Pottery Classes Near Highland, Utah
The Clay Hole is a community pottery studio in Draper, about twenty five minutes north of Highland. Wheels, hand building tables, slab molds, glaze and firing, on one monthly membership.
Your town threw a caber because somebody thought the hills looked Scottish. Commitment to a resemblance is a real virtue. Membership is the only way in, and there are no drop-in classes.
The drive from Highland
Highland has no freeway of its own, so the first few minutes are surface roads west to SR-92. After that it is one straight run north over the pass.
- West on SR-92 to I-15 at exit 284.
- North on I-15 over the Point of the Mountain to exit 289, Bangerter Highway.
- West on Bangerter to the 200 W exit, then right on 13490 S.
- Pony Express Rd past IKEA and Living Spaces. We are on the left.
About twenty five minutes, of which the first five are just getting to an on-ramp. Everyone in Highland has already factored that part into every trip they take.
Nothing direct. Highland has no station of its own, so this is a car in both directions.
When you get here
Free and shared with a few other businesses. Anything not marked reserved is yours, and there is a great deal of it.
Scottish immigrants thought it looked like home, and the town has not let it go since
Homesteaders arrived in the 1870s and the Scottish ones among them named the place after the Highlands because the ground reminded them of it. That is the entire origin. A resemblance, noticed once, written down.
The city was not incorporated until 13 July 1977, and in 1970 there were two hundred and eight people living here. Most towns with a name like that would have quietly dropped the bit.
Highland did the opposite. The Highland Fling runs from late July into August with heavy athletics, the caber toss, the stone put, the sheaf toss for height and a State Hammer Championship, plus Highland dance from two named schools. A hundred and fifty years on from somebody's passing comment about the view.
Which is a reasonable way to treat a hobby
Pick a thing on thin evidence, then take it entirely seriously for a century and a half until it is true. That is roughly how anybody ends up good at the wheel, too.
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 city built on purpose to have nothing in it
Highland kept large lots while the rest of the county densified, and it kept retail thin deliberately. Wider yards, more separation, more sky. People moved here for exactly that and they were right to.
The trade is real. The median age is twenty six point nine and more than a third of the city is under eighteen, which is a lot of household and not much within walking distance of it.
So the evening has to be somewhere else. Twenty five minutes north is a room with twenty nine wheels in it, which is more equipment than the whole city holds.
- Seven days a week, so a Fling weekend does not cost you the week.
- Teenagers 14 and over can join alongside a parent who is also a member.
- Your own shelf, so nothing wet has to make the trip home.
- Four instructed classes a month at the lowest level, eight at the highest.
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 Highland
Nothing in Highland. The two nearest places to make your own work are one town over in each direction.
- Make your own
White Stone Pottery
In Alpine, which for Highland is the next street over. One potter, wheel lessons only, five students to a class, four two hour sessions a month, sixteen and over. It was full with a waitlist and it does not run December or January. The site is plain http and some browsers will flag it.
- Make your own
The Kreative Kiln
Pleasant Grove, the other side of the Murdock Canal Trail from you. Six week wheel throwing at $299, hand building, and they fire work made elsewhere.
- Make your own
Utah Center for the Ceramic Arts
In Provo, further south. Seven wheels, a slab roller, an extruder and two kilns, with classes, open studio and memberships. It opened in 2025, so it is young, and their site blocks automated readers so details are worth calling about.
If you want a seat at White Stone, get on that waitlist. It is four minutes from you and one potter teaching five people at a time is a genuinely good way to learn.
What people from Highland ask
How far is The Clay Hole from Highland?
About twenty five minutes. West on SR-92 to the freeway at exit 284, then north on I-15 over the Point of the Mountain. The first five minutes are getting to an on-ramp, which is the Highland tax on every trip.
Is it worth the drive?
If your city has no retail by design, everything is a drive already. This one ends in a ten thousand square foot room instead of a parking lot at a strip mall.
Can I take a single pottery class instead of joining?
No. Monthly membership is the only way in, with no drop-in classes and no single sessions. For a household that books everything around school and sport, that is worth knowing up front.
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 at the front desk.
Do you take beginners?
Most people who join have never touched a wheel. Anyone who has watched a first attempt at a sheaf toss knows that the early stage of a physical skill is mostly comic, and that this is fine.
Can my teenager come with me?
Yes, from fourteen, alongside a parent who is also a member. In a city where over a third of the population is under eighteen this comes up more here than almost anywhere else on our list.
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 Highland 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.