ugly.

Get the printable · $10.00

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