My Clay Handbuilding Notes

I taught ceramics classes in college during my grad tenure at Utah State University (Thx John Neely and Susan Harris!) While doing so, I came up with a number of handouts. These have spread around the internet, but the original batch went away long ago.

I still get nice notes from teachers who use them and if they are available for free. (If you want to hit the donation button on the way out, it’s always appreciated.)

Here are the originals. I am releasing these under a Creative Commons License.

You are free to:

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
for any purpose, even commercially.
This license is acceptable for Free Cultural Works.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Here they are:

what is clay made up of?

What's up with glaze?

firing pottery

Pinch pottery lesson

soft slab lesson

hard slab lesson

Glaze lesson

coil head lesson

coil sculpture lesson

multimedia lesson

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

About John

Interested in how information intersects daily life, technology, and art. Digital Marketing - marketing ROI in healthcare Collaboration - working in social and collaborative media. Biomedical Informaticist - focusing on patient/patient, patient/provider communication.
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41 Responses to My Clay Handbuilding Notes

  1. Sketchy says:

    Thank you for sharing your work! We can all learn and grow instead of re-inventing the wheel all the time. I appreciate it.

  2. John says:

    Thanks, Sketchy!
    That is my hope, that folks can leverage what I did and make in their own.

  3. Karla says:

    Gosh John … i found your notes on pintrest and fell in love… thought id come get in touch to see if by slim chance i may be able to use them for sharing or future teaching … and Wow – a CC licence?! how incredible that you are so humbly sharing your brilliance with the world! thank you thank you so much….
    from all the way down in New Zealand … one of your newest fans 😉
    LadyK *

  4. John says:

    Thanks LadyK!
    It makes me very happy to see my efforts put to use. I hope they help you and get more folks excited about clay.
    John

  5. Esther Ley says:

    Thanks for the use of the handouts, they are great. I am teaching an evening course soon and it will save me making handouts 🙂
    A small donation is winging it way to you from Swansea, Wales .
    Esther

  6. John says:

    Great to hear they are helpful to you and help others find their way with clay. Also, thanks for the donation!

  7. Carrie J Wilson says:

    You are awesome! Thank you for sharing and what a gift to share! 🙂

  8. John says:

    You are more than welcome. Glad to see these are helpful!

  9. Gema Martins says:

    I love your tips and drawings, the genius way of teaching. Thank you for sharing. Do you have a book or something?

  10. John says:

    Thank you for your nice note. I very much enjoy putting these sorts of things together. No book, but the handbuilding and throwing notes are hopefully complete enough to assist instructors to teach those courses.

  11. Brandi Prater says:

    Thanks so much for sharing these notes! I love having additional visual resources for my students. I teach Junior High and they don’t always read the instructions, so the visuals definitely help…LOL

  12. John says:

    Hi Brandi,
    Thank you for your nice comment. I used these notes for college and adult ed students, as well as myself; so things don’t seem to change much! And thank you for teaching ceramics!
    John

  13. Liz says:

    these are amazing!! Thank you so much!

  14. John says:

    Hi Liz,
    Happy you found them! Enjoy!

  15. corina fedorowicz says:

    Hi John,
    I just wanted to say that I have been using your notes in my classes for years. They are so much fun for the college age students too! I thank you for your generosity.

  16. John says:

    Hi Corina,
    Thank you for thanking. I’m always happy to hear of people using these and enjoying them.
    Be sure to see all my notes:
    https://john-norris.net/2017/09/13/my-clay-handbuilding-notes/
    https://john-norris.net/2017/09/15/my-clay-throwing-notes/
    https://john-norris.net/2017/09/18/my-clay-whistle-note/

  17. Jo says:

    I did not see the link for donations

  18. John says:

    Hi Jo,
    Thanks for asking!
    There’s a donation link on the right side of my home page, http://john-norris.net/
    Hope you enjoy the clay notes.
    John

  19. Wendy Reid-Jackson says:

    Thank you for sharing so freely. Wonderful resources. Much appreciated.
    Wendy
    Elementary & MS Art

  20. John says:

    Hi Wendy,
    Thank you for the nice mote and I hope you find these notes helpful!
    John

  21. Amy, high school art, Tucson says:

    John, These will be so informative for my students, and infinitely better than my scrawlings on the whiteboard! I was thrown into teaching a high school ceramics class, and while I love to use clay myself, I am certainly no expert. You have saved my life!

