Pottery Date Night
Bring All Your Friends Free Week
Give a Month of Pottery
Private Pottery Parties
The Welcome Booklet
Your First Ten Sessions
Finding the Studio
Your Classes Never Expire
The Four Tables
Who’s Who
The Rewards Program
Flux Glazes
The Calculators
Kiln Tracker
Holiday Kiln Deadlines
Raku Workshop
Nighttime Raku
Horsehair and Feather Raku
The Clay Hole T-Shirt
Embroidered Crewneck
Zip-Up Hoodie
Pre-Made Bisqueware
Glaze Catchers
Kiln Cookies
Clay Cubby Rental
The Glaze Bible, Printed
The Book of Molds, Printed
Printable Pottery Guides
Free Printable Trackers
Gifts for Potters
Christmas Pottery Ideas
Mother’s Day Gift Ideas
Pottery Date Night
Studio Calendar
2027 Studio Events
What Should I Do Today?
How to Throw on the Pottery Wheel
How to Make a Pinch Pot
How to Tap Center a Pot
The Five Stages of Clay
Is Pottery Hard to Learn?
Pottery Wheel Practice Drills
20 Easy Hand-Building Projects
Everything That Sounds Wrong
A Beautiful Piece, Every Time
Slab Roller Tips
Any Dish as a Slump Mold
Slab Roller & Slab Mold Certification
The Pottery Skill Tree
Clay & Pottery Calculators
Logging Your Pottery and Glazes
How Do We Compare?
Pottery Classes by City
Every Pottery Studio in Utah
Pottery in Draper
Featured Members
The Signature Wall
Making Friends as an Adult Is Brutal
The Clay Hole Commandments
2027 Pottery Contests
2027 Studio Parties
Gallery Night
Scream It Into the Void
Destroy the Glaze Wall
Daily Affirmation Cards
Everything That Can Go Wrong
Subscribe to Our Newsletters
Contact The Clay Hole
Corporate Team Building
Glaze Combinations
Glazes We Do Not Carry
Making Glaze Test Tiles
The Mega Glaze Tool
How to Use the Mega Glaze Tool
Glaze Brushing Techniques
How to Use Underglaze
How to Use Dipping Glazes
The Dipping Glaze Guide
Making a Glaze Catcher
Fused or Sharp After Firing
The Signature Wall
My Viral Videos
My Own Ceramics
Meet Mud-
The Glaze Bible, Printed and Bound
Regular price $85.00 USDRegular price -
The Book of Molds, Printed and Bound
Regular price $45.00 USDRegular price
The Clay Hole home page
Main menu
Join The Clay Hole
Your hands in clay, every single week.
Weekly classes with four instructors on the floor, whether it is your first pot or your five hundredth. A shelf with your name on it, and classes that never expire.
Start my membershipPick your Level on the next page. Month to month, no contract.
4.9 on Google from 145+ reviews
This month’s new member deals 17 of 30 discounted spots left this month- 29pottery wheels
- 650+glazes
- 248slab molds
- 217free online lessons
Start Here
See It for Yourself
Before You Decide
Unlimited Class Pass
Stop rationing pottery. No counting classes. No saving the last one of the month for something that feels worthy of it.
Every session on the schedule. From the Monday class to Sunday morning open studio. Come to one, or come to all of them.
It pays for itself fast. A few visits past your Level’s usual count, and every session after that is studio time you are not paying a dollar more for.
Before you add it
Friends & Couples
Pottery is better with your people.
Share one membership with your partner, split a shelf with a friend and both save 20%, or bring someone along for a single night. All of it month to month.
Couples who take turnsShared Membershipfrom$145Two people, one membership’s classes, one shelf and one bill, for the price of a single membership. For married or live-in couples.
Two people, most weeksShared Shelf Pass20% offTwo full memberships sharing one shelf, so you each keep your own class count. Any two people, at Purple or Black Level.
Just one nightBring a Friend Pass$35Their first visit, at any Level. Every visit after that is $50, always alongside you.
Clay Hole FAQs
Every question, already answered.
More than a hundred answers on one page, from what time class starts to how long a finished piece takes. Type a word and the right answer opens on its own.
Before You Join
Your Membership
Your Pottery
The Room
Before Your First Day
Walk in on day one already knowing the way.
Three quick things before you come. After that, your first class starts with a tour and your shelf, whether it is your first pot or your five hundredth.
Helpful to Know
Where your pottery goes between kilns, what happens to the classes you skip, who wears which shirt, and the few rules that keep a busy room working.
Your Classes
Your Pottery
Studio Etiquette
Manage My Membership
Move up a Level, add Unlimited, take a break or change your card. Memberships renew on the 25th, and most changes go in before then.
Move up todayUpgrade Mid-Monthfrom$25Pay the difference and the rest of this month runs at the new Level, extra classes included.
Every sessionUnlimited Class Passfrom$60Every class and open studio session, added on top of any Level.
Life got fullPause My Membershipfrom$25Your shelf, classes and rewards wait, and billing restarts on its own.
Your Account
Your Level
Pausing
One night that is yours. You came for the hours where your phone is face down and your hands are too covered in clay to reach for it. A hard month is exactly when a person needs that.
Your reason is reason enough. Money got tight. The calendar filled up. Something went sideways that nobody planned for. None of that is a character flaw.
Two taps, and your to-do list is empty. Pay for the months you need. No portal step, nothing to cancel, no text to confirm. We move your billing date, and it starts again on its own.
