You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 06.09

The Clay Hole University · Advanced Throwing

Throwing Lids That FitPrintable pottery guide

Two numbers have to match. Everything else in a lid is about getting them to.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Advanced
  • 30 printable pages
  • 7 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 Throwing Lids That Fit printable guide?

It is a printable workbook edition of The Clay Hole University’s free “Throwing Lids That Fit” lesson. It teaches the lid and the pot as a pair rather than two objects: the three families and which surface each one measures, the caliper discipline, cutting a gallery the lid can actually sit on, and the twelve ways a lid stops fitting. On paper it adds a row for every pair, a wheel-side check, a one page card, a quiz with a full answer key, and a glossary.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Throwing Lids That Fit” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 30printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 7hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
Why a printable, for this one

You are not making a lid. You are making a pair.

A lid is the only part of a pot that has to agree with another part of a pot. Every other pot you throw is judged against your own eye. A lid is judged against a hole, and the hole cannot be argued with.

Which is why the odd rules stop being odd once you see it as a pair. Same clay, same session, same shelf, both halves living the same life. None of that is fussiness, it is the only way two pieces shrink the same amount.

And it is a measuring game, which means it is a writing game. The number comes off the pot, the lid gets thrown to that number, and the number gets checked again at leather hard. That is three moments where a page beats your memory.

Look inside

Real pages, for a job that is mostly measuring

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

  • Page 5 of the “Throwing Lids That Fit” printable guide: the three families, shown with the sample watermark
    The three familiesEvery lid on earth is one of three things. Once you can name which you are making, you know which surface to measure and which to trim.
  • Page 21 of the “Throwing Lids That Fit” printable guide: the wheel-side check, shown with the sample watermark
    The wheel-side checkThe short version to keep beside you, so the measuring happens at the wheel rather than from memory afterwards.
  • Page 17 of the “Throwing Lids That Fit” printable guide: twelve ways a lid stops fitting, shown with the sample watermark
    Twelve ways a lid stops fittingEach one with what really caused it, and a box to tick for the ones that keep happening to you.
  • Page 20 of the “Throwing Lids That Fit” printable guide: the lid log, shown with the sample watermark
    The lid logOne row per pair: the clay, the gallery number, the lid number, and whether it still fitted after the glaze fire.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Paper beats the screen here

Why lids, of all things, belong on paper

A lid is a number taken at the wheel and needed again a week later, twice. Nothing else in pottery depends so completely on writing something down.

  • It holds the number

    Measure the gallery, write it down, throw the lid to it. A number in your head between two pots is a number you are about to get wrong.

  • It keeps the pair together on the page

    Same clay, same day, same shelf. The log records all three, which is how you find out why the one from last month does not fit.

  • It tells you which of the twelve keeps getting you

    Tick the rows that describe your lids. The fix for a lid that welds shut is completely different from the fix for one that walks.

  • One card lives by the wheel for good

    The three families, the caliper discipline and the gallery on a single page you can pull out of the binder.

How the guide is built

Built for a job that is mostly bookkeeping

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 lid that has landed properly sounds like.

  • The complete lesson, redesigned for paper

    The three families, the caliper, cutting the gallery, throwing the lid in ten steps, and the other two families in full.

  • Waxing and firing in place

    Glaze is glass, and any of it where the two pieces touch welds them together for good. The guide says what to wax, what to wipe and what to fire on the pot.

  • Drying and bisquing the pair together

    Pots go out of round as they dry, and a lid sitting in place goes out of round in the same direction. That is free accuracy, and it is easy to miss.

  • Videos you can reach from a printed page

    Seven 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 gallery and the flange to the marli and the seat, 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 Lids That Fit” lesson at The Clay Hole University. No paywall, no sign-up, no catch.

A lid that lands with a soft, certain click is one of the most satisfying things a potter makes, and it is entirely a measuring game. Nobody should have to find that out by ruining a year of lids, 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 06.09, the ninth 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

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Where this leads

What to learn once a lid clicks

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 pair, a diagnosis section with boxes to tick, a one page card for beside the wheel, a printed quiz with an answer key, and a glossary.
Do I really need calipers?
Yes, and the guide is blunt about it. A cheap pair does the job for a lifetime, and a lid thrown by eye to a number you remember is a lid you are about to throw twice.
Which family should I learn first?
The drop-in, and the guide says why: it is the one that teaches you to measure, and a failure on a small jar costs you fifteen minutes rather than an afternoon.
Why does my lid fit wet and not after firing?
Almost always because the lid and the pot were not the same clay, or not thrown the same day. Same body and same session means both halves shrink together, and the guide spends a section on exactly that.
My lid welded itself shut. Can it be saved?
Sometimes, and the guide says how and when. It also says how to stop it happening: keep the contact surfaces bare or waxed, wipe them again after glazing, and fire the lid on the pot.
How much clay for the lid?
About a quarter of what the pot took, and the guide repeats that rule everywhere it matters because too much clay is the beginner error here.
I am not at The Clay Hole. Is it still useful?
Yes. The families and the measuring are the same anywhere. 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.

Throw one pot and six lids for it

Print it tonight. Measure the gallery, write the number down, and throw the lid to the number rather than to your memory.

Get the printable · $5.00

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