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The Clay Hole University · Electives

Pottery Epicenters in North AmericaPrintable pottery guide

The pottery map of this continent on paper: twenty places, what each one is known for, what each one teaches a potter, and a log for the ones you mean to go and see.

$12.505 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: All levels
  • 21 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 in North America printable guide?

It is the free “Pottery Epicenters in North America” lesson rebuilt for paper: the twenty places region by region, what each one is known for and what it teaches, the films worth watching, a one sheet reference of all twenty, a pilgrimage log to fill in, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Pottery Epicenters in North America” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 21printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 6hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 21glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the potter who thought the good stuff was somewhere else

Most of this map is a drive, not a flight.

Nobody thinks of North America as a pottery continent, and that is a mistake with a few thousand years in it. The Pueblo potters of New Mexico and Arizona were coiling and burnishing thin walled pots long before there was a Europe to compare them to. Southern families turned local clay, wood ash and salt into a tradition that is still firing. Mexico holds more living village traditions than most countries hold in total.

This guide is the map of it. Every place gets a card: where it is, what it is known for, who made it matter, and one line on what it teaches a potter. The regions are grouped so you can read one at a time, and the films that show the work are given with codes that open them.

And then there is the log. Twenty places is more than anybody sees at once, so the guide gives you a page to write down the ones you want, what you are going for, when, and what you brought home. That is the difference between a list and a trip.

Look inside

Real pages, for the glovebox and the kitchen table

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

  • Page 3 of the “Pottery Epicenters in North America” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before the first section: what you will learn, what you need, what is worth knowing before you start, the pitfalls, what success looks like, and how to use the log.
  • Page 5 of the “Pottery Epicenters in North America” printable guide: the american south, shown with the sample watermark
    The American SouthOne region to a page, a card for each place. Seagrove, Old Edgefield and the Catawba Valley: what they are known for, who kept them going, and what each one teaches a potter.
  • Page 12 of the “Pottery Epicenters in North America” printable guide: close to home, and the questions, shown with the sample watermark
    Close to home, and the questionsWhich of the twenty are a drive from a studio in Utah, which of our own lessons are their techniques, and the questions people ask with the map open.
  • Page 14 of the “Pottery Epicenters in North America” printable guide: the pilgrimage log, shown with the sample watermark
    The pilgrimage logEight lines to fill in: the place, the region, what you are going for, when, and what you brought back. Two questions at the foot to answer when you get home.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A map is for carrying, not for scrolling

This is the one guide in the series you are most likely to take out of the house. It is written to be read in a car, a kitchen or a hotel room, where a page beats a screen.

  • All twenty on one sheet

    Every place, by region, with the one line that says what it is known for. Print that page on its own and it fits in a glovebox.

  • A log you write in

    The places you mean to see, what you are going for, and what you brought back. A list becomes a plan the moment it has dates in it.

  • The films, with codes

    Every film has its title, its channel and a code that opens it, so the page works whether or not you have a signal while you read.

  • Nothing to log in to

    No account, no app, no page that reflows when you turn your phone. It is a PDF, it is yours, and it prints the same every time.

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 count traced

    We counted the places in each region against what the page claims about itself, and fixed the ones that did not add up before the guide was set.

  • The dates and names checked

    Founding years, revivals, the potters who carried a tradition and the institutions that changed one were read against the places’ own sources, not against a search summary.

  • Every film note rewritten from its evidence

    A note in this guide says only what the film’s own title, description and chapter list support. Where the lesson described something the film does not show, the note was rewritten.

  • Every link checked against what it links to

    Where the lesson promised that one of our own lessons covered a place or a technique, we read that lesson first. Four promises did not hold and were corrected on the live page too.

  • No absolutes we cannot stand behind

    Claims about what every potter in a living community does, and rankings of films nobody here has watched end to end, are not in the guide.

  • Respect written in

    The Pueblos set their own rules about visitors and photography. The guide says so, in the places where somebody is deciding whether to go.

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 in North America” lesson, which anybody can read without an account. The printable is the version built to carry.

A tradition is never only a technique. It is a clay bed, a kind of wood, a road that trade came down, a family that stayed, a school that opened, a residency that let people experiment.

And most of them are a drive. Nobody has to cross an ocean to stand in a pottery town.

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, every region laid out one to a page, a one sheet reference of all twenty places, a pilgrimage log to write in, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Is this a travel guide, with opening times and prices?
No. It is a potter’s field guide: what each place is known for, who made it matter and what it teaches. Where a place has something you can visit we say so, but hours, prices and bookings change, so look those up when you go.
Do I need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it?
No. Nineteen of the twenty places are nowhere near us, and the guide reads the same wherever you throw. Where a line is only about our studio, it says so.
Is it only about the United States?
No. It covers the United States, Mexico and Canada, and Mexico holds more of these places than any other country on the list.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked for every level. It is a field guide to places, so it reads the same whether you have thrown one pot or a thousand.
Do the films play on paper?
No. Each one has its title and channel to search for and a code that opens it. The films come from other people, none of them is ours, and none of the filmmakers knows we exist.
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 log lines 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 one sheet of all twenty places and the pilgrimage log are the two worth keeping with you. 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 before you pack.
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.

Pick one place. Put a date on it.

The guide keeps the whole map in front of you and gives you a page to turn it into a trip, one place at a time.

Get the guide · $12.50

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.

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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.

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Terms version 2026-09-19b