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The Clay Hole University · Electives

Some of Everything That Can Go Wrong Running a Community Pottery StudioPrintable pottery guide

A tour of a shared studio from behind the counter: six rooms, the things that go wrong in each one, what each one costs, and the rule that exists because it happened.

$16.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: All levels
  • 23 printable pages
  • 5 video picks
  • 7-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 Some of Everything That Can Go Wrong Running a Community Pottery Studio printable guide?

It is the free “Some of Everything That Can Go Wrong Running a Community Pottery Studio” lesson rebuilt for paper: the kilns, the glaze wall, the clay and the reclaim, the shelves, the dust and the building, and the people, each with what goes wrong and the rule it wrote. Then what a community studio can and cannot promise you. Built to be printed and kept in a tool box.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Some of Everything That Can Go Wrong Running a Community Pottery Studio” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 23printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 5hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 18glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anybody who shares a studio with other people

Every rule on the wall was written after something happened.

Nobody enjoys reading a list of rules, and nobody remembers one either. What people remember is the night a kiln quit with sixty pots inside it, or the chip of plaster that blew a crater out of somebody’s finished work weeks later, on their own shelf.

So this is the rules told as what happened. Six rooms, six things in each, and after every one, the rule that came out of it. Read it once and the clean up list on the wall stops being a list and starts being obvious.

It also gives you what a web page cannot: a card for your tool box with the five faults that cost the most and what goes where, and a log you tick before you leave. Five visits of that and it stops being something you have to remember.

Look inside

Real pages, from the tour

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

  • Page 3 of the “Some of Everything That Can Go Wrong Running a Community Pottery Studio” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before the tour: what you will learn, what you need, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, and what it looks like when it has landed.
  • Page 5 of the “Some of Everything That Can Go Wrong Running a Community Pottery Studio” printable guide: room one, the kilns, shown with the sample watermark
    Room one, the kilnsThe start of room one: the element that dies at the top of a glaze firing, the probe that drifts until the kiln reads right and the work does not, and the piece that was still holding water.
  • Page 14 of the “Some of Everything That Can Go Wrong Running a Community Pottery Studio” printable guide: the questions people actually ask, shown with the sample watermark
    The questions people actually askThe ones that come up at a front desk, answered plainly: was it the kiln, why plaster matters that much, and what happens to work somebody forgets.
  • Page 15 of the “Some of Everything That Can Go Wrong Running a Community Pottery Studio” printable guide: the before you leave log, shown with the sample watermark
    The before you leave logA page to write on: one row a visit, what you actually did before you walked out, and anything you told the desk.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A card in a tool box beats a page you have to go and find

This is a guide you use on the way out of a studio, with your hands dirty, which is exactly when a screen is no use.

  • The card goes where you work

    Before you leave, the five faults that cost the most, what goes where, when to tell the desk, and what nobody can promise you. One page, in the tool box.

  • A reason, not an instruction

    Every rule in here arrives with the thing that caused it. That is the part people keep, and it is why they keep the rule.

  • A log that builds the habit

    One row a visit, ticked on the way out. It is the shortest route from reading about clean up to actually doing it without thinking.

  • It stays open beside you

    A page does not time out, lose its place or need charging while your hands are covered in slip.

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.

  • The safety teaching checked against the rest of the University

    A guide about what goes wrong has to be right about why. We checked every rule in it against the lesson that owns it and corrected what did not hold: what actually breaks a pot in a firing, what is really banned about plaster, where clay water goes, and what gets worn for the jobs that make dust.

  • A number only where there is a number

    Every count, price and temperature was checked against the studio’s own figures. Where a number had no source anywhere, the sentence keeps its point without it rather than inventing one.

  • Video notes that say what the videos say

    Each of the five film notes was rewritten from the video’s own description, chapter list and frames, so it claims no more than they show. None of the makers works here or has heard of us, and the guide says so.

  • Links that go where they say

    Every lesson this guide points at was opened and read. Where a card promised something the linked lesson does not cover, the card now says what that lesson actually carries.

  • A search line for every video

    On paper a video cannot play, so each one has its title and channel to search for, and a code that opens it.

  • 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 “Some of Everything That Can Go Wrong Running a Community Pottery Studio” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Nothing in here is a complaint. Running a studio is a privilege, and most nights not one thing on this page happens at all.

The last room is the people, and that room is mostly the wonderful ones. This whole guide is really a description of what they already do without being asked.

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 log to tick on your way out, a one page card for your tool box, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
Do I need to be a member of The Clay Hole to use it?
No. It is written about community studios everywhere, and the rooms and the faults are the same wherever people share kilns. One section shows how our own studio handles each one, and it says so.
I am thinking about opening a studio. Is this for me?
It will show you the shape of the job honestly, and five potters who run their own businesses talk you through theirs. But it is written from the member’s side of the counter, not as a business plan, and it does not cover leases, staffing or money.
Is this too early for me?
No. It is marked for all levels and it assumes no clay skill at all. A first week member gets more out of it than almost anybody, because every rule they are about to be handed arrives with the reason behind it.
Do the videos play on paper?
No. Each of the five has its title and channel to search for and a code that opens it. None of them was made by us or for us, and none of the makers works here.
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 cards and the log are black on white, and color is used for headings and small labels.
Can I use it on a tablet or phone instead?
Yes, it is a normal PDF and opens anywhere. Most people print the card and the log, because those are the two that live where the clay is.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The card for your tool box and the before you leave log are the two worth having on paper. They are numbered pages 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 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.

Six rooms, and a studio that makes sense afterwards

Read the tour once, put the card in your tool box, and tick the log on your way out. After that the rules on the wall are not rules, they are things you already know.

Get the guide · $16.00

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.

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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