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The Clay Hole University · Trimming, Handles and Drying

Pottery in Humid vs Arid ClimatesPrintable pottery guide

The two drying routines on paper: why dry air cracks pots and damp air stops them drying, what to do in each, how to tell which one your studio really has, and a log for finding out what your own room does.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 20 printable pages
  • 3 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 Pottery in Humid vs Arid Climates printable guide?

It is the drying advice on paper, sorted by kind of air: how humidity, temperature and moving air decide how fast a pot dries, every stage of the craft compared in dry air and in humid air, a routine for each, why heating and air conditioning change your studio’s climate, and how to tell when a pot is bone dry. Built to be printed, kept by the drying shelf and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Pottery in Humid vs Arid Climates” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 20printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 3hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 15glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the potter whose tips keep failing

The same tip, in two different rooms

Cover everything the moment you stop, or set a fan going. Both are good drying advice, and in the wrong room each one ruins work. Dry air pulls water off the outside of a pot faster than the middle can keep up, and the clay tears. Damp air barely pulls at all, and a piece that looks dry can still burst in the bisque.

So the useful question is not which tip to follow but which problem you have. The guide puts the two climates side by side, gives you a routine for each kind of air, and shows why a heated room in winter can behave like a desert whatever the weather outside is doing.

It also gives you the thing no tip can: a page to log your own room. A reading, how you covered the piece, and how many days it took to pass the cheek test. After a season you will know what your air does.

Look inside

Real pages, for a shelf that dries pots

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

  • Page 3 of the “Pottery in Humid vs Arid Climates” 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 by the shelf, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, and what a good result looks like.
  • Page 5 of the “Pottery in Humid vs Arid Climates” printable guide: the two climates, side by side, shown with the sample watermark
    The two climates, side by sideThe same stages of the craft in dry air and in humid air, throwing and trimming through glazing and reclaim, so you can see which advice belongs to which room.
  • Page 10 of the “Pottery in Humid vs Arid Climates” printable guide: what goes wrong in each, shown with the sample watermark
    What goes wrong in eachThe troubleshooting section: three faults in dry air and three in humid air, each with what caused it and what to do about it.
  • Page 13 of the “Pottery in Humid vs Arid Climates” printable guide: every piece, and what the air did to it, shown with the sample watermark
    Every piece, and what the air did to itA log to write in: the reading, how you covered the piece and how long it took to reach bone dry. A season of entries tells you what your own room does.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A gauge reading is something you write down

Drying is slow, and it happens on a shelf with damp clay and no screen. Paper suits that.

  • Both routines, in one place

    The dry air routine and the humid air routine sit in their own sections, each with the reason behind every step, so you can see why one room’s advice fails in the other.

  • It stays by the shelf

    A page stays where you put it. It does not lock its screen, and it does not mind a damp hand.

  • A log for your own room

    Columns for the reading, the cover and the days to bone dry. A season of entries tells you more than any general rule.

  • One page to keep

    Which air you have, both routines and the bone dry test fit on a single sheet. It pins up next to the shelf.

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.

  • A figure made to agree

    The lesson gave the shrinkage in drying as about a twelfth. Our other lessons put it at around six percent, and the guide now says so.

  • A damp box that fits the studio

    The lesson suggested a damp box with a plaster base. Plaster never comes into The Clay Hole, so the guide says where a damp box lives and what to use on a studio shelf instead.

  • Video notes that say what the video shows

    Two notes in the free lesson described things the videos’ own material does not show. We checked each against the video’s description and frames, and rewrote them.

  • 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.

  • A page to keep by the shelf

    The one page summary holds both routines, how to tell which air you have and how to tell a pot is bone dry, on a single sheet.

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 in Humid vs Arid Climates” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

If a drying tip has ever let you down, look at where it came from before you blame your hands. It was probably written in a room with different air from yours, and in that room it works.

What counts is the air beside your work.

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 log to write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Is this only for people who work at The Clay Hole?
No. The two routines suit any studio, wherever it is. Where a rule is only ours, such as what we do about plaster, the guide says so, so you can tell which line is a Clay Hole rule and which is a fact of the craft.
How do I know which climate I have?
Put a cheap humidity gauge where your work dries. Below about thirty percent behaves as dry, above about sixty as humid. The guide explains why the reading in your room matters more than the climate on the map.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Intermediate. You need to be comfortable making a piece and handling it while it is soft. What is new is reading the air in your room and choosing the routine that suits it.
What do I need besides clay?
A humidity gauge, plastic sheeting or bags for dry air, open racks and a fan for humid air, and a dehumidifier if the air stays humid all year. The guide lists it all on the dashboard.
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 one page summary and the log are the two worth having by the shelf. 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 shelf 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.

Read the air before you read the tip

Put a gauge where your work dries, cover fast in dry air, move air in damp air, and pass the cheek test before anything is fired. The guide keeps both routines in front of you at the shelf.

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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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