Pottery Classes Near Daybreak, Utah
The Clay Hole is a community pottery studio in Draper, east across the valley from Daybreak. Throwing, hand building, slab molds, glazing and firing, all included in one monthly membership.
Membership is the only way in. There are no drop-in classes and no single sessions, which is the part most people want to know first.
The drive from Daybreak
East, then south. You are crossing the whole width of the valley floor, which is flatter and faster than it looks on a map.
- East on Daybreak Parkway or 11400 South to Bangerter Highway.
- Bangerter southeast to its south end at I-15, Exit 289.
- Take the 200 W exit, then right on 13490 S over to Pony Express Rd.
- Past IKEA and Living Spaces. We are on the left.
Roughly seven or eight miles, and about fifteen minutes with Bangerter clear. Longer at five, which anyone who commutes out of Daybreak already knows.
Daybreak has three TRAX stations, which no other place on this list can say. None of them helps here. The Red Line runs the wrong way for this trip, so it is a drive.
When you arrive
Parking is free and shared with a few other businesses. Anything not marked reserved is yours. No permit, no app and no wristband, which after a summer of Oquirrh Lake is a pleasant change.
A town built to make you leave the house, on ground that was a copper mine
Daybreak sits on former Bingham Canyon mine land. Kennecott ran an accelerated cleanup and the EPA signed it off before a single house went up. That is unusual and it is worth knowing.
What went up on it was deliberate. New Urbanist planning, small yards, front porches near the street, clustered retail, 48 parks, 22 miles of trail and a 67 acre lake. Every house is Energy Star certified. The whole design is an argument that you should be outside among people.
In 2022 one in every six houses built in all of Salt Lake County was built in Daybreak. It is not a neighborhood. It is a city being poured.
The gap in the plan
A town can be designed to get you out of the house and still not have anywhere to make something with your hands. SoDa Row has restaurants, cafes, fitness studios and salons. It does not have a kiln.
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.
Daybreak is very good at being Daybreak, and that is the problem
Walkable main street, a lake you can kayak on, a brand new ballpark, trails in every direction. Most people who move here barely leave, and for the first year or two that is the point.
Then it gets small. The same loop, the same faces, the same eight restaurants. A town designed to be self-contained eventually contains you.
Fifteen minutes east there is a room full of people from thirty other suburbs, none of whom know your HOA.
- Four instructed classes a month at the lowest level, eight at the highest.
- Open studio Friday evening and both weekend mornings on top of that.
- Your own shelf, which no amount of garage space actually replaces.
- Nothing to buy first. Clay by the bag, firing by the size of the piece.
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 Daybreak
We are not the only option from Daybreak, and the drive is real. Here is what else is within reach.
- Paint your own
Color Me Mine West Jordan
3751 W Center Park Dr, near Jordan Landing and closer to Daybreak than we are. Pre-made pieces, you decorate, they fire.
- Make your own
Bella Rosa Pottery
In Herriman, straight south of Daybreak. Eight week wheel and hand building courses plus shorter Clay Nights. A fixed course, with a start date and an end date.
- Make your own
Cottonwood Clay Studio
7587 S State St in Midvale, which from the west side of the valley is a serious drive. Weekday taught classes, open studio for current students only.
There is nowhere in Daybreak itself to make the piece yourself. For a community this size that is a strange gap, and if it closes we will say so on this page.
What people from Daybreak ask
How far is The Clay Hole from Daybreak?
Seven or eight miles east, about fifteen minutes with Bangerter clear. It is the width of the valley floor, which is flat and quick outside rush hour.
Can I get there on TRAX?
Not usefully. Daybreak has three stations but the Red Line runs north, not south, and nothing lands close enough to walk from. This is a drive.
Can I take a single pottery class instead of joining?
No. Monthly membership is the only way in. For a single evening, Bella Rosa in Herriman runs shorter Clay Nights and Color Me Mine in West Jordan is closer still.
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 here, which is one less thing arriving on a front porch.
Do you take beginners?
Hardly anybody turns up already knowing how. Daybreak is full of people who moved in recently and are still working out what they do with an evening, and a fair few of them end up here.
What are the class times?
Instructed classes Monday through Thursday evenings plus Monday daytime. Friday evening and both weekend mornings are open studio. Worth checking against Bangerter at five before you pick a night.
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 Daybreak 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.