Pottery Classes Near Alpine, Utah
The Clay Hole is a community pottery studio in Draper, about half an hour north of Alpine. Throwing, hand building, slab molds, glaze and kiln time, all included in one monthly membership.
Alpine has a pottery studio of its own and we will point you at it below. Membership here is the only way in, and there are no drop-in classes.
The drive from Alpine
Alpine has no freeway access at all, so the trip starts by driving out of town. Most people route through Highland or American Fork to SR-92 and pick up I-15 at exit 284.
- South out of town through Highland or American Fork to SR-92.
- West to I-15 at exit 284, then north over the Point of the Mountain.
- Exit 289, Bangerter Highway, west to the 200 W exit, right on 13490 S.
- Pony Express Rd past IKEA and Living Spaces. We are on the left.
Twenty five to thirty minutes depending on how you get out. Alpine is the furthest city on this list from an on-ramp, and that is the part of the drive you cannot shorten.
None. No station, no useful bus. This is a car, and in winter it is a car with the canyon weather in mind.
When you get here
Free, shared, and flat. Anything not marked reserved is yours. After a winter of your own street, level asphalt is its own small pleasure.
The town changed its name because of how it looked from up here
Settled in the fall of 1850 and called Mountainville. The name did not last. People compared the view from the elevated townsite to the Swiss Alps and the town took the comparison as its name.
That is a decision about the view, made by people who had to haul everything else in by hand. Whatever else was hard about 1850, somebody stood there and thought the skyline was worth naming the place after.
It has stayed that way. Lone Peak Wilderness starts behind the houses, Lambert Park holds two hundred and fifty five acres of trails on the northeast edge, and the Timpooneke trailhead is about fifteen minutes off. The population moved one point eight percent in five years. Alpine is essentially finished.
The honest part of living under a mountain
The west side of the city runs above the Wasatch Fault, and the Quail Fire burned more than two thousand two hundred acres in 2012. Wildfire is an ordinary local subject here, not a dramatic one.
A big room, and everything in it is included
The studio runs to nearly 10,000 square feet. Membership covers the room, the equipment, the classes and the glaze. You buy clay by the bag and you pay for firing by the size of the piece. Nothing else is metered.
- Four instructors working the room in every instructed class, so nobody sits stuck for twenty minutes.
- 150+ underglazes alongside the glaze wall, plus dipping buckets on the higher levels.
- Bisque firing is free. Glaze firing is 5 cents a cubic inch, $4.80 minimum.
- Clay starts at $28 a 25 pound bag, and the discount grows with your level.
- Your own shelf to leave work on, which is the thing home potters never have.
A finished town is a lovely place to live and a quiet place to get better at something
Almost nothing new gets built here on purpose. Large lots, custom homes, very little starter inventory, and a population that has barely moved in five years. That stability is the whole appeal and nobody should apologize for it.
It does mean the thing that changes has to be you. A view does not ask anything of you. Two hundred and fifty five acres of trail is the same two hundred and fifty five acres in March.
Clay asks constantly. It is off center, then it is thin on one side, then it cracks while you were pleased with it. Every session hands you a specific problem you did not have last week.
- Four instructed classes a month at the lowest level, eight at the highest.
- Open studio Friday evening and both weekend mornings, on top of the classes.
- None of it depends on a canyon road being open.
- Your own shelf, so a half hour drive turns into one trip a week rather than three.
Four levels, one monthly price
Every level gets the same studio, the same equipment and the same glaze wall. What changes is how many instructed classes are included, how much shelf you get, and how much comes off a bag of clay.
| Level | Monthly | Classes included |
|---|---|---|
| Green Level | $145 a month | 4 classes a month |
| Yellow Level | $170 a month | 5 classes a month |
| Purple Level | $200 a month | 6 classes a month |
| Black Level | $275 a month | 8 classes a month |
Open studio time is on top of the included classes, at every level. Clay discounts run from nothing on Green Level up to $6 off each bag on Black Level.
The part we would rather you read now than find out later
There are no drop-in classes and no single sessions. Membership renews on the 25th of each month and canceling has to happen before the 24th. Fired work has to be collected within two weeks of the kiln being unloaded. And the cheapest level shows you a real fraction of what a busy month here looks like.
If that list makes membership the wrong shape for you, it is better to know in the first minute than in the fourth week.
When the studio is open
| When | Hours | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Monday daytime | 10:30 AM to 2 PM | Instructed class |
| Monday to Thursday evenings | 6:30 PM to 10 PM | Instructed class |
| Friday evening | 6:30 PM to 10 PM | Open studio |
| Saturday and Sunday mornings | 10 AM to 1:30 PM | Open studio |
Doors open 15 minutes before a session starts, and the studio closes for fourteen holidays a year. The full list, with this year's dates, is on the class schedule page.
Other pottery near Alpine
Alpine is one of the few places on this list with a real pottery teacher inside the city limits. Start with her.
- Make your own
White Stone Pottery
In Alpine, on Coventry Lane. Wheel thrown lessons only, all levels, taught by one potter, five students to a class, four two hour sessions a month, mornings or evenings Monday through Thursday, sixteen and over. If you can get a seat, take it: five to one in your own town beats anything we can offer on distance. Classes were showing full with a waitlist, they do not run in December or January, the only published prices are labeled 2018, and the site is served over plain http so some browsers will warn you.
- Make your own
The Kreative Kiln
Pleasant Grove, about fifteen minutes down. Six week wheel throwing at $299, hand building, workshops, and a kiln that will fire work you made somewhere else.
- Make your own
Copper Kiln
Herriman, over the Point and west, so a similar length of drive to ours. Eight week courses at $270 with clay, firings and a weekly open studio day included, and you can start any week.
We are the furthest thing from your house on this page and we know it. The case for driving past White Stone is open studio seven days a week and a shelf of your own, not the teaching, because five students to one potter is an excellent ratio.
What people from Alpine ask
How far is The Clay Hole from Alpine?
Twenty five to thirty minutes. Alpine has no freeway access, so you route out through Highland or American Fork to SR-92 and exit 284, then north over the Point of the Mountain.
There is a pottery studio in Alpine. Why would I drive past it?
Often you should not. White Stone teaches five students at a time in your own city and that is a better ratio than ours. The reasons to come here are open studio seven days a week, a shelf you leave work on, and classes that run in December and January.
Can I take a single pottery class instead of joining?
No. Monthly membership is the only way in. No drop-in classes and no single sessions, which at half an hour each way is a real commitment and not one everybody should make.
Do I need my own tools or clay?
No tools. Membership covers the wheels, the hand building tables, the slab molds, the glaze wall and the classes. Clay is by the bag and it stays on your shelf here, so nothing wet rides back up the bench.
Do you take beginners?
Most people who join have never touched a wheel. Every instructed class has instructors working the room, so a first session does not need preparing for on the way down.
What are the class times?
Instructed classes Monday through Thursday evenings plus Monday daytime. Friday evening and both weekend mornings are open studio. The Monday daytime slot is the one people with a thirty minute drive tend to take.
What happens if you join this week
You pick a level, sign the waiver, and turn up to your first class. Somebody shows you where everything is, you get a shelf, and you put your hands in clay the same night. Most people who come from Alpine and join here have never touched a wheel.
- Nothing to bring. What to wear is covered on the what to wear page.
- The first day page walks through the whole first visit, in order.
- Free lessons for everything else live in Clay Hole University, whether or not you ever join.
Questions are quickest by text. The studio line is 385-241-5528. We are at 12896 S Pony Express Rd, Suite 100, Draper, UT 84020.