You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 05.16

The Clay Hole University · The Pottery Wheel

Throwing BlindfoldedPrintable pottery guide

An exercise, not a party trick. One pound, a slow wheel, a spotter, three counted pulls, and a cross section that tells you what your hands already knew and your eyes talked you out of.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Intermediate
  • 24 printable pages
  • 5 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 Blindfolded?

It is the free lesson of the same name, rebuilt as a workbook. It opens with why your eyes overrule your hands and what that costs you, then gives the whole exercise in six moves for anybody who just wants the shape of it. After that come the six things to have at the wheel first, one of which is a person, and then four steps in full: setting up so that nothing can go wrong that matters, centering by the knock and holding three turns longer than you want to, opening where the clay pushes back evenly and taking three counted pulls, and finally cutting the pot in half and writing down what the cross section showed. Then six ways it goes wrong, each one something your hands would have told you about. On paper it adds a log, a one page card to read before the blindfold goes on, a quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? “Throwing Blindfolded” is free to read, and always will be.

  • 24printable 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
Why a printable, for this one

The pot was never the point

Your eyes are very good at telling you a lump is centered when your hands are still feeling a knock once a revolution. Given the choice, most potters believe their eyes, ease off early, and then spend a year wondering why their walls come out uneven.

Covering your eyes for one pound of clay takes that vote away. The knock is the only signal left, so you hold until it fades and then hold three turns longer, and afterwards you wire the pot in half and read what actually happened.

It is an exercise with a report card, not a dare. That is also why it needs a page you can read before the blindfold goes on, because once it is on you cannot read anything at all.

Look inside

Real pages, to read before the blindfold goes on

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

  • Page 5 of the “Throwing Blindfolded” printable guide: the whole exercise in six moves, shown with the sample watermark
    The whole exercise in six movesSet up so you cannot get hurt, brace and center by the pulse, open by where it pushes back, three counted pulls, hands off slowly, then cut it in half and look.
  • Page 6 of the “Throwing Blindfolded” printable guide: what you need at the wheel, shown with the sample watermark
    What you need at the wheelSix things before anything is covered, one of them a person, and the one to take seriously last: every sharp tool off the tray, because you will reach for them.
  • Page 7 of the “Throwing Blindfolded” printable guide: the setup tick list, shown with the sample watermark
    The setup tick listFive boxes before you start: clay weighed and wedged, hair back and splash pan on, a slow wheel with your foot on the pedal, your neighbor told, and the lump centered once with your eyes open.
  • Page 14 of the “Throwing Blindfolded” printable guide: the log, shown with the sample watermark
    The logEight rows, one each time: the clay, the pulls you counted, what the cross section showed, and the useful column, the thing your hands reported and your eyes overruled.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

You cannot read anything once it is on

This is the rare lesson where a screen is no use at the moment you need it, so the whole exercise fits on one card you read first.

  • The blindfold card

    What to have at the wheel, the setup, the four things you are feeling for, and how it ends, on a single page.

  • A log

    Eight rows, one per attempt, ending with the column that matters: what your hands knew and your eyes overruled.

  • The setup, as a tick list

    Boxes rather than paragraphs, because this is the part nobody should be improvising.

  • Six ways it goes wrong

    Pick the one that looks like your wheel, and read what your hands were trying to tell you at the time.

How the guide is built

Built as an exercise, with a report card

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, including who this one is not for yet.

  • The short version first

    Six moves for anybody who already centers reliably and just wants the shape of it, with the rest of the guide as the slowed down version.

  • The setup treated as a list

    Six things at the wheel, five boxes before you start, a slow wheel with your foot on the pedal, and a person nearby who knows what you are doing.

  • Four steps, with a tick list each

    Setting up, centering by the knock, opening and three counted pulls, and the look at the end.

  • The cross section, read properly

    Wire it top to bottom and write down where the wall is thick, where it is thin, how thick the floor is and whether the base is centered.

  • Codes that keep working

    Five 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 “Throwing Blindfolded” lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no catch.

Your eyes lie to you about centering, and you will believe them over your hands every single time until you take the vote away for ten minutes. That is worth knowing whoever taught you, 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 05.16, the sixteenth 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

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

The same moves, with the lights on

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 log, a one page card to read before you start, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Is this safe?
It is a spinning machine you cannot see, so the setup is treated as a safety list rather than a suggestion. One pound of clay and no more, hair back and sleeves rolled, the splash pan on, every sharp tool off the tray, the wheel slower than you normally throw with your foot already on the pedal, and a person at the next wheel who has been told what you are doing and is willing to say stop. The wheel is stopped with your foot before anything comes off your eyes.
Is this a party trick?
No, and the guide is careful about that. It is a feel exercise with a specific outcome: you find the one thing your hands already knew and your eyes overruled, and then you go and fix it with the lights on.
Am I ready for it?
Only if you already center reliably with your eyes open. This is an intermediate guide and it says plainly that if centering is still a struggle sighted, this one waits for you. It is not a shortcut past learning to center.
Do I really need somebody with me?
Yes. That is one of the six things on the list, and it is the only one that is a person. They need to know what you are doing and be willing to stop you, and on a class night the guide says to ask the instructor first.
How do I know when it is centered if I cannot see it?
An off-center lump knocks against your hands once every turn. That knock is the whole signal. You press in and slightly down with your elbows braced on your thighs until it fades, then keep pressing for three more turns, because the moment the knock seems to go is exactly when your hands are still steadying it.
How many pulls?
Three, counted out loud, and then stop. That matches what we teach with your eyes open, where three pulls and maybe four is the rule, and counting out loud is what replaces watching the rim.
What do I do with the pot?
Cut it in half. The cross section is the report card and the pot was never the point. You look at where the wall is thick and where it is thin, how thick the floor is and whether the base is centered, write it in the log, and wedge the clay back up.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. The exercise needs a wheel, a pound of clay, something to cover your eyes and somebody nearby. Where something is about our studio, 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?
You can, and every QR code in the guide is also a tappable link. For this one we would still print the card, because a screen is no help at all at the moment you need it.
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.

Small clay. Slow wheel. Feel the pulse. Count the pulls.

Print it, read the card before anything goes over your eyes, and cut the first one in half.

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 studio’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 studio’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