Pottery Classes Near Murray, Utah
The Clay Hole is a community pottery studio in Draper, straight down State Street from Murray. Wheels, hand building tables, slab molds, a glaze wall and kilns, all on one monthly membership.
Murray has better claim to this than anywhere else on the site. There is a street in your city named after a clay factory. Membership is still the only way in, and there are no drop-in classes.
The drive from Murray
South, and you can do the whole thing on State Street if you would rather not deal with the freeway.
- South on I-15 from about 5300 South, or 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 ten miles, thirteen to fifteen minutes with the freeway clear. State Street takes longer and has more lights, but it is the drive most Murray people default to.
The Red and Blue lines both run through Murray and neither gets you here. This is a car trip.
When you pull in
Parking is free and shared with a few other businesses. Anything not marked reserved is yours. Rather more of it than Fashion Place at Christmas, and nobody circling.
There is a street in Murray named after a clay factory
Fireclay Avenue, at about 4200 South. The Utah Fire Clay Company was founded in 1904 and ran a plant there between the rail lines. It made fire brick, sewer pipe, drain tile, face brick, silica brick and, for the smelters, assay crucibles and muffles. Around a hundred different clay products in the end.
That is not the only one. John Cahoon started making brick in Murray in 1878 and in 1891 founded the Salt Lake Pressed Brick Company, which became the largest brick manufacturer in the west. It went from 20,000 bricks a day to 200,000, in nineteen different colors and shades.
Nineteen colors out of one valley's clay. Any member who has ever pulled two test tiles out of the same kiln and found two different results already understands exactly how that happened.
And the thing that is not there any more
ASARCO's tall smelter stack reached 450 feet, roughly twice the height of the hospital tower that stands on that ground now. It last smoked in 1949, voters turned down a preservation bond in 1998, and it came down on 6 August 2000. The implosion went wrong and put a plume of dust over Murray High School.
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.
Fifteen minutes is the part where you stop being at work
Murray runs its own police, its own fire, its own power, its own water, its own library and its own school district, while the rest of the valley leans on the county. The library director's line is that it is a Murray thing, and Murray likes to do things on its own.
The cost of doing everything yourself is that you rarely go anywhere. Work, home, Fashion Place, repeat.
The fifteen minutes down is not time lost. It is the only stretch of the day where you are not at either end of it, and by the time you sit down at a wheel you have already put the day down.
- 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 piece waits for you rather than riding back and forth.
- Open seven days a week, so a missed Tuesday becomes a Saturday.
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 Murray
Murray is well served for a city its size. Here is what is close, and where one of them is the better answer.
- Make your own
Cottonwood Clay Studio
7587 S State St in Midvale, barely outside Murray and much closer to you than we are. Taught classes Monday through Friday. Their open studio is reserved for people enrolled in a current class, which is the one structural difference worth knowing.
- Paint your own
Color Me Mine Sandy
51 W 10600 S, south down State Street. Finished pieces you decorate and they fire. Lower commitment, no clay under your fingernails.
Cottonwood Clay is ten minutes from you and we are fifteen. If a taught class with a set structure is what you want, go there. If you want a room you can walk into seven days a week, that is us.
What people from Murray ask
How far is The Clay Hole from Murray?
About ten miles, thirteen to fifteen minutes on I-15. You can also do the whole drive on State Street without touching the freeway, which is slower but is the route most people from Murray take by habit.
Did Murray really have a clay industry?
Yes, and a serious one. The Utah Fire Clay Company ran a plant at about 4200 South from 1904, making fire brick, sewer pipe, assay crucibles and muffles, and Fireclay Avenue is still named after it. John Cahoon began making brick in Murray in 1878 and built the largest brick company in the west.
Can I take a single pottery class instead of joining?
No. Monthly membership is the only way in. A single evening sends you home with wet clay and nowhere to fire it. Cottonwood Clay in Midvale runs taught classes if a fixed course is what you are after.
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, and firing is charged by the size of the piece.
Do you take beginners?
Nearly everyone starts from nothing. Every instructed class has instructors working the room, so a first night is spent making something rather than waiting for help.
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 is what makes a fifteen minute drive worth committing to.
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 Murray 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.