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

Salt and Soda FiringPrintable pottery guide

A vapor firing on paper: how sodium turns the surface of a bare pot into glass, what the clay and the wadding decide, the firing in order, the safety brief, and a log for every pot you send to one.

$12.505 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Advanced
  • 29 printable pages
  • 10 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 Salt and Soda Firing printable guide?

It is the free “Salt and Soda Firing” lesson rebuilt for paper: how the glaze is made out of the pot, how salt and soda differ, the clay body that decides the result, wadding, loading, the firing in nine moves, charging, the safety brief and nine ways a vapor firing disappoints you. Built to be printed, read before you hand work to somebody else’s kiln, and written in. We do not run a salt or soda kiln, so it prepares you for a guest firing rather than replacing one.

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

  • 29printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 10hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 12glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone who has held a salt fired mug and wondered what happened to it

You are not glazing the pot. You are aiming it.

Nothing goes in a bucket. Sodium rides the flame and turns the surface of the clay into glass, so the clay you chose, the slip you brushed on and the address your pot gets in the kiln decide most of the result before the door goes on.

The guide gives you that order: why the glaze is made out of the pot, salt against soda, wadding every place two surfaces touch, loading with gaps, the firing in nine moves, and the safety brief that every rule at a real kiln traces back to.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: a log to write in. The clay and slip, where the pot sat, how you wadded it and how it came out. A few firings of notes show you what the kiln does.

Look inside

Real pages, for reading before you sign up for a firing

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

  • Page 3 of the “Salt and Soda Firing” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before anything goes near a kiln: what you will learn, what you would need, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls and what a good result looks like.
  • Page 7 of the “Salt and Soda Firing” printable guide: salt or soda, shown with the sample watermark
    Salt or sodaThe two materials side by side: how each goes in, what leaves the kiln, how far it reaches, the surface it leaves and what it does to the kiln.
  • Page 9 of the “Salt and Soda Firing” printable guide: the clay body is the glaze recipe, shown with the sample watermark
    The clay body is the glaze recipeSilica, alumina, iron, grog and flashing slips, and what each one does when the sodium arrives.
  • Page 22 of the “Salt and Soda Firing” printable guide: every pot i sent to a vapor firing, and how it came out, shown with the sample watermark
    Every pot I sent to a vapor firing, and how it came outA log to write in: the clay and slip, where the pot sat, the wadding and how the surface came out.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

Read it cold, before the firing

A vapor firing is hours of other people’s work and one chance. Learning it from a page you have already read suits that.

  • The order, where you can find it

    The nine moves of a firing and the rules for wadding are on the page in order, with the reason for each. Nothing to scrub through with clay on your hands.

  • A reason for every rule

    Wad every place two surfaces touch. Leave gaps. Line the inside. Each rule comes with the reason, so you know what you are looking at when a pot comes out welded or bare.

  • A log for your own pots

    Columns for the clay and slip, where the pot sat, the wadding and how it came out. Position is the variable people forget to record.

  • A page stays where you put it

    Set it beside the clay you are choosing, or read it on the way to the kiln. Reading it on paper first means the questions you want to ask are already written down.

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.

  • Plain about food safety

    A vapor fired surface is judged pot by pot. The guide says we cannot promise it for a firing we do not run, and tells you to line the inside of anything for food or drink.

  • A safety brief that covers both

    Salt makes hydrogen chloride and soda does not, but both belong outdoors with a real stack. The gear list covers salt, soda and the ports.

  • Honest about where it happens

    We do not run a salt or soda kiln. The guide says where these firings do happen and what a guest firing usually asks of you.

  • Video notes that say what the videos say

    Every video is another potter’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 “Salt and Soda Firing” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Nothing goes in a bucket. Sodium rides the flame and turns the surface of the clay itself into glass.

If you want to talk it through before you sign up for somebody’s firing, come and ask us.

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 sit beside 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 salt or soda fire at The Clay Hole?
No. We do not run a salt or soda kiln, and the guide says so plainly. It is for walking into somebody else’s firing at a university, a community studio, a residency or a workshop knowing what you are looking at.
Can I do this in an electric kiln?
No. Sodium vapor destroys the elements, and an electric kiln has no flame to carry the vapor, no draft to move it and no stack. The guide explains why, and what to try instead.
Is salt or soda fired pottery food safe?
Sometimes, and the guide does not promise it. A well melted surface is a good start, but food safety is judged pot by pot, so the guide tells you to put a liner glaze inside anything for food or drink and to treat a dry, gritty surface as unsafe.
Does the guide replace the safety brief at a real kiln?
No. It tells you why the rules exist, such as hydrogen chloride from salt and alkaline soda ash, and what people wear. The people running the kiln decide how their firing runs.
Are the videos yours?
No. Each one is another potter’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 clay, the wadding, the loading and the order of a firing for anyone. Where a line is only ours, the guide says so.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Advanced. It helps to have thrown or built 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 summary and the pot 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.

Aim the pot

Choose the clay, wad the foot, keep notes on where it sat, and ask the people running the kiln before you make anything. The guide keeps every step in front of you before the door goes on.

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.

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Terms version 2026-09-19b