Two new members walking through the front door of The Clay Hole on their first day, aprons and towels in hand.
Before your first day

Welcome. Let’s make sure your first day doesn’t feel like a first day.

Three things to do before you come. Then the whole first day laid out minute by minute, right down to which door to use, where you sit while you wait, and what that bell means. The only surprises left will be the fun kind.

See what day one looks like Sign the waiver
3 Things you have to do before class
1 Secret password hiding in a video
0 The amount of experience anybody expects you to have
0/3

Your before-class checklist

Tap each one as you finish it. This page will remember where you got to, even if you close it and come back tomorrow.

Everybody does these three
These four depend on you
Nothing saved yet.

Watch before you come

One video everybody watches. Two that depend on what you want to make.

We would rather hand you clay on day one than talk at you for the entire class. These do the talking so we don’t have to.

Required for everyone Day one orientation and studio tour Watch the whole thing before your first class. There is a secret password in there that we will ask you for when you arrive, so keep your ears open. One note: the video mentions not being able to come to your first class. Ignore that part, it is out of date.
Only if you want to throw Dan’s pottery wheel introduction Required in full before you get on a wheel. Throwing is the word for making something on the wheel, and if you already know how to do it, you can skip this one.
Only if you want to use them Dan’s slab roller and slab mold techniques Required in full before you use a slab roller or any of our slab molds. There are dozens of slab molds here and they are a lot of fun, so most people end up watching this one.
Back to my checklist
Pick your first day

Tell us below when you’re coming and we’ll be watching for you.

You choose when you come and how often. We just need a heads up on the first one, because your first day has a tour attached to it and we want to start it with your shelf ready and you in the room.

Today Pick the day that works for you.
Friday, Saturday, Sunday Open studio hours Not for a first class

Friday evenings and weekend mornings are open studio, which means no instructors on the floor. You need two instructed classes under your belt before you can use them. More on that further down.

Picking a day up there does not tell us anything. We need you to send us the text below. Fill in your name, open it, hit send, and we will reply.
Your text to us, ready to go Add your name, pick a day above, and we’ll write this message for you.
Open my texts

Our number is 385-241-5528. Text us anything, any time. There are no dumb questions this early.

Back to my checklist
Hour by hour

What your first day actually looks like.

Nobody likes walking into a room without knowing what happens next. So here is the whole thing, start to finish. Drag it around.

6:15 PM You walk in the front door Loading.
Walking in Heading home
Step 1 of 9
About the wheel

Mentally prepare now. The pottery wheel is harder than it looks!

Most people need a few weeks before it starts to feel like anything at all, and a lot longer before they are any good. Dan took weeks. That is the normal experience, not the sad one.

So come planning to have fun with the clay, win or lose. Find a way to laugh when it collapses, because it will collapse, and it is genuinely funny when it does. Then dig in and find the grit to keep practicing until it clicks. It does click.

And if you try it and it just doesn’t call to you, or it is more frustrating than fun, no problem at all. The hand-building and slab mold side of the studio is right there waiting, and plenty of our members live on that side and never look back.

A studio team member in a Clay Hole shirt guiding a nervous first-time student at the pottery wheel while two other students watch.
About half of first-timers have something small and frumpy to put on their shelf at the end of day one. A little ring holder, something like that. The other half leave with a story about a lump of clay that fought back. Both count.
Be on time Our instructors give first-time wheel lessons to members who are on time, and only then. We cannot start a lesson in the middle of class. If the wheel is why you joined, this is the one thing worth setting an alarm for.
What to wear, what to bring

Short version: clothes you can get dirty.

That is genuinely most of it. Nobody here is dressed up. Everybody is a little muddy by the end.

Clothes you can get dirty Clay comes out of most fabric. Most.
Rings and jewelry off Clay gets into everything, including settings you love.
Long hair tied back Optional but recommended. Mud plus loose hair equals muddy hair.
A water bottle Clay is thirsty work, and so are you.

Fingernails, while we’re at it

Not a rule. But if you plan to throw on the wheel, short nails make it dramatically easier. Long nails dig into the wall of whatever you are trying to pull up. We keep clippers at the studio if you change your mind mid-class.

Green Level Members only

You bring your own tools

Green Level is our lowest tier, and tools are the tradeoff. You will need your own basic tool set and sponges. Every other level includes tools, so this section is not your problem if you joined higher than Green Level.

Two easy ways to solve it:

Basic set on Amazon Buy a set from us

Don’t want to think about tools at all? You can move up a level right now, or any time later. Upgrade your membership.

Optional

An apron, if you like aprons

Aprons are not included in any membership and plenty of members never use one. We tested more than ten of them and this is the one we kept reaching for.

Our favorite apron
Back to my checklist
The one thing you’ll buy

You need clay, and it’s the only thing you have to buy on day one.

Bags are 25 pounds and start at $28 for a Green Level Member. Fancier clay bodies cost a bit more, and every level above Green Level pays less on every single bag. We walk you through buying your first one during the tour, right from your phone, so you don’t need cash or a card in your hand.

How far does one bag go?

A mug takes about a pound of clay. Drag this to the size of thing you want to make and see what a bag turns into.