While you are paused
- Your classes keep waitingThey never expire while you are a member, and a pause does not touch them.
- Your rewards clock stopsThe paused months simply do not count. Nothing resets to zero.
- Workshops and events are still yoursClasses are the part on hold. Workshops, parties and events are not.
- The rest of this month is already paid forPauses start the next calendar month, so every class you have left is still yours.
Canceling
Almost nobody quits because it got hardAN OPEN LETTERNothing went wrong. You missed a week, then another, and your head wrote a kinder story about it. Twenty minutes, before you decide anything.
Pause it instead of ending itOne fee of $25 to $50 depending on your Level, instead of a whole month. Your shelf, your banked classes and your rewards all stay exactly where they are.
If something here went wrongTell me before you go. It reaches me directly, and you can send it without your name on it.
Start with what changed
- I keep missing my classesThey bank up and never expire. Canceling is the one thing that burns them.
- The wheel is beating meMost people arrive for the wheel and fall for the other half of the studio.
- I am not getting any betterAsk an instructor to watch the exact moment it goes wrong.
- I do not know what to make137 projects, filtered by how you like to work.
If it is not really about the pottery
- Everybody in here already knows each otherThat is what it looks like from the doorway. It is almost never true.
- The story you are telling yourselfNobody talked to you. The instructor spent longer with her. Four stories, argued with.
- Twenty seconds of insane courageTwenty-three places in this building worth twenty seconds of being brave.
- You are allowed to be the weird oneThe mug you made because a mug was defensible.
If it is the money
- Drop to a smaller LevelSame wheels, same instructors, same people. Glazes, tools and shelf size are what change.
- Shared Shelf PassAny two people, 20% off both memberships.
- Heroes DiscountTeachers, military, students, seniors, healthcare, first responders and nonprofit staff.
- Text us about a downgradeDowngrades are not in the portal. A work trade is sometimes available too.
Come once before you decide. One more class costs nothing, and you have until the 24th either way.
Clay
Eight clays, one for every kind of pot.
Every bag comes from the studio, and every one fires at our cone 5½, so any of them works with any glaze on the wall. 52 Buff, the house starter, is $28 a bag at Green Level and less at every Level above it.
The eight clays
- 52 BuffThe house starter, smooth and forgiving
- B-MixSmooth, creamy and white
- B-Mix with GrogMore tooth, for big builds and raku
- B-Mix with SpecksDark specks that show through glaze
- Speckled BuffA warm buff body with classic speckles
- Half & HalfHalf porcelain, half stoneware
- #16 PorcelainTrue porcelain, for steady hands
- Berlin GrayDark gray stoneware from Spain
Choosing a Clay
Colored Clay
Firings & Glaze Fees
Bisque is free. Glaze firing goes by size.
Glaze firings are 5 cents a cubic inch, measured at the widest points, with a $4.80 minimum and a $600 ceiling. Every firing is paid online before the piece goes on the drop-off table.
Stickered bottlesPremium Glaze & Underglaze Up-ChargePer stickerA few glazes cost too much to include in a Level, so they stay open with a sticker. Per glaze, per piece.
The seven bucketsDipping Glaze Up-Chargefrom$6A per-piece fee for any dipping bucket your Level does not include. Black Level pays nothing.
Small projectsThe Baby Kiln$30A firing of its own for approved small work, up to 9 by 9 by 5.5 inches inside.
Friend Passes
Bring a friend to your table.
Members bring guests to classes and open studio. Your guest works from your clay, with your tools and glazes, and you teach them for the night. The price follows your guest, not your Level.
Their first timeFirst Visit Pass$35For anyone who has never made pottery here. A friend who only came to a party or event still counts.
Every time afterReturn Visit Pass$50For a guest who has been here before, as a guest, a Free Week guest or a member. As often as they like.
Get their pass →
Same price at every Level. If they join the same day, that day’s pass comes back to you.
Every two months · free
Bring All Your Friends Free Week
For one whole week, anyone comes free, to any class or open studio. Bring as many as you like. Your whole Level is theirs for the night, Black Level included. Once per person, every week.
Helpful Pottery Items
The few things that have to be yours.
Membership covers thousands of tools. A handful of things cannot be shared, like clippers, epoxy and the tools a Green Level Member brings. Pay on your phone, then grab it at the studio. Nothing we sell ships.
Beginner’s Tool SetThe kit Green Level Members bring
Fingernail ClippersShort nails make throwing easier
Mayco Clay MenderFor cracks in dry and bisqued work
Epoxy for KintsugiFive-minute epoxy for golden repairs
Applicator BottlesSix bottles and tips for slip lines
Large Bead RackFor firing glazed beads
Workshops
Six raku days in 2027, twenty spots each.
Pots come out of the kiln glowing and go straight into a can of shavings that catches on contact. Two daytime, two nighttime and two horsehair and feather workshops, in Alpine. Optional, and open to current and past members.
Raku, Explained
Learn the Firing
Drinks & Apparel
Grab a drink. Pay on your phone.
The drink fridge and the coffee and cocoa station both run on trust. Pay on the website, then help yourself. Our city water is not great to drink, so most members bring a bottle or grab one here.
Pre-Made & Extras
Some days you just want to glaze.
Pre-made bisqueware, glaze catchers and kiln cookies are ready when you are. Pay online, take the size you paid for, and ask one of us if you are not sure which one that is.
