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The Clay Hole University · Electives

Pottery Epicenters and Meccas Around the WorldPrintable pottery guide

A field guide to the towns pottery grew up in: the heavyweight meccas by region, Japan on its own map, ten specialty places, and the ten ceramic languages that make the whole map readable.

$16.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: All levels
  • 24 printable pages
  • 6 video picks
  • 7-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 Pottery Epicenters and Meccas Around the World printable guide?

It is the free “Pottery Epicenters and Meccas Around the World” lesson rebuilt for paper: every heavyweight mecca with what it teaches, Japan’s own map including the Six Ancient Kilns, the specialty towns each famous for one thing, and the ceramic languages that turn a list of names into a map you can hold. Built to be printed and kept where you glaze.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Pottery Epicenters and Meccas Around the World” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 24printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 6hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 17glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the day a glaze name stops being just a glaze name

Every pot you make came from somewhere.

Celadon is a town in China before it is a color on a shelf. Shino and oribe are a valley in Japan. Maiolica is a hill town in Italy, and the same idea reached Puebla by ship and came back out as Talavera. Once you know that, the glaze wall reads differently.

The guide gives you the map in the order that makes it stick: the ceramic languages first, so the names mean something, then the towns region by region, with what each one teaches rather than what year it was founded.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: a page to write on. A pilgrimage list for the towns you want to stand in, and a one sheet map of the languages and the Six Ancient Kilns that fits in a pocket on the way to the studio.

Look inside

Real pages, from the field guide

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

  • Page 3 of the “Pottery Epicenters and Meccas Around the World” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before the map: what you will learn, what you need, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls and what it looks like when it has landed.
  • Page 10 of the “Pottery Epicenters and Meccas Around the World” printable guide: the americas, and the specialists, shown with the sample watermark
    The Americas, and the specialistsThe four American meccas with what each one teaches, and the start of the ten towns that each own a single idea completely.
  • Page 15 of the “Pottery Epicenters and Meccas Around the World” printable guide: questions, shown with the sample watermark
    QuestionsThe ones that come up when the map is open: which place to learn first, why Japan is so dense with pottery towns, and the difference between maiolica, faience and delftware.
  • Page 17 of the “Pottery Epicenters and Meccas Around the World” printable guide: your pilgrimage list, shown with the sample watermark
    Your pilgrimage listA page to write on: the place, what it is known for, which of the ten languages it speaks, and the one thing you will try because of it.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A map you keep, not a page you scroll

A field guide is for looking things up, and looking things up is what paper has always been good at.

  • The whole map on one sheet

    The ten languages, the Six Ancient Kilns and the five towns to start with sit on a single page you can take to the glaze wall.

  • A reason, not a date

    Every town carries a line saying what it teaches a potter. That is the part you remember, and it is what makes the next pot different.

  • A list to fill in

    The pilgrimage page turns reading into something you do: which town, which language, and what you will try because of it.

  • It stays open beside you

    A page does not time out, lose its place or need charging while your hands are covered in slip.

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.

  • Every claim checked, and several corrected

    A field guide is only worth carrying if it is right. We checked the towns, the dates and the superlatives, and corrected what did not hold: when Longquan celadon actually stopped and started again, where celadon began before Longquan, who carried the folk-craft ideas to England and in which direction, and who invented the atmospheric firings.

  • Counts that match what they count

    Every number in the guide was counted against the thing it counts, including how many more places the North America lesson carries and how many of these towns speak one of the ten languages.

  • Video notes that say what the videos say

    Each of the six film notes was rewritten from the video’s own description, chapter list and frames, so it claims no more than they show. Two titles had drifted from the ones on YouTube, so searching the printed title now finds the film.

  • Links that go where they say

    Every lesson this guide points at was opened and read. Where a card promised a town the linked lesson never mentions, the card now says what that lesson actually covers.

  • A search line for every video

    On paper a video cannot play, so each one has its title and channel to search for, and a code that opens it.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a page 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 “Pottery Epicenters and Meccas Around the World” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

The world of ceramics looks enormous from outside, and then it turns out to be about a dozen ideas that traveled. Learn the languages and the names start to mean something.

None of it is finished either. Every one of these towns has a potter in it tonight, doing the thing.

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 pilgrimage list to write in, a one page map of the languages and the Six Ancient Kilns, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Do I need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it?
No. It is a guide to the world’s pottery towns and it works wherever you throw. One short section shows where the map touches our own studio, and it says so.
Is it a travel guide?
No. It is a field guide to what each place made and why that matters to a potter. It does not tell you where to stay or when to go, and no part of it depends on you ever getting on a plane.
Is this too early for me?
No. It is marked for all levels and it assumes no clay skill at all. The glossary fills in the words, and the ceramic languages are the part a first-year potter gets the most out of.
Do the videos play on paper?
No. Each of the six documentaries has its title and channel to search for and a code that opens it. None of them was made by us or for us.
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, the tables and the place cards are black on white, and color is used for headings and small labels.
Can I use it on a tablet or phone instead?
Yes, it is a normal PDF and opens anywhere. Most people print the one page map and the pilgrimage list, because those are the two that live beside the glaze wall.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The one page map and the pilgrimage list are the two worth having on paper. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave 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 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.

Thirty-one towns, ten languages, and a different glaze wall

Learn the ten languages, then the towns, then watch one film. After that a glaze name on a shelf is the name of a place, and you know which one.

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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.

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Terms version 2026-09-19b