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The Clay Hole University · Firing and Fixing

What a Kiln Firing Actually DoesPrintable pottery guide

What happens in a kiln, on paper: the climb from steam to sintering, what a cone really measures, how a load is packed, why the cooling decides the glaze, and a log for every piece you hand over.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 24 printable pages
  • 10 video picks
  • 8-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 What a Kiln Firing Actually Does printable guide?

It is the free “What a Kiln Firing Actually Does” lesson rebuilt for paper: why a pot is fired twice, what happens at each temperature on the way up, what a cone measures, what a bisque load and a glaze load each want, why cooling decides color and surface, the faults that get blamed on the kiln, two hand-over checklists and ten videos worth your time. Built to be printed, kept beside you and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “What a Kiln Firing Actually Does” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 24printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 10hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 18glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone who hands work over and waits

Know what happens in there.

Your piece goes in soft and fragile and comes out as something that rings when you flick it. In between it is a kiln, a schedule and a few days of not knowing. Once you can see what happens in those hours, the waiting is easier and the rules make sense.

The guide walks up the thermometer in order: the water that leaves first, the clay that burns clean, the point of no return, and the peak. Then it turns to the half nobody watches, the cooling, where your glaze is really decided.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: two checklists to hold against a piece before you hand it over, and a log to write in. The piece, the clay, what came out of each firing and the one thing you will do differently.

Look inside

Real pages, for beside the shelf while you wait

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

  • Page 3 of the “What a Kiln Firing Actually Does” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before anything else: what you will learn, what you need, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, and what a good result looks like.
  • Page 8 of the “What a Kiln Firing Actually Does” printable guide: packing the kiln, shown with the sample watermark
    Packing the kilnWhat a bisque load wants and what a glaze load wants, side by side, and why they are nearly opposites.
  • Page 10 of the “What a Kiln Firing Actually Does” printable guide: when it goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    When it goes wrongExploded pots, sharp cracks, crawled glaze, pinholes and more: the cause, what to do next time and whether the piece can be saved.
  • Page 17 of the “What a Kiln Firing Actually Does” printable guide: every piece, through the kiln, shown with the sample watermark
    Every piece, through the kilnA log to write in: the piece and the clay, when it went in bone dry, what each firing gave back and the one change.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A reference you hold against the shelf

You look at the piece, then at the page. Paper suits that.

  • The firing on one page

    The climb, the two firings, what to check before you hand work over and what a fault usually means sit on a single page you can pin up by the shelf.

  • A reason for every rule

    Each rule comes with its reason: why steam breaks damp pots, why a cone is not a temperature and why we do not open a warm kiln.

  • A log for your own pieces

    Columns for the piece and the clay, when it went in bone dry and what each firing gave back. A few pieces of notes show you which faults started on the shelf.

  • It does not mind a dusty bench

    A page stays where you put it. It does not lock its screen, and you can wipe it down with the rest of the bench.

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.

  • Read against our other lessons

    We checked the lesson against the studio’s own rules and our lessons on the pottery process, drying, myths and glaze problems. Where they differed, the guide now says what those pages say.

  • The point of no return, corrected

    The free lesson called sintering the moment clay stops being clay. The guide puts it where it belongs, when the water locked inside the clay leaves, and says what sintering really does.

  • Plainer promises about food and cookies

    A food safe claim is split into the clay, which is the easy half, and the glaze, which varies, with a pointer to our Food Safe Lookup. A kiln cookie goes under every glazed piece.

  • Video notes that say what the video shows

    Each of the ten videos has a note checked against its description and chapter list, so the guide promises only what a video covers.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    A short quiz, and an answer key that gives the reason behind every answer rather than only the letter.

  • 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 “What a Kiln Firing Actually Does” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Almost every firing failure was built into the piece days earlier.

Come ask us when something comes out strange. We would love to look at it with you.

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.

See every printable guide

  • 5guides in your cart1 on us
  • 9guides in your cart2 on us
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 log to write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Do I need a kiln of my own?
No. The guide is about understanding what happens in a firing and handing your work over well. Where something is only our rule, such as staff loading every kiln, the guide says so, so you can tell a Clay Hole rule from a fact of the craft.
Will it tell me whether my mug is food safe?
It tells you which half is easy and which half varies: the clay fires vitrified, and the glaze is the half that changes jar by jar. For the jars on our wall, it points you to our Food Safe Lookup.
Does it explain what a cone is?
Yes. A cone measures heat work, which is temperature and time together, and the guide shows why two kilns that read the same number can give different results, and how to read a bent cone.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Beginner. You do not need to have fired anything yet, although it helps to have a piece in mind that you are about to hand over.
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.
Does it print in black and white?
Yes. The text, the tick boxes and the tables are black on white, and color is used for headings and small labels.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The one page summary and the log are the two worth having beside you. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
Do the videos work on paper?
Each video has a short note and a code that takes you straight to it, so you can scan it from the page.
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 have it printed the same evening.
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.

Know what is happening while you wait

Follow the climb, tell a cone from a temperature and check a piece before you hand it over. The guide keeps all of it beside the shelf.

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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.

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Terms version 2026-09-19b