You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 05.14

The Clay Hole University Ā· The Pottery Wheel

Throwing Bigger: Jumping Up in Clay SizePrintable pottery guide

Twice the clay is not twice the work. It is a different job. A ten rung ladder from one pound to twenty, the bracing that takes over when arm strength runs out, and twelve diagnoses for the pot that just died.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 34 printable pages
  • 6 video picks
  • 8-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 printable edition of Throwing Bigger: Jumping Up in Clay Size?

It is the free lesson of the same name, rebuilt as a workbook, and it is built around a ladder. Ten rungs, from one pound to twenty and past it, each with what that weight makes and what the next rung breaks first. Around the ladder sits the rest of the job: the preparation that happens before the wheel is switched on, centering by bracing and leaning rather than squeezing, opening a wide floor and measuring it instead of guessing, five to eight pulls rather than three, and what water and time do to a wall that has been spinning for half an hour. Then the ceiling, where one lump runs out of reach and big work starts being thrown in pieces, and twelve diagnoses for failures that only appear once you add clay. On paper it adds a rung log, a one page card for the splash pan, a quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? ā€œThrowing Bigger: Jumping Up in Clay Sizeā€ is free to read, and always will be.

  • 34printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 6hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

The ladder is the whole idea

Almost nobody gets bigger by grabbing more clay. They jump from two pounds to six, eleven things change at once, the pot dies, and the only lesson available is that six pounds is hard.

So the guide is built around a ladder instead. Ten rungs, and the jumps are deliberately smaller than you want them to be: half a pound under three, a pound from three to eight, two above eight. A small jump keeps almost everything the same and changes one thing, so when that one thing goes wrong you know exactly what it was.

The last column is the one that earns the paper. It tells you what is going to break first at the next weight, so that when it breaks you can say ah, right, that, instead of deciding you are bad at pottery.

Look inside

Real pages, for the splash pan side of the wheel

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

  • Page 6 of the ā€œThrowing Bigger: Jumping Up in Clay Sizeā€ printable guide: one rung at a time, shown with the sample watermark
    One rung at a timeFour lines on how to actually use the guide, then the ladderā€™s own rule: every weight is a direction rather than a law, and the last column is what will break first.
  • Page 8 of the ā€œThrowing Bigger: Jumping Up in Clay Sizeā€ printable guide: before you sit down, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you sit downWhy the jumps are so small, in pounds, then the preparation that decides it: real wedging time, clay cut off the bag at hip height, and clay a little softer than you would use for a mug.
  • Page 10 of the ā€œThrowing Bigger: Jumping Up in Clay Sizeā€ printable guide: centering big, shown with the sample watermark
    Centering bigSeven things that change when the lump gets heavy: faster wheel, elbows locked into the body, lean rather than push, stacked hands, more coning, and finishing at the base.
  • Page 17 of the ā€œThrowing Bigger: Jumping Up in Clay Sizeā€ printable guide: the rung log, shown with the sample watermark
    The rung logTen rows, five to a rung: the weight, how many pulls it took, what the needle said about the floor, and which of the twelve diagnoses matched when it went wrong.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

A card that does not mind clay to the elbow

A ten pound pot takes most of an hour, and none of that hour is a good time to be scrolling a phone with wet hands.

  • The big pot card

    Setting up, centering, opening and pulling, and the four signs that say stop, on one page against the splash pan.

  • A rung log

    One row a pot, five rows to a rung. After ten rows the thing that keeps breaking first is written down rather than remembered.

  • The ladder, on the wall

    Ten weights, what each one makes, and what the next rung breaks. It is a reference you look at before you weigh the clay, not while you read.

  • Twelve diagnoses

    The pot is already in the bucket. You want the page that says which failure that was, not a search box.

How the guide is built

Built for the person about to weigh out more clay

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, the traps, and what success looks like.

  • The ladder, early and in full

    Ten rungs from one pound to twenty and past it, each with what it makes and what the next one breaks first.

  • The part before the wheel is on

    Wedging that takes real minutes, clay cut off the bag rather than carried, a table at about hip height, and clay softer than mug clay.

  • Bracing, not strength

    Where the force comes from once arms stop being enough: elbows locked in, leaning from the hips, hands stacked, and the base finished last.

  • Twelve diagnoses and a ceiling

    Every failure that only shows up once you add clay, and the point where a pot stops being thrown taller and starts being thrown in pieces.

  • Codes that keep working

    Six hand-picked videos, each on a short Clay Hole address, so a printed copy keeps working when a video moves.

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€œThrowing Bigger: Jumping Up in Clay Sizeā€ lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no catch.

I have watched teenagers throw ten pounds and watched people who deadlift twice that fail at five. Strength is not the gate. Bracing, posture and patience are, and nobody should have to pay to be told that, so the lesson stays free.

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 05.14, the fourteenth guide in The Pottery Wheel. 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, or every printable we sell on one page.

