You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 07.08

The Clay Hole University · Hand Building

Rolling Even Coils by HandPrintable pottery guide

A start shape, a hand shape and a distance. Round coils on the first afternoon, instead of flat ribbons and more practice.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 27 printable pages
  • 7 video picks
  • 7-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 Rolling Even Coils by Hand printable guide?

It is a printable workbook edition of The Clay Hole University’s free “Rolling Even Coils by Hand” lesson. It explains why a coil goes flat and why more practice on its own will not fix it, what to roll on, the roll itself in nine moves, and what the cut end of a coil is telling you. On paper it adds a row for every coil you cut open, a diagnosis section, the ten minute drill, a one page card for the table, a quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Rolling Even Coils by Hand” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 27printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 7hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

More practice will not fix a flat coil

Almost everybody learns to roll coils by rolling coils, getting flat ones, and being told to keep practising. It does not work, because a flat coil is not a skill problem. It is a stroke length problem, and repeating a stroke that is the wrong length just makes you better at flat coils.

One full turn of a coil covers a bit over three times its thickness. If your hands travel further than that in one pass, you are pressing a ribbon rather than rolling a cylinder, and you can repeat it all afternoon without improving.

This guide gives you the number, the start shape and the hand shape, and then a drill that takes ten minutes. Most people have round coils the same day, which is a strange thing to be able to say about a skill people spend months failing at.

Look inside

Real pages, for a table and ten minutes

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

  • Page 5 of the “Rolling Even Coils by Hand” printable guide: what to roll on, shown with the sample watermark
    What to roll onIt matters more than what you roll with, and it is the first thing most people have wrong without knowing it.
  • Page 10 of the “Rolling Even Coils by Hand” printable guide: cut it open and look, shown with the sample watermark
    Cut it open and lookThe cut end of a coil tells you exactly what your hands did. This page teaches you to read it.
  • Page 15 of the “Rolling Even Coils by Hand” printable guide: eight ways it goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    Eight ways it goes wrongEach one with the cause, so you stop guessing at which of your habits is the problem.
  • Page 18 of the “Rolling Even Coils by Hand” printable guide: the coil log, shown with the sample watermark
    The coil logOne row per coil you cut open: the thickness you aimed for, how long your stroke actually was, and what the end showed.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

Why rolling coils, of all things, belongs on paper

This is a measuring problem disguised as a practice problem, and the measurements are taken with clay all over your hands. Paper is where they go.

  • It stays open while your hands are covered

    You are rolling clay on a table. There is no version of this where reaching for a phone is a good idea.

  • It keeps the number in front of you

    One full turn is a bit over three times the thickness. That number is the whole lesson, and it is worth nothing in your head and everything on the table.

  • It turns a cut end into evidence

    Cut a coil open, look at it, and write down what you see next to the stroke you used. Two or three rows and the pattern is obvious.

  • One card lives on the table for good

    The five moves before you roll, the roll itself, the numbers and what a cut end tells you, all on a single page.

How the guide is built

Built to fix the thing practice alone will not

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 on the table, the mistakes that get made first, and what a properly round coil feels like under your hands.

  • The model, before the method

    Why a coil goes flat, and why more repetitions of the wrong stroke will not fix it. The rest of the guide only makes sense after this.

  • The roll, in nine moves

    The start shape, the hand shape and the distance, broken into what your hands are actually doing rather than a description of the result.

  • The ten minute drill

    A short, specific exercise rather than vague advice to keep practising, and a page to record what it produced.

  • Videos you can reach from a printed page

    Seven videos chosen for what they show rather than who made them, each with a note on why it is worth your time and a code that goes straight to it.

  • Plain words for the jargon

    A sixteen term glossary, from the ribbon and the cut end to tooth, grog and guide sticks, written the way we would explain it at the table.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Rolling Even Coils by Hand” lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no catch.

Rolling a coil is the first thing a lot of people fail at, and they usually decide it means they are not good with their hands. It is a stroke length, not a talent. Nobody should have to pay to find that out.

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 07.08, the eighth guide in Hand Building. 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

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

What to build once your coils are round

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 row for every coil you cut open, a diagnosis section with boxes to tick, the ten minute drill, a one page card for the table, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Why do my coils go flat?
Almost always because your stroke is longer than one turn of the coil, so you are pressing rather than rolling. That is the first thing the guide explains, and it is why more practice on its own does not help.
What should I roll on?
It matters more than what you roll with, and it has its own section. Most people have this wrong without ever being told it was a variable.
How long does this take to learn?
The drill in the guide takes ten minutes, and most people have round coils the same afternoon. This is one of the few pottery skills where that is genuinely true.
Do I need guide sticks or an extruder?
No. The guide covers three other ways to get a coil, including machines, but the whole point is that your hands can do this once the stroke is right.
Does it matter which clay?
Softness matters more than brand, and the guide says what to look for. Clay that has gone leathery will not roll round no matter what your hands do.
Is this too basic if I already hand build?
If your coils are already round and even, yes, and we would rather say so. If you have been quietly working around uneven coils for a while, this is the guide that stops that.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. It is a table, some clay and your hands, wherever you are. Anything specific to our studio is marked as ours, and the studio numbers carry the date they were true.
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 don’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.

Ten minutes, and round coils the same day

Print it tonight. Do the drill, cut one open, and write down what the end tells you about the stroke you used.

Get the printable · $5.00

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