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Pick your Level on the next page. Takes about two minutes.
Announcements, new member deals, and more. All the lists live on one page.
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Follow along
Raku is the firing where a pot comes out of the kiln red-hot and goes straight into a can of newsprint and pine shavings that catches on contact. In 2027 we run six of them in Alpine: two daytime raku days, two nighttime raku nights, and two horsehair and feather days. Twenty spots each.
Every workshop has its own page with the full day, the rules and a Register button. Spots left update live from the store. Tap a date to jump to its workshop.
Each colored date is a raku workshop. Months that have passed fade out, and this month is marked.
Glowing pots in broad daylight, with every color and every crackle in real sunlight. Gates 8:45, safety meeting 9 sharp, done between 2 and 4.
Raku after dark. Glowing pots, flaming cans, floodlights and a pasture full of people who will talk about it for years. Gates 7:30 PM, safety meeting 7:45 sharp.
Hair, feathers and sugar laid on a hot, burnished pot, each one burning its own black mark into the clay. Gates 9:45, safety meeting 10 sharp, done between 1 and 3.
Dark by about 7:25, so the first kiln opens into a black sky. The last pots come out around 2 or 3 AM. Gates 7:30 PM, safety meeting 7:45 sharp.
Burnished terra sigillata pots, a cooler firing and a huge assortment of feathers and hair that we bring. Gates 9:45, safety meeting 10 sharp.
A cold start, a warm lunch and home for dinner. Sunset is around 5, so the last pots come out in daylight. Gates 8:45, safety meeting 9 sharp.
One spot per checkout. A spouse or friend registers separately, with their own name on it. Every workshop needs at least seven people registered to run.
Propane kilns get your pots to almost 2000 degrees, fast. The lid comes off, the pots come out on long tongs, and they go straight into a can that catches fire on contact. About twenty minutes later you are holding the finished piece.
The kiln still glows in daylight, and you see every color and every crackle in real sunlight. Done between 2 and 4 PM, home for dinner. March 20 and November 13.
Glowing pots, floodlights and a whole lot of dark. Unforgettable, and also exhausting: it wraps up around 2 or 3 AM. May 15 and September 25.
A cooler firing. Hair, feathers and sugar go onto a hot burnished pot and burn their own black marks into it. Decorative, not food safe. June 26 and October 16.
Register on the workshop’s page. One spot per checkout, twenty spots, first come, first served.
Made, dried, bisque fired and glazed with raku glazes at the studio before the day. For horsehair: terra sigillata at bone dry, burnished, then bisqued, with no glaze anywhere.
Every participant, every workshop, even your fourth one. Sign the raku waiver before you come. It is checked at the gate.
It starts on time and it is not optional. Arrive more than ten minutes after it starts and you do not fire.
Every unload is choreographed before the lid closes. Usually one pot per person per firing, across several rounds.
Nobody leaves until the last pot is out and the site is clean, because the final round deserves the same crowd as the first.
All three use the same kilns, the same barn and the same safety meeting. Tap what sounds like your kind of Saturday.
Pick an answer on the left. Each one points you to the right kind of workshop and its two dates.
In daylight the glaze does its whole show in real color. You watch the copper flash and shift while you scrub it, and you see your friends’ faces when their lids come off. A real lunch, and home in time for dinner.
When a kiln opens in the dark, the whole world shrinks to the glow. The pots look like they came out of a volcano and the flames off the cans look twice as big. The true colors wait until the next morning.
We bring a huge assortment of feathers, horse hair in medium and heavy coarseness, and sugar. Ostrich, peacock and other large feathers are yours to bring if you want them. The full technique lives on our horsehair workshops page.
Everybody sits through the safety meeting in person, first-timers without exception, so any date works. A daytime day lets you see exactly what the fire did, in real color. The online raku certification is a good head start.
Ask him at class and he will price them out. First pick goes in the order people ask. You still glaze it yourself at the studio before the workshop, and like every pot in raku, there are no guarantees.
Raku workshops are optional and cost extra: $150, or $175 for horsehair. Your membership still covers the studio time you use to get your pots ready.
Glazed at the studio before the day. Most are included, and a few carry an upcharge that tops out at $15. One glaze family per pot. There is no glazing at the barn.
Up to four tall, skinny pieces, or up to two wider pieces, with a combined width under 28 inches. Usually one pot per person per firing.
No refunds for any reason, and no switching to a future workshop. You can sell your spot to another current or past member for what you paid or less. Tell Dan at class who is taking it.
Long pants and closed-toe shoes are required. Long sleeves are strongly recommended, natural fibers only, long hair tied back. We bring every piece of safety gear.
No spectators. Everyone near the kilns has sat through the safety meeting and signed the waiver, which is exactly what keeps the day boring in the best possible way.
No. Raku workshops are optional and cost extra: $150 a spot, or $175 for horsehair and feather.
Current or past members of The Clay Hole, 18 and up. A 14 to 17 year old can participate when a parent or legal guardian is also participating and stays with them.
Dan’s parents’ property in Alpine, Utah. The address stays off the open internet. Everyone registered gets it by text the week of the workshop.
Light rain, we fire. Dress for it and come anyway. If heavy rain or snow is rolling in, we reschedule and everybody registered gets a text, so keep an eye on your phone that week.
Arrive more than ten minutes after the safety meeting starts and you cannot participate, and there is no refund. Gates open fifteen minutes early for exactly this reason.
Each workshop needs at least seven registered participants. If fewer than seven register, you choose between a full refund or a spot at the next raku workshop.
Your finished, ready pots, your own lunch and drinks, a camp chair, layers for the weather, and a box or old towels to carry your pots home. We bring the kilns, the combustibles, the safety gear and the cleanup supplies.
No. Participants only. Anyone who wants to be there registers for a spot of their own.
The pots have to be made, dried, bisqued and glazed before the day, so the time to start building is now. Grab your spot, then get to the studio.
More about raku at The Clay Hole: raku workshops, horsehair and feather workshops and the online raku certification. Every event of the year lives on our 2027 events page.
Every kind of event on the calendar has a page like this one. Raku is the only one that costs extra.
New member deal
30 of 30 discounted spots left this month
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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.
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