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The Clay Hole University · Other Ways to Find, Fire, and Form

Primitive FiringPrintable pottery guide

Seven ways to fire a pot without a glaze kiln on paper: what they share, the six decisions behind every one, how to make a pot for the fire, the order of firing day, and a log for every firing you run.

$12.505 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 31 printable pages
  • 12 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 Primitive Firing printable guide?

It is the free “Primitive Firing” lesson rebuilt for paper: what counts as firing without a glaze kiln, why low heat changes everything, the six decisions every method shares, how to make pots built for the fire, seven methods side by side, the order of firing day, six faults and what each one is telling you. Built to be printed, read days before the fire and written in. It is decorative work only, and it prepares you for a firing you run with other people rather than replacing the people.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Primitive Firing” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 31printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 12hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 12glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone who has watched a pot come out of the smoke and wanted to know why

Most pots are saved or lost weeks before anyone lights a match.

Pit, barrel, raku, saggar and obvara look wildly different from the outside. Underneath they ask the same six questions in the same order: which clay, which form, how dry, what surface, how fast up and how fast down. Almost every lost pot is one of those answered wrong.

The guide gives you the whole family in one place: why the clay never turns to glass, what each method gives you and what it asks of you, and the order of a firing day whichever method you picked. It also says plainly what the photographs leave out. You will break pots, and nothing you make this way is food safe.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: a log to write in. The method, the clay and surface, how long you preheated and what came out. A few firings of notes show you what your own fire does.

Look inside

Real pages, for reading before the fire

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

  • Page 3 of the “Primitive Firing” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before anything gets near a fire: what you will learn, what you would need, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls and what a good result looks like.
  • Page 6 of the “Primitive Firing” printable guide: why low changes everything, shown with the sample watermark
    Why low changes everythingA temperature scale drawn to size, showing where each kind of firing sits against a bisque and a glaze firing, and why the clay stays open and thirsty.
  • Page 7 of the “Primitive Firing” printable guide: the six decisions, shown with the sample watermark
    The six decisionsClay, form, dryness, surface, how fast up and how fast down. The same six in every method, and the reason most pots are lost early.
  • Page 24 of the “Primitive Firing” printable guide: every firing i ran, and how it came out, shown with the sample watermark
    Every firing I ran, and how it came outA log to write in: the method, the clay and surface, how long you preheated and what came out.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

Read it cold, long before the fire

A firing day is long, outdoors and no place for a screen with ash on your hands. Learning the order from a page you have already read suits that.

  • The order, where you can find it

    Every stage of firing day is on the page in order, with the reason for each. Nothing to scroll through with a glove on.

  • Seven methods, one table

    Pit, barrel, raku, naked raku, horsehair, saggar and obvara side by side: what each gives you, what it needs and how long it takes. You choose before you buy a drum.

  • A log for your own fires

    Columns for the method, the clay and surface, how long you preheated and how it came out. A few lines of notes beat a memory of how long an hour felt.

  • A sheet that stays beside the fire

    The one page reference holds the pot, the preheat, the fire and the safety on one sheet. Set it on a table, not a screen that locks.

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.

  • Read against the studio’s own rules

    We checked the lesson against The Clay Hole’s rules and our other lessons. Where the lesson was out of step, the guide now says what those pages say.

  • A person stays with the fire

    The guide says to keep a person with a live fire, with water and a shovel within reach, until it is out. It names what never goes in a fire and the gear that goes on first.

  • Decorative, and plainly so

    A pot fired this way is porous all the way through. The guide says it is not food safe and not watertight, and that sealing it does not change that.

  • Plainer about what we do and do not run

    The Clay Hole runs raku, outdoors, at workshops. The guide says that pits, barrels, saggars and obvara are for a firing you run somewhere else, and that outside clay never goes into our kilns.

  • Video notes that say what the videos say

    Every video is another maker’s work, printed with its own QR code. Each note was written from the video’s own description and chapter list, so it claims no more than they show.

  • 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 “Primitive Firing” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Every pot has been fired without a kiln for most of human history, and most of them came out of a hole in the ground with some sawdust and a lot of patience.

If you want to try raku with the team, come and ask us. Somebody here will be glad to talk it through.

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.

See every printable guide

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Sits next to

Three lessons that go well with this one

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.
Can I do this at The Clay Hole?
Raku, yes, at our outdoor workshops, which are announced on the calendar. Pit, barrel, saggar and obvara firings are not something we run. The guide is written for a firing you run somewhere else, with other people, and it says so.
Can I bring work in just for a bisque firing?
Ask us first. Bisque comes with the pieces you glaze here, so the guide asks you to check before you bring work you plan to fire only elsewhere. Wild or outside clay never comes into our kilns.
Is a pit fired mug safe to drink from?
No. The clay never gets hot enough to seal, so it holds water in its walls and weeps it out, and it cannot be reliably cleaned. Anything you eat or drink from needs a glaze picked through our Food Safe Lookup, and that is a different guide.
Do I need the raku certification first?
No. It is worth doing and not required. What everyone does at a raku workshop is sign the waiver and sit through the in person safety meeting.
Is it safe to try at home?
It is open flame, glowing objects and materials that are toxic when they burn. The guide says outdoors only, upwind, never alone, with water and a shovel within reach, a fitted respirator and eye protection, and your county’s burn rules checked first. It is not a substitute for experience, and the guide says to expect to lose pots.
Which method should a beginner start with?
The guide’s answer is a barrel firing, because it is cheap to set up and the easiest to keep under control. It still needs a person with it until the fire is out.
Are the videos yours?
No. Each one is another maker’s work. The guide prints each with its own QR code and a short note on what the video shows, and nothing in the guide depends on watching them.
Do I need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it?
No. The guide teaches the shared decisions and the order of firing day for anyone. Where a line is only ours, such as what we run and what we do not, the guide says so.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Intermediate. It helps to have made and fired a few pieces first, and the glossary fills in the words.
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 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 reference and the firing log are the two worth having 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 and read 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.

Do the controllable parts well

Choose the clay, shape the pot, dry it for weeks, polish the surface and warm it slowly. Then keep a person beside the fire, and hand the pot over to find out.

Get the guide · $12.50

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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.

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Terms version 2026-09-19b