Books & Guides
Take the studio’s know-how home with you.
The Glaze Bible and The Book of Molds, printed, bound and in full color. Plus a printable guide for every lesson in The Clay Hole University, each one a PDF you keep.
Gift Cards
Pick an amount and it arrives by email straight after checkout. It never expires, and four of the amounts are exactly one month of membership at each Level.
Where & When
Right off I-15, open seven days a week.
12896 S Pony Express Rd, Suite 100, Draper, in the Pony Express Center. The next building north of Living Spaces, with a free shared lot out front.
Getting Here
When to Come
Kilns & Pick-Up
Clay Hole University
217 pottery lessons, free to study.
The whole craft across 17 areas, in the order a piece is made, from wedging a bag of clay to selling what you made. Every lesson has its own quiz, and none of it asks you to sign up.
Start Here
Make It
Finish It
For Our New Potters
Nobody expects you to know anything yet.
Most people need a few weeks on the wheel before it feels like anything at all. That is the normal experience, not the sad one. Here is what to watch, what to learn first, and a plan for your first ten sessions.
Problem Troubleshooting
Every way a pot goes wrong, and what to do about it.
The Pottery Failure Atlas: 54 failures from the wedging table to years of use, sorted by what you see and when you first saw it. Every one drawn, with its likely causes, the evidence that tells them apart, what can still be rescued and the experiment for the next pot. Free to read here, and printed and bound for the glaze table.
Why Did My Pottery Do That?45 symptoms, the cause and the fix, in a line or two
Glaze Problems, Causes and FixesCrawling, pinholes, crazing and the rest, in depth
How to Rescue Pottery at Any StageWhat each stage still allows, and the odds
Reglazing and RefiringWhich failures refire, and how it is done
Certifications
Four certifications. Each one opens part of the studio.
Watch the video, agree to the rules, pass a quick check, and save a card to your phone. Do each one once and you are certified for as long as you are a member. Most people start with the slab rollers and slab molds, and take the rest when they need them.
Required before the slab rollersSlab Rollers & Slab Moldsabout25 minFifteen minutes of it is the video. Then all 248 slab molds open up.
Required before your first glazeBrush-On Glazes & Underglazesabout30 minVideo, rules, a quick check, then your card. After that the 650+ glaze wall is yours.
Required before your first dipDipping Glazesabout25 minSeven buckets shared by the whole studio, so everybody learns them the same way first.
Required before any raku workshopRaku Workshop Safetyabout15 minA ten question check and an agreement. It does not replace the safety meeting at the workshop.
The Mold Room
248 slab molds, searchable by what they make.
A slab laid over one of these comes off as a bowl, a platter or a tray with an even wall and a shape that looks like somebody meant it. First try. Included with your membership once you are certified.
Paper Templates
134 patterns. Print, cut, build.
Exact-size paper patterns for slab building, from a 30 minute ring dish to a thirteen-story pagoda. Current members pick five free every month. Everyone else buys them one at a time, a level or a collection at once, or every one of them at half price.
Newest: Origami Wolf, Twisted Butter Dish, Twisted Spoon Rest
The Beginner bundle$37 for sixteen, 60 percent off, later ones free
The Intermediate bundle$164.40 for thirty-one, 40 percent off, later ones free
The Advanced bundle$301.20 for thirty-three, 40 percent off, later ones free
The Expert bundle$300 for twenty, 40 percent off, later ones free
The Insane bundle$744 for twenty-nine, 40 percent off, later ones free
The Kiln furniture bundle$19.20 for four, 40 percent off, later ones freeTools & Planners
137 projects, three questions.
The project finder asks how you want to make it, how far along you are, and what you want to be holding at the end. Then it hands you a list, each one with a guide or a slab mold behind it.
Look It Up
Every guide on the site, shelved by what you are trying to do.
Start from the problem in front of you, not the day a guide was written. Search it, or pick a shelf.
The Pottery Dictionary254 terms in plain English
Why Did My Pottery Do That?45 symptoms, the cause and the fix
The Pottery Cone ChartEvery cone from 022 to 14
Pottery Myths, Fact-Checked70 of them, against 117 sources
Is Handmade Pottery Food Safe?Almost always, and how to check
The Full Pottery ProcessBag of clay to finished piece
Watch
The videos that took off, sorted by mood.
My best and most viral reels on one page: the funny ones, the process ones, the oddly satisfying ones, and the dad jokes. Each one plays right there, with arrows to keep going.
Incredible Ceramic Artist Videos24 free lessons by 15 makers, none of them ours
How Dan Throws Giant PotsSection by section, with the numbers
How to Dry Your PotteryThe video, and why S-cracks happen (opens in a new tab)
The Pottery Wheel IntroductionMy wheel video for new members (opens in a new tab)
Pottery & Personality
There is a corner of the studio with your name on it.
Sixteen personality types, five love languages and twelve signs, each matched to the way that person tends to work with clay. Lighthearted on purpose, and oddly specific.
Pottery by Zodiac SignTwelve signs, one patient lump of clay
Personality and the Pottery WheelYour habits show up in about four minutes
Pottery for EngineersFor people who think for a living
ADHD, Hyperfocus, and Never Running OutA letter from me
Hobbies for BurnoutA room where you are allowed to be bad
Screen-Free Hobbies for AdultsSomething that asks for all your attention
Every Addiction I Ever Had Lost to ArtOn my blog
Functional Pottery Is EngineeringA mug is a set of tolerances
Other Local Studios
Every studio near you, including the ones that suit you better.