  • 5guides in your cart1 on us
  • 9guides in your cart2 on us
Where this leads

The rungs below this one, and the one above

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 rung log, a one page card for the wheel, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Do I need to be strong for this?
No, and that is most of the point. There is a weight, usually somewhere between three and five pounds, where arm strength stops being enough for anybody. What replaces it is bracing: elbows locked into your body, leaning from the hips, and letting your weight do the work. The guide teaches that changeover rather than trying to get you through it with effort.
How much should I add at a time?
Less than you want to. Half a pound under three pounds, a pound from three to eight, and two pounds above eight, staying at each weight until it stops being interesting. A small jump changes one thing at a time, which is the only way to learn what broke.
How many pulls should a big pot take?
Five to eight, not three. This is a deliberate disagreement with our own wheel lessons, which teach three pulls and maybe four at mug weights, and the guide says so plainly rather than hiding it. Each pull can only move so much wall, and more clay means more wall to move.
Where do big lumps actually fail?
At the base, nearly always. The classic failure is a centered top sitting on an off-center base, because that is the part furthest from where your hands naturally sit. The guide has you get low, put the pressure into the bottom third, and finish there.
Why does my pot crack across the bottom afterwards?
Compression is half of it. The other half is how the piece dried and how thick the floor was left, and a floor left much thicker than the wall is its own cause. The guide gives all three rather than blaming one, which is what the rest of the University teaches too.
Is there a limit to how big one lump can go?
Yes, and it is about reach rather than strength. You cannot pull a wall taller than your forearm can comfortably get down inside it. Past that, big work is thrown in pieces and joined, which is a different skill with its own rules, and the guide points you at it rather than pretending otherwise.
Do I need a scale?
Yes, and it is the cheapest thing on the list. The whole method depends on every lump being the weight you meant it to be, because a rung you only estimated is not a rung.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. Weight, bracing and pull counts work the same on any wheel. Where a fact is about our studio, such as our clay bodies or our equipment, the guide says so and dates it.
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 check that every QR code still scans from a soft grayscale home print.
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 donā€™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.

One rung. Five in a row. Then move.

Print it, prop the card against the splash pan, and put the next ten pots on the log.

Get the printable · $5.00

The Clay Hole University Printable Guide Terms

Licensing, safety, digital delivery, and refund terms

Your copy is yours. The guide is not.

Your purchase gives one individual purchaser a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for personal use only. You may download the guide to your own devices, print copies for your own use, write all over them, spill clay water on them, replace a coffee-damaged copy, and generally use the heck out of what you bought.

What you may not do is distribute the guide to anyone else, whether you charge for it or not.

That means you may not share, forward, email, upload, post, publish, copy, reproduce, resell, sublicense, redistribute, or otherwise provide the guide, or any substantial portion of it, to another person. You may not place it in a shared drive, group chat, membership library, online community, file-sharing service, studio resource folder, classroom packet, employee handbook, course, workshop, or other shared collection. You may not make copies for students, members, employees, friends, classes, studios, schools, groups, or organizations.

You may not remove or obscure copyright notices, watermarks, attribution, or other ownership information, or sell, republish, or commercially exploit modified or derivative versions of the guide.

Purchasing the guide does not transfer ownership of its copyrighted text, photographs, illustrations, graphics, layouts, worksheets, or other original content. Those rights remain with The Clay Hole and their respective rights holders. Copyright law protects the expression contained in these guides, while ideas, methods, techniques, and processes may have different legal treatment.

If you would like to use one of our guides with a class, studio, school, team, or other group, contact The Clay Hole about permission or group licensing. Please do not make twenty copies and call it manifesting.

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 studioā€™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 studioā€™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.

Ceramics also refuses to sign contracts promising beautiful results. Colors change. Glazes move. Kilns have opinions. Pots crack. Materials interact unexpectedly. Manufacturers reformulate products. Equipment behaves differently. The Clay Hole does not guarantee any particular aesthetic, functional, firing, glazing, structural, or other result.

By choosing to use the information in a guide, you accept responsibility for your own materials, equipment, workspace, safety decisions, testing, methods, and results. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, The Clay Hole and its owners, employees, contributors, and affiliates are not responsible for injury, illness, property damage, lost work, failed projects, kiln or equipment damage, financial loss, or other loss arising from or related to your use of, or reliance upon, the guide.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any right or liability that applicable law does not allow us to exclude or limit.

Digital guides, immediate delivery, and refunds

These are digital products delivered electronically and made available for use immediately after purchase. Unlike a physical book, a downloaded digital file cannot meaningfully be returned to us once it has been delivered.

By completing your purchase and requesting immediate access to the guide, you consent to digital delivery beginning immediately. Where applicable law provides a cancellation or withdrawal period for digital content, you acknowledge that beginning the download, access, or delivery of the digital content may cause that cancellation or withdrawal right to end.

Once access to or delivery of the purchased digital guide has begun, the purchase is final and non-refundable except where a refund, replacement, cancellation, or other remedy is required by applicable law.

If the file you receive is corrupted, inaccessible, materially different from what was described, or there is a genuine technical problem with delivery, please contact us. We would much rather fix the problem than leave you staring angrily at a PDF that refuses to PDF.

Terms version 2026-09-19b