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The Clay Hole University Ā· Project Guides

Stopperless Salt Shakers That Fill from BelowPrintable pottery guide

The whole shaker, in the order you build it: the tube that stops short, the two hole sizes, and the wax that keeps the glaze from closing them.

$7.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Advanced
  • 23 printable pages
  • 5 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 Stopperless Salt Shakers That Fill from Below printable guide?

It is the shaker on paper: how the tube inside keeps the salt in, how tall it has to be and how to measure it with a needle, the base hole and the join, the sixteenth of an inch and eighth of an inch holes for salt and pepper, what to wax before the glaze goes on, and how to fill one and shake it. Built to be printed, ticked off at the wheel and kept on the bench.

Prefer to read it online first? The ā€œStopperless Salt Shakers That Fill from Belowā€ lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 23printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 5hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the pot with no cork

It only looks like a trick

Somebody picks it up, turns it over and goes looking for the stopper. There is not one. A tube inside runs from a hole in the base to a mouth two thirds of the way up, and that tube is the whole design.

Whether it holds the salt or spills it comes down to how tall the tube is compared with the pot around it, and you find that out with a needle before anything is joined, not at the table afterwards. The two hole sizes are the other half. Too small and the salt bridges, too big and it pours.

None of it is hard on its own. It is a closed form, a small cone and a careful join, all on one small pot. The guide puts every measurement next to a tick box, so you are not trying to remember a sixteenth of an inch from a video.

Look inside

Real pages, for a bench with a funnel on it

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

  • Page 3 of the ā€œStopperless Salt Shakers That Fill from Belowā€ printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you touch clay: what you will learn, what to have on the bench, what is worth knowing, the pitfalls, and what a working shaker looks like.
  • Page 6 of the ā€œStopperless Salt Shakers That Fill from Belowā€ printable guide: what you need at the wheel, shown with the sample watermark
    What you need at the wheelSix things, and the one people forget until the holes are glazed shut. Step one starts underneath, with a tick list to work from.
  • Page 10 of the ā€œStopperless Salt Shakers That Fill from Belowā€ printable guide: five videos, four potters, shown with the sample watermark
    Five videos, four pottersA QR code beside each film, so you can watch the sixty second build on your phone and keep your hands on the page. None of the potters is one of us.
  • Page 16 of the ā€œStopperless Salt Shakers That Fill from Belowā€ printable guide: every shaker, and how tall you made the tube, shown with the sample watermark
    Every shaker, and how tall you made the tubeA log to write in: salt or pepper, body height, tube height, hole size and what happened. Two rows in and the second pair starts from numbers instead of memory.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A sixteenth of an inch is not something you remember

A stopperless shaker is a few measurements, made over a few days, with clay on your hands in between. Paper suits that.

  • The numbers sit beside the tick boxes

    Half an inch for the base hole, two thirds to three quarters for the tube, a sixteenth and an eighth for the holes. Each one is next to the step that needs it, not buried in a video.

  • It holds still

    A page stays where you left it while you score and slip a join with both hands. It does not time out, and it does not need slip wiped off the screen.

  • A number to write down

    The log has a column for the tube height and one for what happened. The second pair starts from a measurement instead of a hunch.

  • One page for the wheel

    The one page summary has the six moves, the numbers, how to fill one and what to look for when it goes wrong. It pins up beside the wheel.

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.

  • A capacity claim, corrected

    The lesson said a taller tube holds more salt. Worked through, it holds less, because filling upside down only takes what fits between the top holes and the mouth of the tube. The guide and the free lesson now say so.

  • Wet, and in a respirator

    Opening a glazed shut hole with a diamond bit puts silica dust in the air. Where the lesson said ā€œwith a maskā€, the guide says wet and never dry, in an N95 or better.

  • Brush only

    Glazing is brush only. Both ends of the tube are open, so a dipped shaker can take glaze in through the holes, and the guide no longer offers the dip.

  • Written for any studio

    Our cone numbers, our clay and our firing prices are named as ours and dated, so a reader working somewhere else knows which parts are a Clay Hole fact and which are a rule of the craft.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    Eight questions, and an answer key that gives the reason behind every answer rather than only the letter.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a video 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 ā€œStopperless Salt Shakers That Fill from Belowā€ lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Hand somebody one of these and they turn it over looking for the cork. They will not find one.

What makes it work is one measurement: the height of the tube compared with the pot it lives in.

It is a forgiving mistake as mistakes go, and you will only make it once.

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 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, a tick list at every step, a log to write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Do I need a wheel?
Yes. The body is a closed form thrown and collared shut, and the tube is a small cone thrown off the hump or on a bat. There is no hand built route in this one.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Advanced, and not because any one part is new. You close a form, throw a tiny cone and make a join you cannot look at again, all on one small pot, and the holes are hard to change once the kiln has them. If you already close forms, the tube is the only new idea.
What do I need besides clay?
A sponge on a stick, a stiff rib, a half inch hole cutter or a needle and a knife, a ruler or a marked needle tool, a tiny coil and a wooden tool, a fine needle, wax resist and a kiln cookie to fire it on. The guide lists all of it on the dashboard.
Does the inside need glazing?
No, and it cannot be reached anyway. The guide explains why a bare inside is fine on stoneware fired to vitrification, and how to keep the salt dry.
Can I make a pepper shaker the same way?
Yes. Only the holes change, an eighth of an inch instead of a sixteenth, and the guide says how to mark which is which so two identical shakers on a table are not a guessing game.
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. It is designed to stay readable in grayscale, and the pages that matter most at the wheel, the tick lists and the one page summary, were checked that way on purpose.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The one page summary and the log are the two worth having by the wheel. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
Can I read it on a screen instead?
Yes. It is an ordinary PDF and it reads fine on a tablet or a phone. The workbook pages are the ones that want paper, because you write on them.
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 beside the wheel 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.

Measure the tube first, and the rest is patience

Get the tube to two thirds, size the holes for what has to come out of them, and wax every one before the glaze goes on. Do those three and the rest is a closed form you already know how to throw. Skip any of them and no amount of skill at the wheel will save it, which is why this one is worth reading before you cut into the clay rather than after.

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