1 lb, about a mug 8 lb, something big
25 pieces of that size out of one 25 lb bag
$1.12 of clay in each one, at the $28 Green Level bag price

Rough math, clay only, and it assumes nothing goes wrong. Things go wrong. That is part of it, and the clay you wreck early is the cheapest tuition in the building. See all eight clay bodies and your level’s pricing.

Never bring clay from anywhere else.

Not from another studio. Not from a craft store. Not the bag your cousin swears is fine.

Outside clay can destroy our kilns, and one bad bag can take out an entire load of other members’ work along with it. Somebody’s first mug and somebody’s wedding gift, gone together. Every student buys their clay here. No exceptions, ever, for anybody, including the people who ask nicely.

In case you were wondering

Everybody walks in with one of these in their head.

Tap whichever one is yours. We have heard all of them, usually from people who are now here twice a week.

Pick one up there. Or don’t, and just take the short version: everybody in that room was brand new once, most of them more recently than you would guess.
Not your problem yet

Things you will need to know later. Not now.

Bookmark these and forget them. Nothing here matters on day one, and nobody expects you to have read a word of it.

Week one or two How to dry your pottery Drying is where a lot of first pieces crack. Worth watching once you have something on your shelf. Watch it →
When your first piece is bisque fired Glazing at The Clay Hole Our glazing rules and techniques. Required reading before you glaze, which is a few weeks out. Read it →
Before you touch a dipping bucket Dipping glaze certification A short course and quiz that unlocks the dipping glazes. Do it when you get there, not tonight. Get certified →
Only if you’re the type

Want to walk in already knowing a few things?

None of this is required. Some people like showing up with a head start, and if that is you, here is where to spend an evening.

The big picture The full process of pottery Start to finish, from wet clay to a finished piece you can drink out of. Read it →
Useful vocabulary The five stages of clay Why we keep saying leather hard, and what it means for what you can do next. Read it →
A real skill How to wedge clay properly The thing you do to clay before you make anything. Easy to do badly. Read it →
For the deep divers Glaze combinations and resources Where to find combination ideas, plus the pottery groups worth joining online. Read it →
Four minutes Membership levels explained What each level gets you, in case you are wondering whether yours is the right fit. Watch it →
Yours on day one The Welcome Booklet We hand you a printed copy on your first night. All 56 pages are here early if you are impatient. Flip through it →
The rest of it

House rules, in plain language.

These are the things that keep a 10,000 square foot studio working for everybody in it.

How many classes do I get each month?

Green Level, any four classes. Yellow Level, any five. Purple Level, any six. Black Level, any eight.

You pick which ones. Come every Tuesday, come four Mondays in a row, mix it up month to month. It is up to you.

Everyone cleans up. Including you.

Every member cleans their own work area plus one other area of the studio that needs attention.

We all get the place dirty together, so we all keep it clean together. On day one somebody will show you exactly what that means, so you are not guessing.

How do I spot an instructor?

Main instructors wear pink Clay Hole shirts. Trade instructors wear purple. Either one can help you.

There is a main instructor on the wheel side and another on the hand-building side, usually with a second instructor backing each of them up when things get busy. Use them freely. Just remember they are shared across the whole class, so if one is mid-sentence with somebody else, grab the other.

At open studio you will see baby blue instead. Those are our open studio managers. They run the room and the cleanup, and they do not teach.

Can I bring someone with me?

Not on your first day. Not to watch, not to keep you company, not for a minute. Day one is a lot of moving parts for us and we need the room for new members only.

After that, absolutely. Guests come in on a Bring a Friend pass, and members do it all the time.

How old do you have to be?

Eighteen and up on your own.

Fourteen and up is welcome with a parent or guardian who is also a member and who attends alongside them. Not dropped off, not waiting in the car. In the room, making pottery too.

When can I start using open studio?

After you have been to two instructed classes. That is Friday evenings, Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings, all 6:30 to 10:00 PM on Friday and 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM on the weekend.

There are no instructors during open studio. The two class minimum exists so that when you walk in, you already know the layout, the rules and the cleanup routine. Open studio counts as one of your classes for the month, and it is a genuinely great way to meet people and get lost in a project.

How early can I show up, and when do I have to leave?

No more than fifteen minutes early. Before that we are still setting up.

You need to be cleaned up and out the door by the time class ends, not starting your cleanup then. We usually give a thirty minute heads up so you can wrap up what you are doing without rushing.

How does the monthly part actually work?

Memberships run on calendar months, not from your start date. Start on the 20th and that month still ends when the month ends.

That sounds like a raw deal until you hear the other half: your classes never expire while you are a member. Nothing you paid for disappears. You just use it later.

Want more classes than your level gives you? You can upgrade any time, including before your first class.

Are you ever closed?

Yes, on holidays. Check the class schedule and holiday closures before you plan a first day around one.

Since you choose which classes you attend each month, there are no refunds for holiday closures.

I have a question that isn’t here.

Text us at 385-241-5528. That is the fastest way to get an answer from a human.

Or read the full FAQ, which answers sixty-six of them, or take the virtual studio tour so the building is familiar before you park.

See you soon

That’s everything. Go sign the waiver and tell us when you’re coming.

The first day is the only awkward one, and it is less awkward than you are picturing. After that you are just somebody who does pottery on Tuesdays.

Sign the waiver Pick my first day

Curious what people actually make here? Have a look at class photos and member show and tell. Some of it is from people who had never touched clay before their first day either.