You can move this picture: drag it, press and hold then drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.Printable guide 13.11

The Clay Hole University · Other Ways to Find, Fire, and Form

Wood-Fired PotteryPrintable pottery guide

Reading and preparing for a wood firing, on paper: the four marks the fire leaves, the clay, slip and wadding that suit it, loading to unloading, the safety rules, and a log for every pot you send to the fire.

$12.505 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Advanced
  • 30 printable pages
  • 17 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 Wood-Fired Pottery printable guide?

It is the free “Wood-Fired Pottery” lesson rebuilt for paper: how ash and flame decorate a pot, the wood kilns you are likely to meet, what to make and how to wad it, then loading day, the firing in six stages and unloading. It also covers the safety rules for a long firing and ten ways a firing can disappoint you. Built to be printed, tucked in your bag for loading day and written in.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Wood-Fired Pottery” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 30printable pages, US Letter
  • 7quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 17hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 15glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For anyone who has picked up a wood-fired cup and wondered

You are not glazing the pot. You are aiming it.

Somebody hands you a cup with a streak of orange and green running down one side, and you want to know how the color got there. The honest answer is that the fire put it there, and where your pot stood decided the rest.

The guide takes you through it in order: what ash and flame actually do, the wood kilns you will run into, what to make so the fire has something to work with, and how wadding keeps your pots from welding to the shelf. Then loading day, a firing in six stages and the work of unloading.

And it gives you what a web page cannot: a log to write in. The clay and slip, where the pot sat, what you hoped for and what came back. A few firings of notes will tell you which choices the fire rewards.

Look inside

Real pages, for the bag on loading day

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

  • Page 3 of the “Wood-Fired Pottery” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before the first pot: what you will learn, what you would need, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls and what a good result looks like.
  • Page 4 of the “Wood-Fired Pottery” printable guide: what is happening in there, shown with the sample watermark
    What is happening in thereThe opening of the lesson: what happens to wood ash at temperature, and why a wood-fired pot carries a record of where it stood.
  • Page 18 of the “Wood-Fired Pottery” printable guide: ten ways a firing disappoints you, shown with the sample watermark
    Ten ways a firing disappoints youThe honest page: the welded pot, the dull one, the fused lid and the rest, each with the usual cause and what to do next time.
  • Page 24 of the “Wood-Fired Pottery” printable guide: every pot i sent to the fire, shown with the sample watermark
    Every pot I sent to the fireA log to write in: the clay and slip, where the pot sat, what you hoped for and what came back.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

A pot, a pencil and a day at the kiln

A wood firing happens outdoors, with clay on your hands. Paper suits that.

  • The safety rules where you can reread them

    The list on fire, fatigue and carbon monoxide is one page you can pin up or tuck in a pocket, with no screen to wake with dirty hands.

  • The marks, rules and wads on one sheet

    The one page summary sets out the four marks the fire leaves, the rules for making, wads and loading, and the safety basics side by side.

  • A log for your own pots

    Columns for the clay and slip, where the pot sat, what you hoped for and what came back. A few lines beat trying to remember which pot was which.

  • It does not mind a dusty bench

    A page stays where you put it. It does not lock its screen, and a loading day is rarely clean.

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 the studio’s own rules

    We checked the lesson against The Clay Hole’s rules and our other lessons. Where the lesson was out of step, the guide now says what those pages say.

  • Wet work stays wet

    Smoothing a wad scar is done wet, over a bucket, in safety glasses and an N95 or better. A bench grinder is a job for your own yard, outdoors. The guide says so where the lesson did not.

  • Dust gets its own line

    Dry wadding powder, kiln wash and wood ash all get the same treatment in the safety list: a respirator, glasses and keeping it wet where you can.

  • Video notes that match the videos

    Each video in the lesson is described from its own chapters and description, so the note says what is actually in it.

  • Pages that suit paper

    The ten ways a firing disappoints you read as a list with bold titles, and the sections about the web page itself are left off.

  • 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 “Wood-Fired Pottery” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

Learning a process is not the same as having access to one. It is still worth knowing, and the next wood-fired cup you pick up will read very differently.

We do not have a wood kiln, and none of this happens here. But a good number of you will end up at a university firing, a workshop or a friend’s kiln someday, and it is worth turning up knowing what to make and which safety rules are not optional.

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.
Can I wood fire at The Clay Hole?
No. We do not have a wood kiln, and the guide says so plainly. It is for members and anyone else who will be invited to a wood firing somewhere else, such as a university, a workshop or a friend’s kiln.
Will it teach me to run a wood kiln?
No. It teaches you to read a wood-fired pot and to turn up prepared: what to make, how to wad it, what loading and unloading day involve and the safety rules. Running a kiln comes from time spent on a crew.
Does it cover safety?
Yes. A whole section covers fire, fatigue and carbon monoxide, and the guide adds a line on dust: an N95 or better for dry wadding, kiln wash and ash, and safety glasses.
Is a wood-fired pot food safe?
The guide explains why most people line cups and bowls, and why a water test only shows that a pot holds water. Whether a liner glaze is food safe is for the kiln owner to confirm for that glaze, and for glazes at The Clay Hole our Food Safe Lookup is the place to check.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Advanced. It helps to have made and fired a good number of pieces first, and the glossary fills in the words.
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, the safety list and the pot log are the pages worth taking to a firing. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
What about the videos?
The guide lists the videos from the lesson, each with a short note and a code that takes you to it. The videos belong to the potters who made 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 in your bag 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.

Turn up ready for the fire

Know what the fire leaves, what to make for it and the rules that keep a long firing safe.

Get the guide · $12.50

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.

Digital guides, immediate delivery, and refunds

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