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The Clay Hole University · Firing and Fixing

Traditional Kintsugi with Urushi and GoldPrintable pottery guide

Real kintsugi, on paper: the skin safety setup, the choice between urushi and epoxy, a curing box you can build, six stages from clean break to gold, a calendar for the wait, and a log for every repair you start.

$20.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Advanced
  • 33 printable pages
  • 16 video picks
  • 6-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 Traditional Kintsugi with Urushi and Gold printable guide?

It is the free “Traditional Kintsugi with Urushi and Gold” lesson rebuilt for paper: the skin safety rules, the fork between traditional urushi and epoxy, the curing box called a muro, the six stages, a calendar of a real repair, nine ways a repair goes badly, aftercare, and sixteen videos with notes. Built to be printed, kept beside the box and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Traditional Kintsugi with Urushi and Gold” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 33printable pages, US Letter
  • 6quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 16hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 10glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone who has a broken pot they cannot throw away

The gold is the last step. The setup is the first.

Most of what is online about kintsugi shows the gold and skips the rest. The real method uses urushi, a lacquer made from tree sap, and it is a close cousin of poison ivy. It does not dry, it cures, and it needs damp air to do it. Get the setup wrong and the pot is not the thing that suffers.

The guide puts the skin safety rules first and keeps them where you can see them. Then it sets the two paths side by side so you can choose before you buy anything: traditional urushi, slow and with a long record on tableware, or epoxy, quick and best for display pieces. It builds the curing box, walks the six stages, and shows what a repair looks like on a calendar, because most of this craft is putting a box somewhere and going away.

And it gives you a page to write on. Which pot, which path, which stage it is at and when it is next ready for you. The boxes are quiet. Dates on paper are not.

Look inside

Real pages, for the bench

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

  • Page 5 of the “Traditional Kintsugi with Urushi and Gold” printable guide: read this part twice, shown with the sample watermark
    Read this part twiceThe skin safety rules: what urushi does, what to wear, and oil first, then soap, if it touches your skin.
  • Page 6 of the “Traditional Kintsugi with Urushi and Gold” printable guide: pick your fork, shown with the sample watermark
    Pick your forkTraditional urushi and epoxy side by side, with what each is made of, how long it takes, the skin risk and what you can eat off afterward.
  • Page 21 of the “Traditional Kintsugi with Urushi and Gold” printable guide: a real repair, on a calendar, shown with the sample watermark
    A real repair, on a calendarHow the weeks actually go, and the first of nine ways a repair goes badly, with what it is telling you.
  • Page 26 of the “Traditional Kintsugi with Urushi and Gold” printable guide: every repair you start, shown with the sample watermark
    Every repair you startA log to write in: the pot, the damage, urushi or epoxy, the stage it is at and when it is ready for you.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

The rules and the calendar are things you keep at the bench

You will be wearing gloves, and the work stops for days at a time. Paper suits that.

  • The safety rules where you can see them

    Gloves, glasses, old clothes, oil before soap, never in a kitchen. Pin the page above the bench and read it before every session, not just the first.

  • A reason for every wait

    Thin coats, a cure between layers, a closed box with a damp cloth. Each step says why, so you can tell a rule from a habit and stop rushing the wrong stage.

  • A log for the slow work

    A repair can sit in its box for weeks. Write down the stage and the date it is next ready, and you will never wonder where a pot stands.

  • No touchscreen needed

    A page does not mind gloves or a smudge, and it stays open where you left it while your hands are busy.

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.

  • Food claims that say what they need

    A fully cured traditional repair with pure gold or silver has a long record on tableware, and the pot’s own glaze also has to be food safe. The epoxy fork is for display pieces unless every material is certified for food contact. The guide says exactly that and nothing broader.

  • Safety said the same way everywhere

    Nitrile gloves, glasses and old clothes, oil first and then soap if it touches skin, flammables kept from flame, and nothing mended ever goes back in a kiln. The same rules appear in the setup, the stages and the one page reference.

  • Video notes that say only what the video shows

    Sixteen videos, each with a short note, a link and a code. Each note says only what the video’s description and chapter list show.

  • A checklist and two workbook pages

    A repair log for every piece you start, and a one page reference, the whole repair on one sheet, to keep beside the curing box.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    Six questions, and an answer key that gives the reason behind every answer rather than only the letter. A ten-term glossary covers the urushi vocabulary.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a page moves, we repoint the address and your printed copy still goes to the right place.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Traditional Kintsugi with Urushi and Gold” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Members keep asking us about kintsugi, and most of what is online is half true. So we wrote down the real method, the slow one, with the skin rules up front because they are the part that matters.

Start on a thrift shop bowl you do not love. The pot was already broken. Everything after that is a choice.

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.

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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 repair log to write in, a one page reference, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Does this happen at The Clay Hole?
No. Kintsugi is a home craft, and nothing in the guide or the lesson is something we run at the studio. We do not teach it in class and we do not sell urushi, gold powder or kits. The guide tells you what a real repair involves, and why it says to start with a kit from a Japanese maker, so you know before you buy anything.
Is urushi safe to work with?
It is a skin hazard. Urushi is a close cousin of poison ivy, and the reaction builds up with exposure until the piece is fully cured. That is why the guide leads with the setup: gloves, glasses, old clothes, what to do if it touches skin, and where never to work. Read it before you buy a kit. The epoxy fork has ordinary epoxy precautions instead.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Advanced, and the urushi path earns that. If you are new to repairs, the epoxy fork is the place to start, and the guide teaches it properly: the same shapes, the same sanding, the same decision about where the seam should be seen. A thrift shop pot you do not love is the right first pot.
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. It also prints in black and white: the text, the tick boxes and the tables are black on white, and color is used for headings and small labels.
Can I use it on a tablet or phone?
Yes. It is a PDF, so it opens on any screen, and it reads fine on a tablet. Each video has a short note, a link and a code. Tap the link, or scan the code from a printed page, and the video opens. For the bench, though, we would print the safety page and the one page reference.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and many people do. The safety rules and the one page reference are the two worth keeping at the bench. The pages are numbered like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
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 read it tonight and have the safety page printed before you buy a single material.
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 up first. Then wait. Then gold.

Pick your fork, build the box, keep your skin out of it and give every cure its full time. The guide keeps the whole repair in front of you at the bench.

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