I run one of these studios, and several of the others are wonderful. So here they are side by side: what each one charges, how each one works, and when another studio is the better pick.
Members & Their Work
The people who fill this place.
Hundreds of class photos taken mid-class, the pieces members bring back from the kiln, and member spotlights written in their own words. A new set loads every time you open the gallery.
What’s Coming Up
Parties, contests and one gallery night.
Three parties, four contests the whole studio votes on, six free weeks for your friends, and one November night when the studio becomes a gallery. Every 2027 date is already set.
Bring All Your Friends Free Week
Six weeks a year, your friends come in free.
Every other month, for a whole week, members can walk in with anybody, new to clay or not, and it costs them nothing. No guest pass, no RSVP, no list at the front desk. Clay is the one thing they buy, from $28 a bag, or they split yours.
Website Fun for Members
Things we probably should not have built.
A kiln god who takes offerings, a void that listens and keeps nothing, a glaze wall you are allowed to wreck, and a daily card that picks you. Built for the days the kiln wins.
Say Something
Every message goes straight to me.
A suggestion, a complaint, a compliment, or an idea to make this place better. Not into a queue somebody gets to on Thursday. Put your name on it or stay completely anonymous. Both get read.
Host an Event
Nobody goes home with a bowl. That is the entire point.
Three hours with real clay, real wheels and real instructors, for up to 48 people. Families, friends and teams. Everybody in the room is equally bad at this, and that is the part that works.
Work at The Clay Hole
We are always looking for our next instructor.
Not because somebody is about to quit. People move, go back to school and take the other job, so we keep a list of people to call when a spot opens. Pink shirts are our main instructors. Purple shirts are our trade instructors.
The Glaze Bible
Every glaze we stock, fired on our own clay.
611 glazes and 105 underglazes, each fired on our own tiles, in our own kilns, at cone 5½. A page for every one: the fired photo, what it does over another glaze, which clays suit it, and what went wrong if yours came out different.
Find Yours
By Surface
By Kind
Find a Glaze
Type a name. An arrow points to the slot.
Every bottle on the real glaze wall, down to its shelf, row and slot. Search by name, brand or family, or press Surprise Me and let it pick for you.
Your Level & the Wall
Every bottle wears a colored sticker.
Your Level opens your color and every color below it, never one above. Some glazes cost several times what others do, and the Level is how that gets paid for. That is the entire pricing model.
Green LevelThe starter glazesabout5%Green-sticker glazes, about one bottle in twenty. Dipping goes by the piece.
Yellow LevelA real spreadabout15%A big jump in quality over the starters. Dipping still goes by the piece.
Purple LevelMost of the wall550+About 85 percent of the wall, with six of the seven dipping buckets included.
Black LevelEvery glazeall100%The rare and the genuinely pricey, plus the seventh bucket, Dan’s Secret Sauce. Only 20 exist.
Learn to Glaze
Glaze is glass, made on purpose, stuck to a pot.
Everything confusing about glaze comes from that one fact. Start there, then learn to brush it, dip it and layer it, and to read what went wrong when the kiln opens.
Make Your Own
Try Something Odd
Get Certified
Two certifications, then the wall and the buckets are yours.
Brush-on comes first, because it is required before your first glaze. Dipping comes when you want a smooth, even coat over a big batch. Each one is a video, the rules, a quick check and a card on your phone, and each lasts as long as your membership.
Required before your first glazeBrush-On Glazes & Underglazesabout30 minHow to find a glaze, put it on clean, use underglaze, and load the kiln without welding a piece to the shelf.
Required before your first dipDipping Glazesabout25 minSeven buckets shared by the whole studio. Not the quick option for one or two pots, and the page says so.
Buy Glaze Stuff
Four fluxes, 32 stains, and two fees worth knowing.
The flux glazes are the four built to run, and you buy your own pint. Mason stains sell by the 25 grams. A few premium glazes carry a sticker fee, and any dipping bucket your Level does not include goes by the piece.
Optional, any LevelFlux GlazesYour own pintBuilt to run, pool and break. Yours to keep, with no up-charge on top. Honey Flux and Running Hot Chowder ride on a glaze catcher.
Stickered bottlesPremium Glaze & Underglaze Up-ChargePer stickerA few glazes cost too much to include in a Level, so they stay open with a sticker. Per glaze, per piece.
The seven bucketsDipping Glaze Up-Chargefrom$6A per-piece fee for any dipping bucket your Level does not include. Black Level pays nothing.
32 colorsMason Stainsper25 gFired pigment for colored clay, slip and glaze, with the math for exactly how much you need.
Into the Kiln
Bisque at cone 05. Glaze at cone 5½.
Our glaze kilns run cone 5 with a twelve minute hold, which is the same heat work as half a cone past cone 5. Every tile in the Glaze Bible was fired that way, so the tile is what comes out.
The Owner
I’m Dan Pearce, and I built this place for the people in it.
Writer, potter and artist, with millions of people following along online. I ran a first little studio out of a garage for almost four years, then built The Clay Hole from the ground up in Draper.
