The Clay Hole University · Surface and Decoration
Surface Design: The Giant GuidePrintable pottery guide
Read the whole menu of surface decoration once, sort any technique by when it happens in a pot’s life, pick three to learn first, and keep a log of every pot you try.
- Skill level: Beginner
- 19 printable pages
- 2 video picks
- 5-question quiz + answer key
- Instant download
- Prints on any printer
- The lesson stays free
What is the Surface Design: The Giant Guide printable guide?
It is the surface design lesson on paper: twenty-five techniques in six families (carve and impress, add on, slip and underglaze, resists, colored clay, and glaze and after), the stage of the pot each one belongs to, and three questions that sort any technique. It says what our kilns do to a burnished shine and to decals and lusters, and it sets out a six pot sampler, one pot for each family. A one page summary for the bench and a log for every pot. Built to be printed and written on.
Prefer to read it online first? The “Surface Design: The Giant Guide” lesson is free, and always will be.
- 19printable pages, US Letter
- 5quiz questions, with a full answer key
- 2hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
- 16glossary terms in plain language
- 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Pick three, and give each one a month
A menu of twenty-five techniques is easy to read and hard to use. The usual result is one of everything, tried once, and nothing learned deep. The guide sorts the menu by the moment each technique happens in a pot’s life, because that decides your week more than your taste does.
Three questions do the sorting: when does it happen, does it cut in, sit on or soak in, and is it one color or many. Answer them for a technique and you know whether it fits the pot you have in front of you. Then the plan is plain: one technique from each of three families, a month each.
On paper the plan stays where you can see it. The six pot sampler has a tick box for each family, the pot log has a column for what you would change, and the one page summary pins up at the bench. Somewhere in the first month a technique stops fighting you, and the log is how you notice.
Real pages, for the bench beside your work
These are actual pages from the guide, shown here with the sample watermark.
Before you beginThe learning dashboard: what you will learn, what to have on the bench, the things worth knowing before you start, the common pitfalls, and what success looks like. 
Add on, and slip and underglazeTwo of the six families. Each technique has its card, its stage window up front, and a pointer to the full lesson where we have one. 
The six pot samplerOne pot for each family, with a tick box each. It is the plan that stops you trying everything once. 
Every pot, and what it taught youA log to write in: the family, the technique, the stage it went on at, what happened, and whether to keep, change or drop it. The last column is the one that picks your three.
A menu is easier to choose from when you can write on it
Choosing is the hard part of surface design, and choosing is easier with a pencil.
The stage windows, side by side
Each family names when in a pot’s life it works. On a printed page you can set that beside the pot on your board and see what is still possible.
A sampler you can tick
Six pots, one for each family, each with a box. It is a small thing, and it is what turns a menu into a plan.
A log that holds the choice
The pot log has a column for keep, change or drop, and two lines at the foot for your three. By the third month you will not remember which technique won.
One page for the bench
The one page summary has the six families, the three questions, what to know at the studio, and the sampler. It pins up for the moments when your hands are in clay.
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.
The count checked
The lesson said twenty-seven techniques. We counted the cards and there are twenty-five, so the lesson and the guide now say twenty-five everywhere.
Underglaze on raw clay
The lesson had underglaze going on bisque. Our underglaze lesson says raw clay, leather hard or bone dry, then the bisque firing. The guide and the lesson now say so.
What survives our kilns
A burnished shine mostly does not survive our glaze firing, and decals, lusters and overglaze need their own extra firing, arranged first. The guide says both, and says to hand wash overglaze and keep gold off rims.
Video picks that say what they are
Each video note says only what we could check against its description, chapters and frames: a slide overview in one case, an underglaze demo with its chapters in the other. We say no more than that.
A quiz that explains itself
A short quiz, and an answer key that gives the reason behind every answer rather than only the letter, worded to match the corrected lesson.
Codes that keep working
Every link, video picks included, is a short Clay Hole address. If a video moves, we repoint the address and your printed copy still goes to the right place.
The lesson is free. It always will be.
All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Surface Design: The Giant Guide” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.
It is easy to try one of everything and end up with a shelf of pots that all say nothing in particular.
So use this as a menu and not a to do list. Pick one technique from three different families and give each a month.
The pages are sorted by when in a pot’s life each technique happens, because that decides your week more than your taste does.
Dan Pearce, founder of The Clay Hole
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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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.
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Guide 10.02 · free lessonCarving and SgraffitoFamily one in full: the tools, the leather hard window, and the slip to scratch through, for when carving is the door you chose.
Read the free lesson -
Guide 10.01 · free lessonHow to Use UnderglazeFamily three is the biggest on the menu. This lesson has the brush work and the rules for where underglaze goes and when it gets fired.
Read the free lesson -
Guide 10.12 · free lesson40 Ways to Add Texture, and When to Apply EachThis guide gives each texture technique a line. That one gives forty, sorted by when to apply them, for when you want the whole list.
Read the free lesson
Good to know
How is this different from the free lesson?
What do I need to try it?
Is this too early for me?
Do I need a fancy printer?
Does it print in black and white?
Can I print just part of it?
Can I read it on a screen instead?
How does delivery work?
What happens if the guide is updated?
Can I share it?
Three techniques, three months, one log
Read the menu once, sort a technique with the three questions, make the six pots, and write down what each one taught you. Then pick your three. The guide keeps the whole menu in front of you while you decide.
Get the guide · $20.00