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The Clay Hole University · Surface and Decoration

Wipe-Away TexturePrintable pottery guide

Wash a textured pot with color, wipe the high points clean, and watch the pattern you pressed into it come up, with the order, the mix and the sponge set out so the first pot works.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 24 printable pages
  • 5 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 Wipe-Away Texture printable guide?

It is the wipe-back technique on paper: the state the clay should be in for the wash, the mix, how wet the sponge should be and when to stop, which glazes show the work and which bury it, and what each of the common faults is telling you. Four steps with tick lists, a one page summary for the bench, and a log for the mix and the wait. Built to be printed and written on.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Wipe-Away Texture” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 24printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 5hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 20glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the textured pot that looked like nothing

The sponge decides what stays

You pressed a leaf, a stamp or a carved line into the clay, and under a glaze it barely shows. A wipe-back fixes that in a few minutes. Flood the surface with a thin wash, wait for it to go matte, and wipe the high points clean. The color that stays in the recesses turns the texture into the design.

Most of the skill is water. How damp the sponge is, which way it moves, when to stop and what state the clay is in when the wash goes on. None of that is hard, but it is easy to get wrong on a first pot and not know why.

The guide sets the order out step by step with a tick list at each one, names what goes wrong and what it means, and leaves room to write down the mix and the wait so the second pot starts from a note and not a guess.

Look inside

Real pages, for the bench beside your work

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

  • Page 3 of the “Wipe-Away Texture” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you touch clay: what you will learn, what to have on the table, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, and what a good wipe-back looks like when it is done.
  • Page 6 of the “Wipe-Away Texture” printable guide: step one, shown with the sample watermark
    Step oneThe first step and its tick list: texture first, then the wash while the clay is still leather hard, and why bone dry clay drinks the wash and will not give it back.
  • Page 12 of the “Wipe-Away Texture” printable guide: when it goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    When it goes wrongThe start of the fault section. Each fault says why it happens, what to change next time, and what can still be done for the pot in your hand.
  • Page 17 of the “Wipe-Away Texture” printable guide: every wipe-back, and how it turned out, shown with the sample watermark
    Every wipe-back, and how it turned outA log to write in: the texture, the color and mix, how long you waited for matte, the glaze over it and what happened. A few rows in, the next pot starts from a note.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

You do this with a sponge in one hand

A wipe-back is done at the bench with wet, colored hands, looking at the pot and not at a screen. Paper suits that.

  • The tick lists stay put

    Each step has its own list, on a page that stays where you put it while you mix, brush and wipe. It does not lock its screen, and it does not mind a wet sponge.

  • Written on the page

    The log has a column for the mix and another for how long you waited for matte. The next pot starts from a real number instead of a hunch.

  • One page for the bench

    The one page summary has the order, the sponge, the studio rules and what each fault means. It pins up beside the color.

  • Two firings later, still there

    The glaze firing is days or weeks after the wash. A printed page is still where you left it when the pot comes out of the kiln and you want to know what you did.

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 order the studio requires

    The free lesson washed a pot that had already been fired and then glazed it straight away. Underglaze is fired before any glaze goes over it, so the guide and the lesson now say: wash and wipe while the clay is leather hard, dry it, bisque it, then glaze.

  • Video notes that say what the video shows

    Every note in the free lesson was checked against the video’s own description, chapter list and frames, and rewritten to say only what they show, in the guide and in the lesson.

  • Written for any studio

    The Clay Hole’s own rules, such as which underglazes your level opens and where rinse water goes, are named and dated as Clay Hole facts, so a reader working somewhere else knows which line is ours and which is a rule of the craft.

  • 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 video moves, we repoint the address and your printed copy still goes to the right place.

  • A page to keep by the bench

    The one page summary is the whole guide on a single sheet: the order, the sponge, the studio rules and what each fault is telling you.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Wipe-Away Texture” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

I like a technique that does not add anything to a pot. This one only turns up the volume.

You spend an evening pressing a leaf or a stamp into a slab, it looks like very little in gray clay, and then a sponge crosses it once and every line is suddenly there.

So make the texture deeper than you think, and keep the sponge almost dry.

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 write in, a one page summary, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
What do I need to try it?
A textured pot that is still leather hard, underglaze in a strong color, a small pot for the wash, a wide soft brush, a clean sponge and a bucket to rinse it in, and a glaze you can see through. The guide lists them on its first pages.
Does it have to be underglaze?
Underglaze is the version the guide teaches, because it stays where you put it. The oxide version is covered too, with a section on handling oxides safely, for potters who have their own.
Why leather hard and not bisque?
Bone dry clay drinks the wash and will not give it back, and underglaze has to be fired before any glaze goes over it. So the wash goes on while the clay is leather hard, then the pot is dried, bisque fired and glazed. Oxide washes are the exception, and the guide says so.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Beginner in the University. The materials are cheap and every step is short. What takes a pot or two to learn is how wet the sponge should be, and the guide is written around that.
Does it only work at The Clay Hole?
The technique works anywhere. A few lines are about the studio, such as which underglazes each membership level opens, the certification, the kiln cookie under every piece and where rinse water goes, and they are named and dated as The Clay Hole’s so you can swap in your own.
Can I use it on a mug or a bowl?
Yes, with a glaze over it. A decorative piece can stay unglazed, but anything that touches food or drink needs a glaze over the wash, and the guide says never to put a raw wash on a rim or an inside.
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. Nothing in it depends on color to make sense: 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 at the bench. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
Can I read it on a screen instead?
Yes. It is an ordinary PDF and it reads fine on a tablet or a phone. The workbook pages are the ones that want paper, because you write on them.
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 and beside your bench 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.

Flood it, wait for matte, wipe it back

Keep the clay leather hard, thin the wash more than feels right, and keep the sponge almost dry. Those habits take seconds and decide whether the texture is still there after the glaze firing. The guide keeps them in front of you at the bench.

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