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.
The vacations are done, school is back in, and the calendar finally has a little room in it. Spend a free Saturday doing something for yourself. Try the pottery wheel, build something by hand, look around the studio and meet the people who teach here.
Pottery takes weeks. A mug has to be made, dried, bisque fired, glazed and fired again before it is a mug. Start in September and you have time to make a whole shelf of gifts before Christmas.
Mugs
The gift everybody actually uses every single morning.
Ornaments
Small, fast, and back out of the box every December.
Planters and bowls
For the person who has everything, except one you made.
Spoon rests and trinket dishes
Quick wins that look like you worked much harder.
Why September is the month to start
It takes weeks, not hours
Drying, two firings and a glaze day in between. Start now and the gifts are finished with time to spare.
You get a few tries
Your first mug might be lopsided. Your fifth one is the one you wrap.
It is a gift people keep
Store-bought goes in a drawer. Something you made goes on the shelf, and stays there.
What happens there
Five hours to get your hands dirty
Come any time between 10 and 3, stay as long as you like, and leave muddier than you arrived. No experience needed. Several of our pottery instructors are there all day to explain, teach, help, and make sure everybody has a good time.
The wheel
Try the pottery wheel
Sit down at a real wheel with an instructor beside you and try throwing, which is the word for making something on the wheel. It is harder than it looks and more fun than it has any right to be. Most first pots collapse at least once. That is the best part.
The tables
Build something by hand
Pinch a little bowl, coil a big one, roll a slab and cut shapes, or sculpt a tiny creature. Hand building is relaxed, it is great for kids, and it is how plenty of potters here make their best work.
The studio
Look around
See the wheels, the glaze wall, the slab rollers and slab molds, the kilns, and the tools members use every day. Ask the instructors anything. We will also have games, a lot of fun, and special day-of discounts for anyone who decides to join.
The member shelves in the warehouse are a look-from-the-doorway stop. That is where members keep hundreds of pieces in progress, so guests take a peek and do not walk through.
Optional homework
A fighting chance on the wheel starts with this video
No experience is needed, and nobody expects you to have any. But if you would love to actually throw something on the day, watch the owner’s wheel lesson before you come. Centering, opening and pulling up a first cylinder, start to finish.
How to center, open and pull a cylinder, from The Clay HoleWatch on YouTube
The words you will hear
Potters have their own vocabulary, and most of it sounds stranger than it is. Here is a head start. The full list lives in our pottery dictionary.
ThrowingMaking something on the pottery wheel. Nobody throws anything across the room. Usually.
CenteringPushing a spinning lump of clay until it runs perfectly true in the middle of the wheel. The first thing everybody learns and the last thing anybody masters.
WedgingKneading clay before you use it, to push out air bubbles and even it out. It looks like making bread.
Hand buildingMaking pottery with your hands and simple tools instead of the wheel. Pinching, coils and slabs.
SlabA flat sheet of clay, rolled out like dough. Slabs become plates, boxes and anything pressed over our slab molds.
GreenwareClay that has been shaped but never fired. Fragile, and still changeable.
Leather hardClay that has dried part way, firm enough to hold its shape and soft enough to carve or trim.
TrimmingShaving the bottom of a thrown pot once it is leather hard, to give it a clean foot.
BisqueThe first firing, which turns dry clay into something hard and porous enough to take glaze.
GlazeThe glassy coating that gives pottery its color and seals the surface. It looks nothing like its final color until it is fired.
KilnThe oven that fires pottery. Ours fire glaze to cone 5½, which is somewhere north of 2,100 degrees.
FiringA trip through the kiln. Most pieces go through twice: a bisque firing, then a glaze firing.
See it before you come
Walk through the studio from your couch
Our 360 virtual tour starts at the front doors and lets you wander the whole building: the wheels, the glaze wall, the kilns, the member shelves, all of it. Tap the floor to walk.
No cost, no sign-up. Everyone who comes in signs the studio waiver before they start, and parents sign it for their kids. Signing it before you arrive saves you a few minutes at the door.
Kids are welcome, with you
Members here are 18 and up, or 14 and up alongside a parent or guardian who is also a member. For the open house we open it up to ages 6 and up, so the whole family can see what this is. A studio is full of other people’s pottery and some heavy equipment, so kids stay with their parent the whole time, and parents cover anything that gets broken.
Keeping what you make
You are welcome to take home what you make. Know that it goes home wet, unfired and fragile, and it will never be finished pottery without the kiln. We recommend coming to have fun rather than to make a keepsake. But hey, you do you.
Wear clothes that can get muddy
Clay gets everywhere, especially at the wheel. It washes out, so an apron is totally optional, but feel free to bring a pottery apron if you would like to keep your clothes clean. Short sleeves, or sleeves that roll up, make life easier.
Other potters, come say hello
If you run a studio of your own, or belong to one somewhere else, come anyway. We are not trying to recruit you. We would just love to meet you and talk pottery.
Members, that Saturday
Saturday open studio does not run that day. The whole studio goes to the open house, and you are welcome to come show it off with us.
The Clay Hole, 12896 S Pony Express Rd, Suite 100, Draper, UT84020. Directions.
If it clicks
What membership looks like
The Clay Hole runs on monthly membership. Classes with instructors, open studio, every tool, wheel and slab mold your Level opens, and a shelf of your own work. Month to month, no contract.
Anyone who joins at the open house gets that day’s special discount.
Don’t want to wait
Join now. We would love to have you.
The open house is a great first look, and nobody has to wait for it. If you already know you want in, come start this month. Right now, first-time members can pick one of two deals.
This month only
Your first month for $50
That covers a Green Level first month, or takes $95 off any Level above it. Only a small batch of these each month.
of 30 left this month
Deepest savings
Half price for two months
50 percent off each of your first two months, at whichever Level you pick. Classes, tools, glazes, kilns and people, for half.
First-time members only, one new-member deal per person. Come to the open house too. You will already know half the room.
Questions
Before you ask
Do I need any experience?
None. Most people who come have never touched a pottery wheel. Plenty of others are already potters, and they are welcome too.
Is it really free?
Yes. No charge to come in, try the wheel or build something by hand. Everyone signs the studio waiver first.
Do I need to sign up?
No sign-up. Just sign the waiver, ideally before you arrive, and come any time between 10 AM and 3 PM.
Can I bring my kids?
Yes, if they are 6 or older. They stay with you the whole time, and you are responsible for anything they damage. Parents sign the waiver for them.
How long should I plan to stay?
As long as you like. Some people come for half an hour, some stay most of the day. A turn on the wheel plus a look around takes about an hour.
Can I take my pottery home?
You can. It will be wet, unfired and fragile, so most people come to play rather than to make a keepsake. Finished, fired pottery is what membership is for.
Will I get to use a pottery wheel?
Yes. Instructors run the wheels all day. If the wheels are busy when you arrive, try hand building first and grab a wheel when one opens up.
Can I see the whole studio?
Most of it. The member shelves in the warehouse are a look-from-the-doorway stop, to protect the work stored there. The 360 virtual tour shows you all of it.
I run another studio. Can I come?
Please do. We would love to meet you and talk pottery. No recruiting, just hellos.
Where is it?
The Clay Hole, 12896 S Pony Express Rd, Suite 100, Draper, UT84020. Directions.
Saturday, September 11, 10 AM to 3 PM
Do something for yourself this fall
Saturday, September 11, 10 AM to 3 PM. Free. Bring the friend who keeps saying they want to try it, and start thinking about who gets your first mug.
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.