    Thank you for your generosity and for adding your creative brilliance to the commons!

  22. John says:

    Hi Amy,
    Thanks for the note and I’m happy to hear these might help. I was lucky enough to have the time to make them, and it is a wonder to me that they are being shared by so many.
    Hope you found them all –
    https://john-norris.net/2017/09/15/my-clay-throwing-notes/
    https://john-norris.net/2017/09/13/my-clay-handbuilding-notes/
    https://john-norris.net/2017/09/18/my-clay-whistle-note/
    And thank you for teaching art!
    John

  23. Maddy Bertrand-Gerndt says:

    Thanks for these. Easy to read, fun illustrations, and just enough to get people going! I am using these tonight in a beginning adult throwing class.
    Appreciate it!
    Maddyb_g :Instagram

  24. Jessica says:

    Thank you so much! As a high school Ceramics teacher, I can vouch that these have been a lifesaver during our Covid school years. Thanks for sharing ????

  25. John says:

    Thanks Maddy!
    The throwing sheets were done for an adult ed class I did, and the hand-building ones were for a college class. Always fun to hear folks using them!
    Thanks for teaching art.
    John

  26. John says:

    Hi Jessica,
    Super happy they’ve been helpful during this time. Feel free to use and modify!
    And thanks for teaching art.
    John

  27. Joann Pellegrino says:

    Hi John your information sheets are really great. They get right to the point and allow students an easy way to learn processes and techniques. You should put them in a book!

  28. John says:

    Hi Joann,
    Thanks for the encouragement! I’m only too happy to share these with folks who want to learn ceramics and especially those who teach art!
    John

  29. Skye says:

    Thanks so much for the great notes! Printed them out for my wife, who teaches art at Blue Rock School in Nyack, NY. (and for me, a new clay enthusiast.) Appreciate your creativity, ideation and generosity!

  30. John says:

    Thanks for commenting. It’s always fun to see where these end up. Hope they help you in your clay journey. Also a big thanks to your wife for teaching art!

  31. Daisy Hutt says:

    Thank you so much for these! I teach in Maine and am putting these up for my kiddos!

  32. John says:

    Super! Thanks for letting me know and glad I could help. And thanks for teaching your kiddos art!

  33. Pingback: Art Resources to Share | john-norris.net

  34. Alex says:

    Dear Mr. John,
    Thank you so very much for your amazing work on this project . Find it very inspiring , useful and helpful.
    Best regards from Croatia!
    Alex

  35. John says:

    Thank you for your kind words, Alex. I’m particulary glad you found the inspiring. I hope they help you make and/or teach art!

  36. Olga Dias says:

    Hello, john, Thank you very much for your notes, I love the way you explain the writing and also the drawing part, I’m from Portugal and I give some Workshops to children and adults, I found your notes very easy to understand and quite fun. I would like to translate them into Portuguese, with your consent of course. Thanks.

  37. John says:

    Hi Olga. I am happy you found them useful and would be very happy if they were translated to another language. Please go right ahead! My handouts are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, so you can do pretty much whatever you want with them, though I’d like my name mentioned somewhere. 🙂 Would love to what they look like when you are done. And thanks for teaching art!

  38. Jamie says:

    Thank You!!

  39. John says:

    You are most welcome!

  40. Andy DiConti says:

    Thank you, John, for the amazing worksheet! They are fun, helpful and a great way to introduce each of the clay topics. I really appreciate your generosity.

  41. John says:

    I am so glad you found them helpful and thank you for stopping by to leave a comment.

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