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.
Fill the seats yourself and keep the profit. There is no commission on a ticket you sell. After the room rent and 2.7 percent card processing, the rest is yours.
We do not fill your seats. So we wrote down the plan we would follow, for artists who would rather make things than sell them.
We love helping promote, for a cut. An email list over 1,000 people and a social following around 3 million worldwide, though most of it is nowhere near Draper.
Certifications
Brush-On Glazes & Underglazes
Required before you glaze anything. Watch the video, learn the rules, pass the quiz, and the 650+ wall is yours.
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.
Fill the seats yourself and keep the profit. There is no commission on a ticket you sell. After the room rent and 2.7 percent card processing, the rest is yours.
We do not fill your seats. So we wrote down the plan we would follow, for artists who would rather make things than sell them.
We love helping promote, for a cut. An email list over 1,000 people and a social following around 3 million worldwide, though most of it is nowhere near Draper.
Certifications
Brush-On Glazes & Underglazes
Required before you glaze anything. Watch the video, learn the rules, pass the quiz, and the 650+ wall is yours.
A new yearly contest, and just as wide open as the fall one. Christmas counts. Winter counts, no holiday required. Wheel thrown, hand built, slab molds, a glaze job, a village, a snowman, a mug for cocoa. If it is Christmas or winter, it fits.
First turn-in dayMonday, November 29, after our Thanksgiving weekend closure
Entries dueTuesday, December 7, by 10 PM, the end of class
Voting, on our websiteDecember 8 to 14
Pick up your pieceFrom Wednesday, December 15
Free to enter. Up to three pieces each, made here at The Clay Hole.
--Days--Hours--Minutes--Seconds
Until entries are due, Tuesday, December 7 at 10 PM
Entries are closed for this one. Voting runs December 8 to 14.
The dates
Due the first week of December
The deadline is Tuesday, December 7, 2027. Turn-ins open November 27, which lands in our Thanksgiving weekend closure, so the first day to bring yours in is Monday, November 29.
November 27Turn-ins open. Finished pieces only.
December 7Entries due by the end of class, 10 PM.
December 8 to 14Seven days of voting, on our website.
December 15Your piece comes home, from this day on.
No start date. Only a finish line.
Start whenever you like, this month or a whole year early. The only rules about time are the deadline and where you made it: every entry has to be made here at The Clay Hole.
The theme
Christmas, winter, or both at once
The pieces that come out of the box every year are almost never store bought. They are the snowman somebody made, the village with one crooked roof, the mug with a cardinal on it. Make one of those.
Christmas: trees, ornaments, stockings, villages, Santa, the cookie plate
Winter: snow, frost, pines, cardinals, polar bears, a frozen pond
Functional or sculptural, tiny or huge, any method
Gift-ready pieces welcome, as long as you can wait for voting week to end
If you are not sure yours fits, it probably does. If you are still not sure, ask any instructor.
Ideas to steal
34 ideas to start a winter piece today
Start with the pictures, then raid the list. Combine two. Make one for the contest and one to give away.
These are illustrations, made to get ideas moving. None of them is an entry, and yours does not need to look like any of them.
On the wheel
Hot cocoa mugs with a snowflake carved handle
A cookie plate for Santa, with a matching milk cup
A tall tree, thrown in sections and altered
A snowman thrown as three stacked forms
Nesting bowls glazed like a frozen pond
A lidded jar shaped like an ornament
An eggnog pitcher with a holly handle
A set of stacking ornament bells
Hand built
A whole snowy village, every window lit
A gingerbread house that can never be eaten
A sleeping polar bear on an ice floe
A cardinal on a branch of red berries
A reindeer resting in the snow
A sledding penguin
A sleigh full of tiny wrapped presents
A birch bark lantern
With slab molds
A snowflake platter for the holiday table
A tree shaped serving tray
A set of mitten dishes for candy
A winter forest cheese board
Christmas tree trinket dishes in three sizes
A long tray with a sleigh carved along the edge
All about the glaze
A snowy pine forest under a full moon, in underglaze
Northern lights in layered glaze
A blue and white winter pattern on a bowl
Frost white over deep blue on a simple vase
Sgraffito snowflakes through black underglaze
A red and green combination that does not look like a sweater
Big swings
A carved tree lantern with star cutouts
A winter village set of five buildings
An advent calendar box with 24 little doors
A tabletop fireplace scene with stockings
A heirloom ornament set for the whole family
A snow globe style piece with a glass cover
The part people get wrong
December 7 is the day it comes out of the kiln
Not the day you build it. A finished piece has to be built, dried all the way through, bisque fired, glazed and glaze fired, and every one of those steps takes real days. Pick when yours will be built and we will do the backward math.
