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The Clay Hole University · Trimming, Handles and Drying

The Hanging Heat Lamps: When to Use Them and When Not ToPrintable pottery guide

When a heat lamp saves a soft piece and when it splits one: the slab mold clock, the short burst method for everything else, what goes over a piece the minute it comes out, and what to do when it goes wrong.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 24 printable pages
  • 4 video picks
  • 7-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 The Hanging Heat Lamps: When to Use Them and When Not To printable guide?

It is the lamp rulebook on paper: what a lamp really does to wet clay, the four jobs it is good for and the five it is not, a timed method for a piece on a slab mold, a shorter one for anything off a mold, what to do the minute a piece comes out, and what each fault is telling you. Built to be printed, kept beside the lamp and written on.

Prefer to read it online first? The “The Hanging Heat Lamps” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 24printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 4hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 15glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the night you are out of time

The lamp is a loan, and the clock is how you repay it

The class is nearly over, the slab is still soft on its mold, and there is nowhere to put a soft piece. A heat lamp turns that into a few minutes of waiting. It also dries the side that faces it and leaves the inside wet, which is why the same lamp that saves one piece splits the next.

Nearly every problem comes down to the same few things: how long, how often it was turned, what else was on the piece, and whether anyone stayed. They are small, easy checks to skip with clay on your hands and the room emptying out.

The guide sets them in the order you do them, puts the times where you can find them without stopping, and has a page to write down every piece you put under the lamp and how it held.

Look inside

Real pages, for a bench next to a lamp

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

  • Page 3 of the “The Hanging Heat Lamps: When to Use Them and When Not To” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you turn the lamp on: what you will learn, what to have on the bench, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, and what a good result looks like.
  • Page 8 of the “The Hanging Heat Lamps: When to Use Them and When Not To” printable guide: the slab mold clock, shown with the sample watermark
    The slab mold clockStep two, on one page: a timer, a quarter turn and a knuckle test at five, ten and fifteen minutes, why the clock matters, and what goes wrong when it runs long.
  • Page 12 of the “The Hanging Heat Lamps: When to Use Them and When Not To” printable guide: six things that go wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    Six things that go wrongTwo of the four video picks with their codes, then the start of the troubleshooting section: what caused each fault and what to do differently next time.
  • Page 17 of the “The Hanging Heat Lamps: When to Use Them and When Not To” printable guide: every piece i put under the lamp, shown with the sample watermark
    Every piece I put under the lampA log to write in: whether it was on a mold, how long, how many quarter turns, how it held and what to change. A few rows in, the next piece gets the right minute instead of a guess.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A timer needs something to check against

Using a lamp well is a handful of times and a few checks, made with clay on your hands and a room that is emptying out. Paper suits that.

  • The times sit beside the steps

    The check at five, ten and fifteen minutes is on the same page as the reason for it, not somewhere in a long video.

  • It holds still

    A page stays where you put it while you turn a mold with both hands. It does not lock its screen and it does not mind slip.

  • A number to write down

    The log has columns for minutes and quarter turns. After a few pieces you know your own lamp better than any table can tell you.

  • One page for the lamp

    The one page rule has what goes under, the clock, what happens the minute a piece comes out, and what to look at when it goes wrong. It pins up beside the lamp.

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

    The bone dry test, glaze coats, collaring a thin wall, heat guns and flat work were each checked against the lesson that teaches them, and where two lessons disagreed, the guide and the free lesson were made to agree.

  • Video notes that say what the video shows

    Four notes in the free lesson described things the videos do not show. We checked each against the video’s own description, chapter list and frames, and rewrote them in the guide and in the lesson.

  • Written for any studio

    Where The Clay Hole does something its own way, the guide names it, so a reader working somewhere else knows which line is a Clay Hole rule and which is the craft.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    A short quiz, 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.

  • A page to keep by the lamp

    The one page rule is the whole job on a single sheet, for when your hands are full of clay.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “The Hanging Heat Lamps” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Clay that dries fast does not hand the time back later. It takes it out of the piece.

Set the timer, stay close, turn the work, and take the piece out while it is still a little softer than you think it needs to be.

You can always give it another minute. You cannot take one back.

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
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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 log to write in, a one page rule, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Can I use a heat lamp to dry a finished piece?
No. A lamp dries the surface that faces it and leaves the inside wet, and that skin cracks when the inside finally shrinks. A lamp is for stiffening a soft piece so it can come off a mold or hold its shape. A finished piece goes on a plastic bat under a cotton sheet and takes the days it takes.
How long can a piece stay under the lamp?
On a slab mold the guide gives a clock: check and turn at five, ten and fifteen minutes, and take it off the moment an edge lifts clean, never past twenty. Off a mold it is seconds to a couple of minutes, turning, and stopping when the surface goes matte.
Does it cover heat guns?
Yes. A heat gun is a lamp you can point, so the same rules apply, doubled: closer, hotter, a skin in seconds, and never at a base or a join.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Intermediate. You need to be able to judge how firm clay is by touch. The rest is a timer and the habit of staying next to the lamp.
What do I need besides clay?
A heat lamp or a heat gun and a timer, a plastic bat, a cotton sheet, a bat or a folded rag to shield a base or a join, and a slab mold if the piece is on one. The guide lists all of it on the dashboard.
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. Nothing in it depends on color to make sense: 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 rule and the piece log are the two worth having by the lamp. 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 lamp 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.

Set the timer, and stay next to it

A piece on a slab mold gets a check at five, ten and fifteen minutes and comes off the moment an edge lifts clean. The checks take almost no time and decide whether the piece stays in one piece. The guide keeps them in front of you at the bench.

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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.

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