Pottery Classes Near Midvale, Utah
The Clay Hole is a community pottery studio in Draper, a straight run south from Midvale. Throwing, hand building, slab molds, glaze and firing, all on a single 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 Midvale
South. You can do the whole thing on Main Street if you want to, or take the freeway and be here in ten minutes.
- South on I-15, or south on Main Street and State Street the whole way.
- I-15 to Exit 289, Bangerter Highway.
- West on Bangerter to the 200 W exit, then right on 13490 S to Pony Express Rd.
- Past IKEA and Living Spaces. We are on the left.
About six and a half miles from Midvale Main, and roughly ten minutes. One of the shortest drives of any city on this site.
Midvale has three TRAX platforms across two lines, which is a lot for a city of its size. None of them reaches us. This one is a drive.
When you get here
Parking is free and shared with a few other businesses. Anything not marked reserved is yours, and it is easier than Midvale Main on a mural festival weekend.
A brick main street that is turning itself into a gallery
Midvale Main was laid out in 1909 for the smelter town and it is brick. It now carries roughly fifty murals, with a stretch of them repainted every June during a mural festival, and the city has put nearly two million dollars into public art.
The Pearl on Main opened in 1918 as the Iris and has been a performance venue continuously ever since. Cinema several times over, comedy club, children's theater, now concerts and plays.
Behind all of that, five smelters ran on Midvale ground from 1871 to 1971 across 446 acres. That land was cleaned up and is now offices, apartments and a TRAX stop. Not many towns rebuild themselves twice.
The best Midvale story
Before 1909 the town had three names at once. A resident put it this way: if you talked about the town it was East Jordan, if you mailed a letter it went to West Jordan, and if you bought a train ticket home it was stamped Bingham Junction. They took over 200 suggestions and voted 273 to 85 for Midvale.
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 town that decided to be a place where things get made
Fifty murals, a hundred-year-old theater, a mural festival every June and an arts district the mayor talks about by name. Midvale is one of the few places in this valley actively choosing to be about making things rather than buying them.
What it has is walls that other people painted. What it does not have is somewhere you make the thing yourself.
Ten minutes south there is a wall of 650 glazes and 29 wheels, and nobody there has painted it for you.
- 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 a project survives a busy week.
- Open seven days a week, which fits an odd schedule better than a course does.
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 Midvale
Midvale is one of the few cities on this list with its own place to make pottery, and it is a genuinely different model.
- Make your own
Cottonwood Clay Studio
7587 S State St, in Midvale. Taught classes Monday through Friday, and weekend open studio that is reserved for people enrolled in a current class. It is in your city and it is a genuinely good option. If a structured taught class is what you want, go there.
- Paint your own
Color Me Mine Sandy
51 W 10600 S, just south of you down State Street. Finished pieces you decorate and they fire. Lower commitment, different evening.
Cottonwood Clay is in your city and we are ten minutes away. The real difference is that their open studio is for enrolled students and ours is open to every member, seven days a week. Pick on that, not on distance.
What people from Midvale ask
How far is The Clay Hole from Midvale?
About six and a half miles from Midvale Main, roughly ten minutes. You can do the entire drive on Main Street and State Street without touching the freeway.
There is already a pottery studio in Midvale. Why drive to Draper?
Cottonwood Clay runs taught classes Monday through Friday and reserves its open studio for people enrolled in a current class. We are a monthly membership where open studio is included for every member on top of the classes, seven days a week. Theirs is closer and for some people it is the better fit.
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, so the only thing you bring is yourself and something you do not mind ruining.
Do you take beginners?
Most people who sign up have never thrown anything. For a town that has spent years covering its own walls in other people's art, making something yourself is the obvious next step.
What are the class times?
Instructed classes Monday through Thursday evenings plus Monday daytime. Friday evening and both weekend mornings are open studio, and that open studio is the part that differs from a taught course.
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 Midvale 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.