From the studio

Dan Pearce's Pottery Corner

Dan Pearce writing at a clay covered table in The Clay Hole pottery studio in Draper, Utah, with a sketchbook of pot shapes and a freshly thrown bowl beside him

I love almost every part of The Clay Hole. Owning it, running it, the members, my staff. There are also a lot of really tricky dynamics I never expected when I opened this studio. So I write about them. Writing is how I have always figured my world out.

I was a writer long before I was a potter, and I've always believed in the power of hitting publish on whatever the truth of life is. It is how I think. It is also how any of us learn anything from each other.

Open letters, member dynamics, the hardest parts of all of it. These are my unfiltered thoughts. None of it is a how-to. The teaching lives in The Clay Hole University.

26 posts and counting.

  • Illustration of a man working up the nerve to throw a tall vase at the wheel while a member watches nearby

    Dan Pearce

    Twenty seconds of insane courage.

    Why twenty seconds of insane courage is the most accurate thing anybody has said about being brave, and twenty-three twenty second acts you can spend at a pottery class. An open letter from Dan...

  • Illustration of a new member holding a bowl at the edge of the room while a group of potters laugh together

    Dan Pearce

    Everybody in here already knows each other.

    How to get into a group that already has its own friendships and inside jokes, from somebody who spent years on the outside of rooms like that. A ten move game plan and the...

  • Illustration of a frustrated potter at her wheel with a lopsided pot while an instructor leans in to help

    Dan Pearce

    Almost nobody quits because it got hard.

    Why people quit pottery, and why it is almost never because it got hard. The excuses, the stretch where progress goes quiet, and what a year of ordinary Tuesdays actually buys you. An open...

  • An illustration of a potter at a wheel surrounded by half finished projects and glaze jars

    Dan Pearce

    ADHD, Hyperfocus, and Never Running Out

    I have quit more hobbies than most people have started. For about thirty years I took that as evidence of a character problem. Then I fell into clay and found out it was mostly...

  • Illustration of potters chatting around a studio table where an empty seat holds a card saying saving you a seat

    Dan Pearce

    Making Friends as an Adult Is Brutal

    Why adult friendship gets hard after twenty-five, where third places went, and the one thing that actually fixes it. An open letter from Dan Pearce.

  • Illustration of a woman at her pottery wheel at home, an hourglass of light drawing her away from the TV

    Dan Pearce

    You Have More Time Than You Think

    The people most certain they cannot fit a weekly pottery night in are the ones who never miss it. Open your screen time report, then do the math yourself.

  • Illustration of a laughing beginner with a collapsed pot on her wheel while an instructor holds up a clay figure

    Dan Pearce

    Let Yourself Be Bad at Something Again

    An open letter from Dan Pearce on being a beginner as an adult: why we stop, what being bad at something buys you, and why quitting is not the risk.

  • Illustration of a member leaning on Dan Pearce's shoulder while he works at his pottery wheel

    Dan Pearce

    Kindness Is Not an Invitation

    A blunt and funny and uncomfortable post about being harassed at my own pottery studio, why kindness keeps getting read as flirting, and what has to change.

  • Illustration of a crowd of friendly people peeking through the studio door while Dan Pearce, busy at the wheel, rubs his head

    Dan Pearce

    Please Don’t Drop By Unannounced

    An honest and slightly mortified ask from a working studio owner: why surprise visits cost more than you think, and the virtual tour I built instead.

  • Illustration of Dan Pearce in a beanie talking firmly with a member beside a pottery wheel while others look on

    Dan Pearce

    The Hardest Call I Have to Make

    One person can take down dozens. Here is the road that toxicity always travels through a pottery studio, and why kicking somebody out never gets easier.

  • Illustration of Dan Pearce handing a member her finished pot as she packs up her things at the studio

    Dan Pearce

    The Goodbye Problem Nobody Warned Me About

    Members I spent months getting to know cancel and vanish without a word. It was never the canceling that stung. Here is what the disappearing act does to me.

  • Illustration of a little village of pottery studios along a glowing river of glaze, Dan Pearce smiling from a kiln doorway

    Dan Pearce

    A Rising Tide Lifts the Lids on All Kilns

    Utah pottery has exploded and other studios keep copying us. I am cheering for every one of them. Why more studios thriving is good for all of us.

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