My piece will be built and ready to start drying:
Built by
Bone dry by
On the bisque shelf
Glazed by
Out of the kiln
Safe planning dates, not promises. Kiln queues move, and they move most right before a deadline. If yours is running close, tell 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. Thick walls, solid parts and chunky bases need more time than you think. Read our guide to drying pottery before you wrap anything in plastic.
How to enter
Five steps, and one of them is a folded card
Make it here
Thrown, hand built, made with slab molds, carved, or some mix of all of it. It has to be made at The Clay Hole, and that is the only rule about how.
Finish it completely
Built, dried, bisque fired, glazed and glaze fired, or otherwise completely finished. Greenware and bisqueware are not eligible.
Grab an entry card
Any instructor or manager can hand you one. Fill it out. It is the whole entry form, and there is no fee.
Turn it in by December 7
Turn-ins open Saturday, November 27. Bring it any time from then until the end of class on Tuesday, December 7. Set it on the contest display with the entry card folded in half and tucked under the piece. The studio is closed Thanksgiving weekend, so the first turn-in day is Monday, November 29.
Vote, then take it home
Voting runs December 8 to 14 on our website. Your piece stays on display the whole week, and it goes home with you from Wednesday, December 15.
The free firing
One entry per person fires free, as long as it measures 10 inches or less on its longest side, whichever way that runs. Bisque firing is always free here, so the free part is the glaze firing. Your other entries, and anything bigger, fire at the normal rate of 5 cents a cubic inch with a $4.80 minimum. Bigger pieces are completely welcome. The size limit is about the free firing, not the contest.
How it gets judged
Three categories, and everybody votes
Voting happens on our website, from your phone, for seven days starting the morning after entries are due. A QR code at the contest display takes you straight to the ballot, and the ballot goes up on this page the day voting opens.
Category one
Attention to Detail
How much care went into the small stuff. Every lit window in the village. The texture on the mitten. The snowflake carved twice because the first one was off.
Category two
Creativity
How good the idea was before a single hand touched clay, and how well it landed. A plain piece with one perfect idea can win this outright.
Category three
Glazing and Finishing
How creative or how meticulous the surface is: glaze, underglaze, carving, layering. A northern lights glaze and one clean line of underglaze win equally.
Pick three in every category
One ballot per person. On it you choose your top three in each of the three categories, nine picks in all. Three picks instead of one stops a single favorite from sweeping everything on name recognition, and it gives the quieter entries a real way to win. Entry cards carry numbers, not names, so nobody knows whose piece is whose. Members and staff both vote.
Every entry is judged in all three categories at once. You do not pick a category, and one piece is allowed to win all three.
What you could win
Free months of pottery, for you and for people you love
Every prize this year is a month at The Clay Hole. Most of them are months you get to give away to somebody who has never been a member, which makes this the rare contest where winning is mostly good news for a friend.
The top prize
Most votes overall
One free month of membership for you, at the Level you are already on, plus a second free month to give to a first-time member, at Yellow Level.
Every vote from all three categories goes into one pile, and the entry on top of that pile wins. It needs at least 15 entries across the whole contest to be awarded.
