Pottery Classes Near Lehi, Utah
The Clay Hole is a community pottery studio in Draper, about twenty minutes north of Lehi. Wheels, hand building, slab molds, the glaze wall and the kilns, all on one monthly membership.
Lehi fired brick on a twenty day cycle for thirty four years. We unload a kiln the next day. Membership is the only way in, and there are no drop-in classes.
The drive from Lehi
North over the Point, and you are there. Lehi is the first Utah County city on the other side of the pass, which makes this the shortest drive on this half of the list.
- North on I-15 from exit 282 or exit 284, over the Point of the Mountain.
- Exit 289, Bangerter Highway, then west to the 200 W exit.
- Right on 13490 S, which connects over to Pony Express Rd.
- Past IKEA and Living Spaces. We are on the left.
About thirteen road miles and nineteen minutes with the freeway behaving. The Point is the whole variable. You already know what it does at five.
FrontRunner runs Lehi to Draper station, but the station is a couple of miles out from here and the rail corridor sits in the way, so the walk is not short. It ends as a rideshare or it stays a car.
When you get here
Free, and shared with a few other businesses. Anything not marked reserved is yours. No permit and no app, which after the Thanksgiving Point lots in April is a small mercy.
They fired brick here on a twenty day cycle, and we open the kiln tomorrow
The Lehi Brick Company started in August 1891 and fired its first kiln by the end of September. Under Nephi Slater from 1893 they worked two clays out of the same ground: red surface clay in the top twelve inches, yellow clay six to eight feet down. A horse turned the pug mill. Six workers made five thousand bricks a day.
The kilns were twelve feet high, sixteen wide and thirty long, and held a hundred and twenty thousand bricks. Coal fired. Twenty days to burn and cool, every time.
Then during the war the Defense Plant Corporation built a silica fire brick plant here for one purpose: to line the furnaces at the Geneva steel mill down the road. Fourteen and a half acres, six hundred thousand dollars, six kilns. Lehi spent those years making the brick that held other people's fire.
And the smokestack is a cell tower now
The Lehi Sugar Factory was built in 1890 and 1891 and ran until 1924. Its smokestack is still standing, converted into a cell phone tower. Beets to bandwidth, on the same chimney.
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.
You already cross the Point. This is the version where nobody is waiting on you
Lehi is the largest tech hub between the two valleys and a great many people here drive north or south on this exact freeway to sit at a screen. The road is not new to you. What is new is doing it with nothing due at the other end.
Twenty minutes is short enough that a Tuesday evening works and long enough that the day is over by the time you park. That is a useful amount of road.
Then you sit down at a wheel, where the clay does not care what shipped this week. It is going to be off center until you fix it, and fixing it takes both hands.
- 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, so work stays here between visits instead of riding back over the Point.
- Seven days a week, so you pick the night the freeway is not a parking lot.
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 Lehi
Lehi has no pottery studio of its own where you make the piece yourself. Here is the honest field, nearest first.
- Make your own
Throw Art Studio
In Provo, twenty minutes the other way. Two hour wheel sessions, four week beginner courses with evening studio access, and kids hand building. Worth knowing: their menu mentions Lehi classes and memberships, but no Lehi address and no membership price are published. Ask before you count on it.
- Make your own
Copper Kiln
In Herriman, over the Point and west. Eight week courses in hand building, wheel, glazing and sculpture for $270, which includes twenty five pounds of clay, firings and one open studio day a week. You can start any week.
- Make your own
The Kreative Kiln
In Pleasant Grove, south instead of north. Six week wheel throwing at $299, hand building, and they will fire work you made somewhere else, which almost nobody in the county does.
If twenty minutes north is the wrong direction on a weeknight, Copper Kiln and The Kreative Kiln are both real studios with real teachers. We would rather you were throwing somewhere than reading about it here.
What people from Lehi ask
How far is The Clay Hole from Lehi?
About thirteen road miles and nineteen minutes, north on I-15 over the Point of the Mountain. Lehi is the closest Utah County city to the studio, so this is the shortest version of this drive anyone in the county makes.
Is it worth crossing the Point for?
You already do it. The difference is that this one has no meeting at the end of it. Twenty minutes buys you a room with twenty nine wheels, four kilns and somebody standing there who can tell you why your rim keeps going oval.
Can I take a single pottery class instead of joining?
No. Monthly membership is the only way in. There are no drop-in classes and no single sessions, which is a real limitation and we would rather you heard it now than after driving up from Lehi.
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 bought by the bag at the front desk, so nothing has to ride over the Point in the back of your car.
Do you take beginners?
Most people who join have never touched a wheel. In a city that added nearly twenty thousand people in five years, a room where everybody is new to something is not an unfamiliar feeling.
What are the class times?
Instructed classes Monday through Thursday evenings plus Monday daytime. Friday evening and both weekend mornings are open studio. Monday daytime is the one Lehi people take when they want the freeway empty in both directions.
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 Lehi 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.