You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 02.03

The Clay Hole University Ā· Safety and Your Body

Pottery With ArthritisPrintable pottery guide

The free lesson, rebuilt as a workbook: the movements in pottery that tend to cause trouble, what experienced potters do instead, which tools help, and how to pace a session.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 19 printable pages
  • 2 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 printable edition of Pottery With Arthritis?

It is the free lesson of the same name, rebuilt as a workbook. It goes through the six hard moves at the wheel and the version of each that uses a knuckle, a tool or your body weight instead, then wedging and carrying clay, tools that actually help, hand building, and how to structure a session. On paper it adds a session log for spotting patterns, a one-page swap card, a quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary. It is craft knowledge, not medical advice.

Prefer to read it online first? ā€œPottery With Arthritisā€ is free to read, and always will be.

  • 19printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 2hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 13glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

Arthritis rules out a few movements, not pottery

Almost every hard move at the wheel has a version that uses a different part of your hand, and most of those versions are how experienced potters were already working. Brace instead of grip. Use a rib instead of your fingers. Slam instead of knead.

Nobody here is a doctor, and a doctor or hand therapist who knows your hands is worth more than any page. What this guide offers is craft knowledge: the specific moves that tend to hurt, and the alternatives.

It ends in a one-page swap card for the wheel and a session log, so a joint that complains every time after the same task becomes something you can take to a professional.

Look inside

Real pages, for the hands doing the work

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

  • Page 5 of the ā€œPottery With Arthritisā€ printable guide: the hard moves, and their alternatives, shown with the sample watermark
    The hard moves, and their alternativesCentering, opening, pulling, compressing the rim, trimming and handles, and what to do instead of each.
  • Page 6 of the ā€œPottery With Arthritisā€ printable guide: wedging, carrying and tools that help, shown with the sample watermark
    Wedging, carrying and tools that helpSlam wedging instead of spiral, splitting the bag, and fat handles on everything.
  • Page 9 of the ā€œPottery With Arthritisā€ printable guide: the session log, shown with the sample watermark
    The session logWhat you did, how long before you changed task, and which joint complained.
  • Page 15 of the ā€œPottery With Arthritisā€ printable guide: the quiz, shown with the sample watermark
    The quizEight questions, with an answer key that explains the reasoning behind every answer.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

A card by the wheel beats a page you have to scroll

With clay on your hands, paper is the easier thing to read, and to look at again.

  • The swap card

    What to do instead of each hard move, on one page, for the wheel.

  • A session log that spots patterns

    If the same joint complains after the same task, you will see it, and have something to show a professional.

  • Pacing, written down

    Warm up, do the demanding thing early, change what you are doing every twenty minutes or so, stop while it is going well.

  • Clear about what it covers

    It is craft knowledge, it says so, and it sends you to a doctor or hand therapist for anything medical.

How the guide is built

Built for hands that have started to complain

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, the traps, and what success looks like.

  • The six hard moves, with swaps

    Each one paired with the version that spreads the force across several joints, moves it to a tool, or moves it to your body.

  • Two videos, checked

    One on the wrist mistake that causes most of the trouble, and one on wrist strengthening. Each was checked when the guide was built.

  • A session log you actually fill in

    Eight rows: what you did, how long before you changed, which joint complained, and what you tried instead.

  • The swap card

    The whole guide on one page.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every QR code points at a short Clay Hole address, so a printed copy keeps working when a video moves.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free ā€œPottery With Arthritisā€ lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up.

Arthritis rules out a few specific movements in pottery. It does not rule out pottery. The alternatives are how experienced potters were already working, so this lesson belongs to everybody.

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 02.03, the third guide in Safety and Your Body. 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, or every printable we sell on one page.

  • 5guides in your cart1 on us
  • 9guides in your cart2 on us
Where this leads

From the hands to the rest of the craft

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 session log, a one-page swap card, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Is this medical advice?
No. It is craft knowledge: the movements that tend to cause trouble in pottery and what potters do instead. A doctor or a hand therapist who knows your hands is the right person to ask about your own, and the guide says so.
Will it work for my kind of arthritis?
Arthritis covers a lot of very different conditions, and what works for one person is wrong for another. The guide gives you alternatives to try, and a log to notice which of them your hands prefer.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. Almost everything in it applies to any pottery studio or home setup. The few Clay Hole notes are labeled ā€œAt The Clay Holeā€.
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 donā€™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.

Brace instead of grip. Fat handles on everything.

Print it, keep the swap card by the wheel, and log the session. Modified pottery is still pottery.

Get the printable · $5.00

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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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If you would like to use one of our guides with a class, studio, school, team, or other group, contact The Clay Hole about permission or group licensing. Please do not make twenty copies and call it manifesting.

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 studioā€™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 studioā€™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.

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Terms version 2026-09-19b