Pottery Classes Near Kearns, Utah
The Clay Hole is a community pottery studio in Draper, about twenty minutes southeast of Kearns. Throwing, hand building, slab molds, glazing and firing, all included in one monthly membership.
Kearns has the biggest households on this whole site. Membership here covers one person, teenagers from 14 can join alongside a parent, and there are no drop-in classes.
The drive from Kearns
Southeast. Bangerter Highway does almost all of the work and ends at the exact exit we use.
- Southeast on Bangerter Highway from 5400 South.
- Stay on Bangerter 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.
Fourteen or fifteen miles, about twenty minutes with Bangerter clear. It is one road most of the way, which makes it an easy drive to do tired.
Nothing that reaches us. A car, or a lift with somebody else who is going.
When you pull in
Parking is free and shared with a few other businesses. Anything not marked reserved is yours. Nothing like the Oval on a meet weekend.
You drive on an army's street grid, bought secondhand in 1948
Camp Kearns opened in 1942 and closed in 1946. Nearly a thousand buildings on five thousand acres, around forty thousand soldiers at its peak, which made it the third largest community in Utah during the war. Sixteen mess halls, five chapels, three theaters and an eleven hundred bed hospital.
In 1948 a housing developer bought the land, the streets, the water system and the electrical infrastructure for $287,270. The grid you drive today is the one the army laid out on dry farm ground.
A base chapel survives inside a Catholic church and a base theater survives inside a junior high. Kearns is a town built inside the outline of something else, which is a thing anybody who has ever thrown into a slab mold understands.
And the fastest ice on earth
The Utah Olympic Oval took its final coat of ice on 12 February 2001. At 4,675 feet it is the highest indoor oval in the world, about a thousand feet above Calgary's, and every one of the ten speed skating events at the 2002 Games set an Olympic record on it. It comes back for 2034.
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.
The densest place on this list, with the biggest families in it
Kearns packs about 38,000 people into 4.63 square miles, which is around 8,000 to the square mile, and the average household runs to 3.54 people. Both numbers are the highest of any city we write a page for.
Dense and full is a good way to live and a hard way to find two quiet hours. The house is never empty. The Oval and the fitness center are excellent and they are both places you go with everybody.
Twenty minutes down Bangerter is a room where nobody needs anything from you for two hours, and where the only thing that has to come out right is the pot.
- 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.
- Your own shelf, which in a full house is not a small thing.
- Teenagers 14 and over can join alongside a parent who is also a member.
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 Kearns
Nothing inside Kearns. Here is what is nearest, in order.
- Paint your own
Color Me Mine West Jordan
3751 W Center Park Dr, the closest of these to Kearns and by a long way the easiest with several children. Finished pieces, you decorate, they fire.
- Make your own
Cottonwood Clay Studio
7587 S State St in Midvale, east across the valley. Weekday taught classes, with open studio only for people enrolled in a current class.
There is nowhere in Kearns to make the piece yourself. For a city of 38,000 that is a real gap, and it is the reason this page exists.
What people from Kearns ask
How far is The Clay Hole from Kearns?
Fourteen or fifteen miles, about twenty minutes. Bangerter Highway runs from Kearns to the exact freeway exit we use, so it is close to one road the whole way.
Can my teenager join with me?
Yes, from 14, as long as a parent or guardian attends alongside them and is also a member. Below 14 we are not the right place, and Color Me Mine in West Jordan is the better answer for younger children.
Can I take a single pottery class instead of joining?
No. Monthly membership is the only way in. Pottery takes weeks to finish a piece and a one night class sends you home with wet clay.
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 studio, so there is nothing to buy before your first session.
Do you take beginners?
Very few people arrive with any of this already learned. Every instructed class has instructors working the room.
What are the class times?
Instructed classes Monday through Thursday evenings plus Monday daytime. Friday evening and both weekend mornings are open studio. Seven days a week, which helps when the household calendar is full.
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 Kearns 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.