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The Clay Hole University · Preparing Your Clay

Reading Clay by FeelPrintable pottery guide

Reading clay on paper: four checks that tell workable clay from soft, stiff, uneven, sticky or short, the water test that settles stiff against short, three exercises that train your hands, and a log for every bag you read.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: All levels
  • 25 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 Reading Clay by Feel printable guide?

It is the free “Reading Clay by Feel” lesson rebuilt for paper: why clay feels the way it does, the six conditions you will meet, the press, the bend, the cut and the lift with a labeled drawing for each, the water test, three comparison exercises, which feel suits which way of making, and the fix for every condition. Built to be printed, kept by your wedging table and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Reading Clay by Feel” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 25printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 3hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone who has fought a lump of clay that was never going to do what they asked

Most fights with clay are lost before the first pot.

Clay that is too soft will not stand up. Clay that is too stiff cracks on every curve. Clay with a firm skin and a soft middle passes your thumb and then wobbles on the wheel, and short clay tears wherever you stretch it, however soft it feels. Each of them needs a different answer, and the wrong one makes things worse.

The guide teaches you to ask the clay before you ask anything of it. Four checks take about a minute, four labeled drawings in pencil on graph paper show what each check looks like in all six conditions, and the water test settles the one argument people get wrong most: stiff or short.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: a log for every bag and batch you read. Write down what the press, the bend and the cut face told you and what you changed, and a few rows in your hands know your clay.

Look inside

Real pages, ready for the wedging table

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

  • Page 3 of the “Reading Clay by Feel” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you start: what you will learn, what you will need, what is worth knowing first, the common pitfalls and what success looks like.
  • Page 4 of the “Reading Clay by Feel” printable guide: why clay feels the way it does, shown with the sample watermark
    Why clay feels the way it doesThe opening of the guide, then the mechanism: water as the glue and the lubricant, the narrow working window, and what too little and too much water do.
  • Page 15 of the “Reading Clay by Feel” printable guide: the ones that come up at the tables, shown with the sample watermark
    The ones that come up at the tablesThe last of the fixes, a note on changing the job instead of the clay, then the first of the questions answered.
  • Page 18 of the “Reading Clay by Feel” printable guide: every bag, and what it told you, shown with the sample watermark
    Every bag, and what it told youA log for every bag and batch: what the press, the bend and the cut face said and what you changed, with two questions to answer after a few.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A page that lives by your wedging table

Everything in this guide is used with clay in your hands. Paper goes there with you.

  • Four checks at a glance

    Press, bend, cut and lift, with what each one tells you and the fix for each condition, on one reference page.

  • Drawings you can read at the table

    The thumb press, the coil bend, the cut face and the hand lift, each printed large with its numbered key beside it.

  • Exercises with tick boxes

    The four piece set, the blind sort and two clays on one coil, set out so you can work through them with clay on your fingers.

  • It does not mind clay

    A page can lie beside a wet lump, and it never locks its screen while both hands are busy wedging.

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 our other lessons

    We checked it against our stages of clay, stiff clay, wedging, slam wedging, clay bodies, reclaim and leather hard lessons, so the guide says what those pages say about the same clay.

  • The mechanism, checked at the source

    Why clay is plastic, how narrow the working window is and what makes a clay short were checked against ceramic references before a word was written.

  • Drawings checked against the words

    Each labeled drawing was read at full size and corrected where it disagreed with the lesson, so a workable lump never shows a crack.

  • Written for a reader in any studio

    The lines about our own studio, our shelves and our instructors are written so they make sense to a potter anywhere.

  • Video notes that claim no more than the videos

    Each video note was written from the video’s own title, description and chapters, so it promises only what the video says it covers.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a page moves, we point the address at its new home 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 “Reading Clay by Feel” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Most fights with clay are lost before they start, with a lump that was never going to do what was asked of it.

Press it, bend it, cut it and lift your hand off it. That takes about a minute, and it moves the decision to the moment it costs nothing: before the pot, not halfway up its wall.

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

  • 5guides in your cart1 on us
  • 9guides in your cart2 on us
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, the four drawings printed large with their keys, the exercises as tick box lists, a log for every bag you read, a one page reference, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Does it work with any clay?
Yes. The checks read any clay body the same way, stoneware, porcelain or reclaim, and the guide explains why two clays can feel the same at different water contents. You do not need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked All levels. Nothing is assumed, and the conditions it teaches catch out experienced hands as often as new ones, because every bag and every batch of reclaim is different.
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 and the tables are black on white, and the drawings are pencil on pale graph paper, so they print clearly in grey. Color is used for headings, small labels and the numbers on the drawings.
Can I read it on a screen instead?
Yes. It is a normal PDF that opens on a phone, a tablet or a computer, and every code in it is also a link you can tap. Most people print the reference page and the log and keep the rest on a screen.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes. The log and the one page reference are the two worth keeping by your wedging table, and the exercise pages are worth printing the day you try them. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest.
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 your next session.
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.

Press, bend, cut, lift

A minute of reading the clay saves an hour of fighting it. The guide keeps the four checks, the six conditions and the fix for each one in front of you at the wedging table.

Get the guide · $5.00

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.

What you may not do is distribute the guide to anyone else, whether you charge for it or not.

That means you may not share, forward, email, upload, post, publish, copy, reproduce, resell, sublicense, redistribute, or otherwise provide the guide, or any substantial portion of it, to another person. You may not place it in a shared drive, group chat, membership library, online community, file-sharing service, studio resource folder, classroom packet, employee handbook, course, workshop, or other shared collection. You may not make copies for students, members, employees, friends, classes, studios, schools, groups, or organizations.

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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 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