The Clay Hole 2026 Halloween Contest
Give a ghost a face, a job, and an attitude.
A sheet with two holes in it is a fine ghost. It is also where most people stop. This year we want the arms, the hats, the pets, the snacks, the whole little character. Build one, build three, and get them in by October 22.
Until entries close on Thursday, October 22
Entries are closed for 2026.
Voting runs October 26 through 30, and winners get announced the week after, once the votes are counted and everybody is back in the studio.
Why ghosts
Ghosts are the one thing this studio never gets tired of.
Come October the shelves fill up with them. Somebody adds a hat. Somebody else adds arms. Then somebody shows up with a ghost holding a smaller ghost and the rest of us have to go back to the drawing board.
So this year we are making a contest out of it. This is the first one we have run for ghosts, and the point of it is to push the thing further. The goal is not a nice clean ghost. The goal is a character. Give it appendages. Give it a face that is doing something specific. Hand it an object. Put it in a costume, give it a job, give it a pet, give it a bad day. A ghost that makes somebody stop walking and go look at it up close is the one that wins.
You have about two months. That sounds like plenty and it is not, because clay has to dry before it can be fired and it does not care about your deadline. Start now.
The part people get wrong
October 22 is not the day you build it. It is the day it comes out of the kiln.
A finished ghost has to be built, dried all the way through, bisque fired, glazed, and glaze fired. Each of those steps takes real days. Pick when yours will be built and we will do the backwards math for you.
My ghost will be built and ready to start drying:
These are safe planning dates, not guarantees. Kiln queues move around, especially in October when everybody remembers Halloween at the same time. If yours is running close, say so to an instructor early instead of the day before.
Drying is where entries die
Almost every piece that misses a deadline missed it on the drying shelf, not the building table. If your ghost has thick arms, a solid hat, or a chunky base, give it more time than you think and read our full guide to drying pottery (opens in a new tab) before you wrap anything in plastic.
Three ways to win
Three categories, and one ghost is allowed to take all three.
Every entry gets judged in all three at once. You do not pick which one you are competing in, and you do not have to be strong in all of them. A plain white ghost with one perfect idea can win Creativity outright.
Attention to detail
How much work went into the small stuff, and how completely the idea got brought to life. The seam you smoothed twice. The tiny fingers. The texture on the hat brim that nobody would have missed if you had skipped it.
Glazing
How creative or how meticulous you got with glaze and underglaze. Both count, and they win equally. A wild layered surface and one razor-clean line of underglaze can take this category on the same day.
Creativity
How well the imagination landed, and how good the idea was before a single hand touched clay. This is the category where the best idea wins, and where a beginner is on completely level ground.
One beginner winner, on top of the three
If you have been doing pottery for less than three months, there is a fourth winner with your name on it. Beginner entries are judged across all three categories, and whichever beginner ghost comes out highest takes a bag of clay of its own.
You are not pulled out of the main contest to do it. Beginners compete in all three categories alongside everybody else, and are in the running for the grand prize like anyone.
If you are hesitating because you are new, that is exactly who this is for
We added a beginner category for the planter contest as an experiment. It went so well, and brought in so many people who would otherwise have sat it out, that it is permanent now. Contests are the fastest way to meet people here and the fastest way to get better, because you will try things you would never have bothered to try on a random Tuesday. Nobody is grading your pull. Make a lumpy ghost with a top hat and get in the mix.
Twelve starting points
I made these up, and a computer drew them for me.
None of these are real pottery. They are AI images I generated from my own ideas, purely to show what happens when you stop at a sheet with eye holes and then keep going anyway. Steal from them. Combine two of them. Or look at all twelve, decide I have no imagination, and go make something better.
Your ghost does not have to resemble a single one of these. It does not have to be a sculpture either. If you throw, throw one. Make it a mug, a lantern, a planter, a lidded jar, a wobbly little guy with no plan behind him. Anything goes as long as it reads as a ghost.
How it works
Five steps, and none of them involve a form.
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Make a ghost
Hand-built, thrown, molded, carved, or some unholy combination of all four. Sculpture, mug, lantern, planter, jar, whatever you want it to be. The only requirement is that a stranger walking past the shelf would look at it and think ghost.
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Finish it completely
Dried, bisque fired, glazed, and glaze fired. Greenware and bisqueware are not eligible. It has to be a finished piece sitting in your hands before October 22.