My Story
My Writing
My Art
Announcements
Loading the latest from the studio…
Taking longer than it should. See every announcement →
Quickies
Kilns & Firings
Clay
Paper Templates
The Clay Hole University209 pottery lessons, tools, quizzes, and guides
Free Trackers
Menu
The Clay Hole
Log in
Become a MemberThe Everything Page
Take the Virtual Tour
The studio clock…
FAQs
Clean-up Checklist
The Clay Hole and AI
Employee Portal
2027 Studio Events
Text Us
Beginner’s Tool SetThe kit Green Level Members bring
Fingernail ClippersShort nails make throwing easier
Mayco Clay MenderFor cracks in dry and bisqued work
Epoxy for KintsugiFive-minute epoxy for golden repairs
Applicator BottlesSix bottles and tips for slip lines
Large Bead RackFor firing glazed beads
Why Did My Pottery Do That?45 symptoms, the cause and the fix, in a line or two
Glaze Problems, Causes and FixesCrawling, pinholes, crazing and the rest, in depth
How to Rescue Pottery at Any StageWhat each stage still allows, and the odds
Reglazing and RefiringWhich failures refire, and how it is done
The Beginner bundle$37 for sixteen, 60 percent off, later ones free
The Intermediate bundle$164.40 for thirty-one, 40 percent off, later ones free
The Advanced bundle$301.20 for thirty-three, 40 percent off, later ones free
The Expert bundle$300 for twenty, 40 percent off, later ones free
The Insane bundle$744 for twenty-nine, 40 percent off, later ones free
The Kiln furniture bundle$19.20 for four, 40 percent off, later ones free
The Pottery Dictionary254 terms in plain English
Why Did My Pottery Do That?45 symptoms, the cause and the fix
The Pottery Cone ChartEvery cone from 022 to 14
Pottery Myths, Fact-Checked70 of them, against 117 sources
Is Handmade Pottery Food Safe?Almost always, and how to check
The Full Pottery ProcessBag of clay to finished piece
Incredible Ceramic Artist Videos24 free lessons by 15 makers, none of them ours
How Dan Throws Giant PotsSection by section, with the numbers
How to Dry Your PotteryThe video, and why S-cracks happen (opens in a new tab)
The Pottery Wheel IntroductionMy wheel video for new members (opens in a new tab)
Pottery by Zodiac SignTwelve signs, one patient lump of clay
Personality and the Pottery WheelYour habits show up in about four minutes
Pottery for EngineersFor people who think for a living
ADHD, Hyperfocus, and Never Running OutA letter from me
Hobbies for BurnoutA room where you are allowed to be bad
Screen-Free Hobbies for AdultsSomething that asks for all your attention
Every Addiction I Ever Had Lost to ArtOn my blog
Functional Pottery Is EngineeringA mug is a set of tolerances
Quickies
Kilns & Firings
Clay
Paper Templates
The Clay Hole University209 pottery lessons, tools, quizzes, and guides
Free Trackers
Membership
Join The Clay Hole
Your hands in clay, every single week.
Weekly classes with four instructors on the floor, whether it is your first pot or your five hundredth. A shelf with your name on it, and classes that never expire.
Start my membershipPick your Level on the next page. Month to month, no contract.
4.9 on Google from 145+ reviews
This month’s new member deals 17 of 30 discounted spots left this month- 29pottery wheels
- 650+glazes
- 248slab molds
- 217free online lessons
Start Here
See It for Yourself
Before You Decide
Unlimited Class Pass
Stop rationing pottery. No counting classes. No saving the last one of the month for something that feels worthy of it.
Every session on the schedule. From the Monday class to Sunday morning open studio. Come to one, or come to all of them.
It pays for itself fast. A few visits past your Level’s usual count, and every session after that is studio time you are not paying a dollar more for.
Before you add it
Friends & Couples
Pottery is better with your people.
Share one membership with your partner, split a shelf with a friend and both save 20%, or bring someone along for a single night. All of it month to month.
Couples who take turnsShared Membershipfrom$145Two people, one membership’s classes, one shelf and one bill, for the price of a single membership. For married or live-in couples.
Two people, most weeksShared Shelf Pass20% offTwo full memberships sharing one shelf, so you each keep your own class count. Any two people, at Purple or Black Level.
Just one nightBring a Friend Pass$35Their first visit, at any Level. Every visit after that is $50, always alongside you.
Clay Hole FAQs
Every question, already answered.
More than a hundred answers on one page, from what time class starts to how long a finished piece takes. Type a word and the right answer opens on its own.
Before You Join
Your Membership
Your Pottery
The Room
Before Your First Day
Walk in on day one already knowing the way.
Three quick things before you come. After that, your first class starts with a tour and your shelf, whether it is your first pot or your five hundredth.
Helpful to Know
Where your pottery goes between kilns, what happens to the classes you skip, who wears which shirt, and the few rules that keep a busy room working.
Your Classes
Your Pottery
Studio Etiquette
Manage My Membership
Move up a Level, add Unlimited, take a break or change your card. Memberships renew on the 25th, and most changes go in before then.
Move up todayUpgrade Mid-Monthfrom$25Pay the difference and the rest of this month runs at the new Level, extra classes included.
Every sessionUnlimited Class Passfrom$60Every class and open studio session, added on top of any Level.
Life got fullPause My Membershipfrom$25Your shelf, classes and rewards wait, and billing restarts on its own.
Your Account
Your Level
Pausing
One night that is yours. You came for the hours where your phone is face down and your hands are too covered in clay to reach for it. A hard month is exactly when a person needs that.
Your reason is reason enough. Money got tight. The calendar filled up. Something went sideways that nobody planned for. None of that is a character flaw.