Three category winners
One for each category
Win Attention to Detail, Creativity or Glazing and Finishing and you get a free month of Yellow Level membership, worth $170, to give to someone who has never been a member.
The beginner winner
Under three months of pottery
The highest scoring beginner wins a free month of Yellow Level membership to give to a first-time member. Beginners still compete for everything else too.
And the part that costs nothing
Winners get featured across our Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, in front of around 3 million people. One piece can win more than one prize. Category and beginner prizes are awarded however many people enter.
The contest rules
Everything in one place
Fits the season
Christmas or winter, or both. Functional or sculptural, any method.
Made at The Clay Hole
Every entry has to be made here. Start it whenever you like, even a year early. There is no start date, only the deadline.
Finished means fired
Greenware and bisqueware are not eligible. It needs to be glaze fired, or otherwise completely finished, by the deadline.
Up to three entries
Three different pieces per person. One of them fires free if it is 10 inches or less on its longest side.
Beginners
Under three months of pottery, counted from when you started, not from when you joined. Beginners compete in every category and also for the beginner prize.
Pick up
Entries stay on the contest display through voting week and go home with you from Wednesday, December 15.
Questions
Before you ask
Does it have to be Christmas?
No. Christmas or winter. Snow, frost, pines, cardinals and polar bears all count with no holiday attached.
Can my entry be a gift?
Yes, as long as it can wait. Entries stay on display through voting, December 8 to 14, and come home with you from Wednesday, December 15, which still leaves time before Christmas.
When is the first day I can turn it in?
Turn-ins open November 27, and the studio is closed Thanksgiving weekend, so the first day is Monday, November 29.
Who can enter?
Current members. The piece has to be made here at The Clay Hole.
Can I start right now?
Yes. There is no start date at all. You can work on your entry months ahead, or even finish it a year early, as long as you made it here.
How many pieces can I enter?
Up to three different pieces. One of them fires free at 10 inches or less on its longest side. The rest fire at the normal rate.
When exactly is the deadline?
The end of class on Tuesday, December 7, 10 PM. Turn-ins open Saturday, November 27, ten days before.
How do I enter?
Grab an entry card from any instructor or manager, fill it out, and leave your finished piece on the contest display with the card folded in half and tucked underneath it. That is the whole process.
How does voting work?
Voting runs December 8 to 14 on our website. Scan the QR code at the display, or open this page during voting week. Everybody picks their top three in Attention to Detail, Creativity, and Glazing and Finishing. One ballot per person, and entries are numbered so voting stays anonymous.
Can one piece win more than one prize?
Yes. If one entry tops all three categories, it takes all three. There is no rule spreading the prizes around.
Who gets the free months I win?
The giveaway months go to someone who has never been a member of The Clay Hole, at Yellow Level. The top prize also includes a free month for you at your current Level.
What if fewer than 15 people enter?
The top prize is not awarded. Everything else still happens: we still vote, the category winners and the beginner winner still get their months to give away, and winners still get featured.
When do I get my piece back?
From Wednesday, December 15, the day after voting closes.
Start this week
Somebody is going to make next year’s favorite ornament
A winter piece made in October is a winter piece that is finished by December. Start it now.
Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
Opens in a new window.
New member deal
30 of 30 discounted spots left this month
Every month we discount 30 new memberships. Then that is it until the 1st.
Tell us where to send it and this month’s deal lands in your inbox. If this month runs out, you get next month’s before it opens.
Almost done
Where should we send it?
Done
On its way.
It should land in the next few minutes. One thing while you wait: we are members only and we do not run walk-in tours, so the virtual tour is the closest you can get to standing in one.
Would you want to know if a Clay Hole opened near you?
We started in Draper, Utah, and we would like to be in more places than that. Where they go next is the part we have not worked out yet.
Where are you?
The zip code is the part that counts.
That is how we work out where the demand actually is. The rest is so we know who to tell.
Got it
You are on the map.
Being straight with you: this could be a long wait, and we will not email you in the meantime. If your area is where the numbers land, you will be the first to know.