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Tell a main instructor or a manager
That is the whole entry process. Find one of us in the studio, say you want in, and we will hand you an entry card to fill out. No online form, no entry fee, nothing to submit in advance.
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Leave it with us by Thursday, October 22
Your ghost stays on the contest display through voting week. You get it back after winners are announced.
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Come vote, October 26 through 30
Scan the QR code posted at the contest display and vote from your phone. One ballot each, and on it you pick your top three in every category, which is what keeps the results balanced instead of turning into a single popularity contest. Entry cards carry numbers instead of names, so voting is anonymous in both directions. Members and staff both get a say.
Your entry checklist
0 of 7 doneTicks are saved on this device, so you can come back to it.
What you could win
Four bags of clay, and one free month for the ghost that beats everybody.
Four winners, a free bag of clay each
One winner for Attention to Detail, one for Glazing, one for Creativity, and one top beginner. A bag of clay each, which is enough to walk straight back to the table and start the next thing.
Grand prize: one free month of pottery
One free month, one winner, and it is not decided category by category. Every vote from all three categories goes into a single pile, and whichever ghost sits on top of that pile takes it. We need at least 15 entries total to award it, which is a good reason to drag a friend in with you.
Featured to about three million people
Winners get posted across our Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. People have found this studio because of a photo of something a member made on a Tuesday. Also eternal glory, or at least the kind that lasts until next October, which around here is roughly the same thing.
The fine print, said out loud
How voting actually works
One ballot per person, cast once. On that ballot you choose your top three in Attention to Detail, your top three in Glazing, and your top three in Creativity.
Picking three rather than one is deliberate. It stops a single loud favorite from sweeping the whole thing on name recognition and gives quieter entries a real path to winning a category.
Can one ghost win more than one category
Yes. If one entry is good enough to top all three, it takes all three. There is no rule spreading the prizes around, and no cap on how much any one ghost can win.
How the grand prize is decided
The three categories are counted separately and each produces a winner who gets a bag of clay. The top beginner is counted the same way and gets the fourth bag.
The grand prize works differently. Every vote from all three categories gets added together into one pool, and the single ghost with the most votes anywhere in the contest takes the free month. A beginner can win it. So can somebody on their first ghost.
What the free firing actually covers
One entry per person fires free, measured at ten inches or less on its longest side, whichever direction that runs. Tall and skinny, short and wide, same rule.
Bisque firing is free for everybody all year, so the free part here is the glaze firing.
Three entries, one free firing
You may enter up to three different ghosts. Only one of them gets the free firing.
The other two are fired at the normal rate, which is five cents per cubic inch with a $4.80 minimum. Same as any other piece.
Going bigger than ten inches
Build as big as you want. A ghost over ten inches is still completely eligible to enter and to win, you just pay the normal firing charge on it. The size limit is about the free firing, not about the contest.
Who can enter
Current members, with the piece made here at the studio during the contest window. Something you made two years ago and found in a closet does not count.
Beginner means less than three months of pottery, counted from when you started, not from when you joined here. Beginners are judged in all three categories alongside everybody else and are additionally eligible for the top beginner prize.
How voting stays anonymous
Entry cards are numbered rather than named. When you vote you are voting for a number, and when your ghost gets votes nobody knows they were voting for you.
Members and staff can both vote. One ballot per person, covering all three categories.
When winners get announced, and when you get your ghost back
Voting closes Friday, October 30. Winners are announced the following week, once the votes are counted and everybody is back in the studio.
Ghosts stay on the contest display through voting week and go home with you after the announcement.
What happens if fewer than 15 people enter
The free month is not awarded. Everything else still happens: we still vote, all four winners still get their bag of clay, winners still get featured, and we all still get a shelf full of ghosts in October.
The grand prize needs 15 entries across the whole contest, and we would rather tell you that now than in November.
Start this week
Nobody has ever regretted entering. Plenty of people have regretted watching.
Somebody is going to stand at that display shelf in late October and say they almost made one. The gap between almost and entered is about two hours at a table with a bag of clay.
Grab clay on your next visit, build something with a face, and tell any main instructor or manager that you want in. That is it. That is the whole thing.
Want more Halloween project ideas that are not ghosts? Our Halloween pottery ideas page (opens in a new tab) has a pile of them.