Two taps, and your to-do list is empty. Pay for the months you need. No portal step, nothing to cancel, no text to confirm. We move your billing date, and it starts again on its own.
While you are paused
- Your classes keep waitingThey never expire while you are a member, and a pause does not touch them.
- Your rewards clock stopsThe paused months simply do not count. Nothing resets to zero.
- Workshops and events are still yoursClasses are the part on hold. Workshops, parties and events are not.
- The rest of this month is already paid forPauses start the next calendar month, so every class you have left is still yours.
Canceling
Almost nobody quits because it got hardAN OPEN LETTERNothing went wrong. You missed a week, then another, and your head wrote a kinder story about it. Twenty minutes, before you decide anything.
Pause it instead of ending itOne fee of $25 to $50 depending on your Level, instead of a whole month. Your shelf, your banked classes and your rewards all stay exactly where they are.
If something here went wrongTell me before you go. It reaches me directly, and you can send it without your name on it.
Start with what changed
- I keep missing my classesThey bank up and never expire. Canceling is the one thing that burns them.
- The wheel is beating meMost people arrive for the wheel and fall for the other half of the studio.
- I am not getting any betterAsk an instructor to watch the exact moment it goes wrong.
- I do not know what to make137 projects, filtered by how you like to work.
If it is not really about the pottery
- Everybody in here already knows each otherThat is what it looks like from the doorway. It is almost never true.
- The story you are telling yourselfNobody talked to you. The instructor spent longer with her. Four stories, argued with.
- Twenty seconds of insane courageTwenty-three places in this building worth twenty seconds of being brave.
- You are allowed to be the weird oneThe mug you made because a mug was defensible.
If it is the money
- Drop to a smaller LevelSame wheels, same instructors, same people. Glazes, tools and shelf size are what change.
- Shared Shelf PassAny two people, 20% off both memberships.
- Heroes DiscountTeachers, military, students, seniors, healthcare, first responders and nonprofit staff.
- Text us about a downgradeDowngrades are not in the portal. A work trade is sometimes available too.
Come once before you decide. One more class costs nothing, and you have until the 24th either way.
Pay for Stuff
Clay
Eight clays, one for every kind of pot.
Every bag comes from the studio, and every one fires at our cone 5½, so any of them works with any glaze on the wall. 52 Buff, the house starter, is $28 a bag at Green Level and less at every Level above it.
The eight clays
- 52 BuffThe house starter, smooth and forgiving
- B-MixSmooth, creamy and white
- B-Mix with GrogMore tooth, for big builds and raku
- B-Mix with SpecksDark specks that show through glaze
- Speckled BuffA warm buff body with classic speckles
- Half & HalfHalf porcelain, half stoneware
- #16 PorcelainTrue porcelain, for steady hands
- Berlin GrayDark gray stoneware from Spain
Choosing a Clay
Colored Clay
Firings & Glaze Fees
Bisque is free. Glaze firing goes by size.
Glaze firings are 5 cents a cubic inch, measured at the widest points, with a $4.80 minimum and a $600 ceiling. Every firing is paid online before the piece goes on the drop-off table.
Stickered bottlesPremium Glaze & Underglaze Up-ChargePer stickerA few glazes cost too much to include in a Level, so they stay open with a sticker. Per glaze, per piece.
The seven bucketsDipping Glaze Up-Chargefrom$6A per-piece fee for any dipping bucket your Level does not include. Black Level pays nothing.
Small projectsThe Baby Kiln$30A firing of its own for approved small work, up to 9 by 9 by 5.5 inches inside.
Friend Passes
Bring a friend to your table.
Members bring guests to classes and open studio. Your guest works from your clay, with your tools and glazes, and you teach them for the night. The price follows your guest, not your Level.
Their first timeFirst Visit Pass$35For anyone who has never made pottery here. A friend who only came to a party or event still counts.
Every time afterReturn Visit Pass$50For a guest who has been here before, as a guest, a Free Week guest or a member. As often as they like.
Get their pass →
Same price at every Level. If they join the same day, that day’s pass comes back to you.
Every two months · free
Bring All Your Friends Free Week
For one whole week, anyone comes free, to any class or open studio. Bring as many as you like. Your whole Level is theirs for the night, Black Level included. Once per person, every week.
Helpful Pottery Items
The few things that have to be yours.
Membership covers thousands of tools. A handful of things cannot be shared, like clippers, epoxy and the tools a Green Level Member brings. Pay on your phone, then grab it at the studio. Nothing we sell ships.
Beginner’s Tool SetThe kit Green Level Members bring
Fingernail ClippersShort nails make throwing easier
Mayco Clay MenderFor cracks in dry and bisqued work
Epoxy for KintsugiFive-minute epoxy for golden repairs
Applicator BottlesSix bottles and tips for slip lines
Large Bead RackFor firing glazed beads
Workshops
Six raku days in 2027, twenty spots each.
Pots come out of the kiln glowing and go straight into a can of shavings that catches on contact. Two daytime, two nighttime and two horsehair and feather workshops, in Alpine. Optional, and open to current and past members.
Raku, Explained
Learn the Firing
Drinks & Apparel
Grab a drink. Pay on your phone.
The drink fridge and the coffee and cocoa station both run on trust. Pay on the website, then help yourself. Our city water is not great to drink, so most members bring a bottle or grab one here.
Pre-Made & Extras
Some days you just want to glaze.
