You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 06.07

The Clay Hole University · Advanced Throwing

Throwing a Donut VasePrintable pottery guide

Two ways to make a hollow ring, twelve ways it goes wrong, and the neck that turns a pot into a piece.

$10.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Advanced
  • 33 printable pages
  • 8 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 Throwing a Donut Vase printable guide?

It is a printable workbook edition of The Clay Hole University’s free “Throwing a Donut Vase” lesson. It covers the seven parts of the form, the two methods compared, each one step by step, everything that goes wrong, and the drying, firing and glazing of a pot with a hole through the middle of it. Then it covers the optional part that turns it into a piece, which is the neck, three ways. On paper it adds a row for every donut including the wrecked ones, a one page card for beside the wheel, a quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Throwing a Donut Vase” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 33printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 8hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

This one is mostly words, and that is the point

A donut vase is not a shape you can learn by watching somebody make one. The camera shows you a ring appearing. It does not show you the inner wall, the seam, or the decision about which method you committed to twenty minutes ago.

Which is why the lesson is mostly words, and why the printable version of it is the one that actually helps. There is no useful moment in this build to be squinting at a video.

Print it, pick your method before you sit down, and keep the twelve failures where you can see them. Then write the row for the one you just wrecked, because with this form the wrecked ones are where all the information is.

Look inside

Real pages, for a form the camera cannot show you

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

  • Page 6 of the “Throwing a Donut Vase” printable guide: the seven parts, shown with the sample watermark
    The seven partsWhat a donut vase actually is, named part by part, so the rest of the guide has something to point at.
  • Page 8 of the “Throwing a Donut Vase” printable guide: method one, closed on the wheel, shown with the sample watermark
    Method one, closed on the wheelThe first of the two routes, step by step, with the inner wall and the seam given the space they need.
  • Page 15 of the “Throwing a Donut Vase” printable guide: everything that goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    Everything that goes wrongTwelve failures with what really caused each one, and a box to tick for the ones that keep happening to you.
  • Page 19 of the “Throwing a Donut Vase” printable guide: the donut log, shown with the sample watermark
    The donut logOne row for every donut, wrecked ones included, because the wrecked ones are where the information is.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

Why this form, of all of them, belongs on paper

The decisions in a donut vase are made early and cannot be undone, and none of them are visible in a video. Paper is where you can actually hold them.

  • It stays open through a long build

    This is not a twenty minute pot. Prop it against the splash pan and work down the method without trying to remember what came next.

  • It makes you choose a method on purpose

    The two routes diverge before you center, and you cannot change your mind halfway. Circle the one you are taking while the clay is still in the bag.

  • It keeps the twelve failures in front of you

    Tick the ones that describe your pots. After a few attempts the pattern is on the page and the cause is printed beside it.

  • One card lives by the wheel for good

    Closing the form, closing the ring, what has to be true before it is fired, and the three routes to a neck, on a single page.

How the guide is built

Built for a build that takes longer than your memory

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 tray, the mistakes that get made first, and what a good ring actually looks like before it dries.

  • The complete lesson, redesigned for paper

    The seven parts, the two methods compared, and each one step by step, with the seam and the inner wall given the space they need.

  • The neck, as its own exercise

    The optional part that turns a pot into a piece, three ways to get one, and why the neck is what people actually remember about a donut vase.

  • Drying, firing and glazing a ring

    What has to be true before a hollow form with a hole through it goes anywhere near a kiln.

  • Videos you can reach from a printed page

    Eight 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 inner wall and the seam to the vent hole and the S-crack, written the way we would explain it at the wheel.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Throwing a Donut Vase” lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no catch.

The donut vase is the pot people point at across a studio, and it looks like a trick until somebody explains the ring. Explaining it properly should not cost anything, so the lesson stays free, for anybody, anywhere.

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 06.07, the seventh guide in Advanced Throwing. 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
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Where this leads

What to learn once you have made one that survived

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 donut you attempt, a one page card for beside the wheel, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Which of the two methods should I use?
The guide compares them properly and says which it would start you on. The important part is that you choose before you center, because the two routes stop being interchangeable almost immediately.
Why is this guide mostly words rather than pictures?
Because the parts that decide a donut vase are the inner wall, the seam and the method, and a camera pointed at a wheel shows you none of them. The videos are there for the hands, and the words are there for everything else.
Does it need a vent hole?
Yes, and the guide says exactly what has to be true before it is fired. A sealed ring full of air and moisture in a kiln is a problem for everyone’s work, not only yours.
Do I have to make the neck?
No, and the guide is honest that it is optional. It is also the part that turns a competent donut into a piece somebody stops to look at, so there are three routes to one rather than a single prescription.
How many will I wreck?
A few, and the log has a row for them on purpose. With this form the failures carry more information than the successes, which is exactly why they are worth writing down.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. It is about the form and what your hands do, wherever you throw. 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.

Go wreck a few

Print it tonight. Pick your method before you sit down, keep the twelve failures where you can see them, and write the row either way.

Get the printable · $10.00

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