Pre-made bisqueware, glaze catchers and kiln cookies are ready when you are. Pay online, take the size you paid for, and ask one of us if you are not sure which one that is.
Books & Guides
Take the studio’s know-how home with you.
The Glaze Bible and The Book of Molds, printed, bound and in full color. Plus a printable guide for every lesson in The Clay Hole University, each one a PDF you keep.
Gift Cards
Pick an amount and it arrives by email straight after checkout. It never expires, and four of the amounts are exactly one month of membership at each Level.
Where & When
Where & When
Right off I-15, open seven days a week.
12896 S Pony Express Rd, Suite 100, Draper, in the Pony Express Center. The next building north of Living Spaces, with a free shared lot out front.
Getting Here
When to Come
Kilns & Pick-Up
Learn
Clay Hole University
217 pottery lessons, free to study.
The whole craft across 17 areas, in the order a piece is made, from wedging a bag of clay to selling what you made. Every lesson has its own quiz, and none of it asks you to sign up.
Start Here
Make It
Finish It
For Our New Potters
Nobody expects you to know anything yet.
Most people need a few weeks on the wheel before it feels like anything at all. That is the normal experience, not the sad one. Here is what to watch, what to learn first, and a plan for your first ten sessions.
Problem Troubleshooting
Every way a pot goes wrong, and what to do about it.
The Pottery Failure Atlas: 54 failures from the wedging table to years of use, sorted by what you see and when you first saw it. Every one drawn, with its likely causes, the evidence that tells them apart, what can still be rescued and the experiment for the next pot. Free to read here, and printed and bound for the glaze table.
Why Did My Pottery Do That?45 symptoms, the cause and the fix, in a line or two
Glaze Problems, Causes and FixesCrawling, pinholes, crazing and the rest, in depth
How to Rescue Pottery at Any StageWhat each stage still allows, and the odds
Reglazing and RefiringWhich failures refire, and how it is done
Certifications
Four certifications. Each one opens part of the studio.
Watch the video, agree to the rules, pass a quick check, and save a card to your phone. Do each one once and you are certified for as long as you are a member. Most people start with the slab rollers and slab molds, and take the rest when they need them.
Required before the slab rollersSlab Rollers & Slab Moldsabout25 minFifteen minutes of it is the video. Then all 248 slab molds open up.
Required before your first glazeBrush-On Glazes & Underglazesabout30 minVideo, rules, a quick check, then your card. After that the 650+ glaze wall is yours.
Required before your first dipDipping Glazesabout25 minSeven buckets shared by the whole studio, so everybody learns them the same way first.
Required before any raku workshopRaku Workshop Safetyabout15 minA ten question check and an agreement. It does not replace the safety meeting at the workshop.
The Mold Room
248 slab molds, searchable by what they make.
A slab laid over one of these comes off as a bowl, a platter or a tray with an even wall and a shape that looks like somebody meant it. First try. Included with your membership once you are certified.
Paper Templates
134 patterns. Print, cut, build.
Exact-size paper patterns for slab building, from a 30 minute ring dish to a thirteen-story pagoda. Current members pick five free every month. Everyone else buys them one at a time, a level or a collection at once, or every one of them at half price.
Newest: Origami Wolf, Twisted Butter Dish, Twisted Spoon Rest
The Beginner bundle$37 for sixteen, 60 percent off, later ones freeThe Intermediate bundle$164.40 for thirty-one, 40 percent off, later ones freeThe Advanced bundle$301.20 for thirty-three, 40 percent off, later ones freeThe Expert bundle$300 for twenty, 40 percent off, later ones freeThe Insane bundle$744 for twenty-nine, 40 percent off, later ones freeThe Kiln furniture bundle$19.20 for four, 40 percent off, later ones freeTools & Planners
137 projects, three questions.
The project finder asks how you want to make it, how far along you are, and what you want to be holding at the end. Then it hands you a list, each one with a guide or a slab mold behind it.
Look It Up
Every guide on the site, shelved by what you are trying to do.
Start from the problem in front of you, not the day a guide was written. Search it, or pick a shelf.
The Pottery Dictionary254 terms in plain English
Why Did My Pottery Do That?45 symptoms, the cause and the fix
The Pottery Cone ChartEvery cone from 022 to 14
Pottery Myths, Fact-Checked70 of them, against 117 sources
Is Handmade Pottery Food Safe?Almost always, and how to check
The Full Pottery ProcessBag of clay to finished piece
Watch
The videos that took off, sorted by mood.
My best and most viral reels on one page: the funny ones, the process ones, the oddly satisfying ones, and the dad jokes. Each one plays right there, with arrows to keep going.
Incredible Ceramic Artist Videos24 free lessons by 15 makers, none of them ours
How Dan Throws Giant PotsSection by section, with the numbers
How to Dry Your PotteryThe video, and why S-cracks happen (opens in a new tab)
The Pottery Wheel IntroductionMy wheel video for new members (opens in a new tab)
Pottery & Personality
There is a corner of the studio with your name on it.
Sixteen personality types, five love languages and twelve signs, each matched to the way that person tends to work with clay. Lighthearted on purpose, and oddly specific.
Pottery by Zodiac SignTwelve signs, one patient lump of clay
Personality and the Pottery WheelYour habits show up in about four minutes
Pottery for EngineersFor people who think for a living
ADHD, Hyperfocus, and Never Running OutA letter from me
Hobbies for BurnoutA room where you are allowed to be bad
Screen-Free Hobbies for AdultsSomething that asks for all your attention
Every Addiction I Ever Had Lost to ArtOn my blog
Functional Pottery Is EngineeringA mug is a set of tolerances
Other Local Studios
Every studio near you, including the ones that suit you better.
I run one of these studios, and several of the others are wonderful. So here they are side by side: what each one charges, how each one works, and when another studio is the better pick.
Community
Members & Their Work
The people who fill this place.
Hundreds of class photos taken mid-class, the pieces members bring back from the kiln, and member spotlights written in their own words. A new set loads every time you open the gallery.
What’s Coming Up
Parties, contests and one gallery night.
Three parties, four contests the whole studio votes on, six free weeks for your friends, and one November night when the studio becomes a gallery. Every 2027 date is already set.
Bring All Your Friends Free Week
Six weeks a year, your friends come in free.
Every other month, for a whole week, members can walk in with anybody, new to clay or not, and it costs them nothing. No guest pass, no RSVP, no list at the front desk. Clay is the one thing they buy, from $28 a bag, or they split yours.
Website Fun for Members
Things we probably should not have built.
A kiln god who takes offerings, a void that listens and keeps nothing, a glaze wall you are allowed to wreck, and a daily card that picks you. Built for the days the kiln wins.
Say Something
Every message goes straight to me.
A suggestion, a complaint, a compliment, or an idea to make this place better. Not into a queue somebody gets to on Thursday. Put your name on it or stay completely anonymous. Both get read.
Host an Event
Nobody goes home with a bowl. That is the entire point.
Three hours with real clay, real wheels and real instructors, for up to 48 people. Families, friends and teams. Everybody in the room is equally bad at this, and that is the part that works.
Work at The Clay Hole
We are always looking for our next instructor.
Not because somebody is about to quit. People move, go back to school and take the other job, so we keep a list of people to call when a spot opens. Pink shirts are our main instructors. Purple shirts are our trade instructors.
Glazing
The Glaze Bible
Every glaze we stock, fired on our own clay.
611 glazes and 105 underglazes, each fired on our own tiles, in our own kilns, at cone 5½. A page for every one: the fired photo, what it does over another glaze, which clays suit it, and what went wrong if yours came out different.
Find Yours
By Surface
By Kind
Find a Glaze
Type a name. An arrow points to the slot.
Every bottle on the real glaze wall, down to its shelf, row and slot. Search by name, brand or family, or press Surprise Me and let it pick for you.
Your Level & the Wall
Every bottle wears a colored sticker.
Your Level opens your color and every color below it, never one above. Some glazes cost several times what others do, and the Level is how that gets paid for. That is the entire pricing model.
Green LevelThe starter glazesabout5%Green-sticker glazes, about one bottle in twenty. Dipping goes by the piece.
Yellow LevelA real spreadabout15%A big jump in quality over the starters. Dipping still goes by the piece.
Purple LevelMost of the wall550+About 85 percent of the wall, with six of the seven dipping buckets included.
Black LevelEvery glazeall100%The rare and the genuinely pricey, plus the seventh bucket, Dan’s Secret Sauce. Only 20 exist.
Learn to Glaze
Glaze is glass, made on purpose, stuck to a pot.
Everything confusing about glaze comes from that one fact. Start there, then learn to brush it, dip it and layer it, and to read what went wrong when the kiln opens.
Make Your Own
Try Something Odd
Get Certified
Two certifications, then the wall and the buckets are yours.
Brush-on comes first, because it is required before your first glaze. Dipping comes when you want a smooth, even coat over a big batch. Each one is a video, the rules, a quick check and a card on your phone, and each lasts as long as your membership.
Required before your first glazeBrush-On Glazes & Underglazesabout30 minHow to find a glaze, put it on clean, use underglaze, and load the kiln without welding a piece to the shelf.
Required before your first dipDipping Glazesabout25 minSeven buckets shared by the whole studio. Not the quick option for one or two pots, and the page says so.
Buy Glaze Stuff
Four fluxes, 32 stains, and two fees worth knowing.
The flux glazes are the four built to run, and you buy your own pint. Mason stains sell by the 25 grams. A few premium glazes carry a sticker fee, and any dipping bucket your Level does not include goes by the piece.
Optional, any LevelFlux GlazesYour own pintBuilt to run, pool and break. Yours to keep, with no up-charge on top. Honey Flux and Running Hot Chowder ride on a glaze catcher.
Stickered bottlesPremium Glaze & Underglaze Up-ChargePer stickerA few glazes cost too much to include in a Level, so they stay open with a sticker. Per glaze, per piece.
The seven bucketsDipping Glaze Up-Chargefrom$6A per-piece fee for any dipping bucket your Level does not include. Black Level pays nothing.
32 colorsMason Stainsper25 gFired pigment for colored clay, slip and glaze, with the math for exactly how much you need.
Into the Kiln
Bisque at cone 05. Glaze at cone 5½.
Our glaze kilns run cone 5 with a twelve minute hold, which is the same heat work as half a cone past cone 5. Every tile in the Glaze Bible was fired that way, so the tile is what comes out.
The Owner
The Owner
I’m Dan Pearce, and I built this place for the people in it.
Writer, potter and artist, with millions of people following along online. I ran a first little studio out of a garage for almost four years, then built The Clay Hole from the ground up in Draper.
My Story
My Writing
My Art
Announcements
Announcements
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