Pottery Classes Near Pleasant Grove, Utah
The Clay Hole is a community pottery studio in Draper, about twenty five minutes north of Pleasant Grove. Wheels, hand building, slab molds, the glaze wall and firing, on a single monthly membership.
Pleasant Grove already has a pottery studio and we name it below. Membership here is the only way in, and there are no drop-in classes.
The drive from Pleasant Grove
West to the freeway, then north. Pleasant Grove sits close enough to its own on-ramps that the drive is mostly one road.
- West to I-15 at exit 275 or exit 276.
- North over the Point of the Mountain to exit 289, Bangerter Highway.
- West on Bangerter, take the 200 W exit, then right on 13490 S.
- Pony Express Rd past IKEA and Living Spaces. We are on the left.
Fourteen to fifteen freeway miles plus surface streets, so roughly twenty five minutes. Slower during the Strawberry Days week, like everything else in town that June.
There is no station in Pleasant Grove. American Fork's is the nearest and the connection at the far end is poor, so this is a car.
When you get here
Free and shared. Anything not marked reserved for a neighboring business is yours, and there is considerably more of it than there is anywhere near the parade route in June.
A hundred years of parades for a crop that is no longer grown here
Strawberry Days was first held on 21 June 1922. The Wasatch Club organized it, ten to fifteen thousand people turned up, and the city had something like two hundred and fifty acres under strawberries at the time. Strawberries and cream, and a parade.
There are no commercial strawberry farms in the city any more.
The festival did not care. It is still the third week of June, still strawberries and cream, still a parade, and the rodeo still pulls competitors from across the West. A town kept the ritual after the reason for it had gone, and it turns out the ritual was most of the point.
The other thing that refuses to change
The Purple Turtle opened in January 1968 after Lloyd Ash had a recurring dream about a restaurant working on that corner. Family owned ever since. The current owner says the kids who worked their first job there brought their own kids, and those kids are now bringing theirs.
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 only city on this list where the population has not moved
Thirty seven thousand seven hundred and twenty six at the 2020 count. Thirty seven thousand seven hundred and seventy three estimated for 2025. Forty seven people, in five years, in the fastest growing county in the state.
That is a rare and slightly wonderful thing. It also means the version of your week that exists here in 2026 is the version that will exist in 2031 unless you go and get a different one.
The nice part is that a skill is the one thing that does change on its own schedule. Three months in you can center. Six months in you are fixing the wall thickness instead of hoping. Nothing about the town had to move for that to happen.
- 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.
- Instructors working the room in every instructed class.
- Your own shelf, which is what turns a hobby into a run of pieces.
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 Pleasant Grove
Pleasant Grove is one of the few towns on this list with a working pottery studio inside it, so start there and read us second.
- Make your own
The Kreative Kiln
In Pleasant Grove, on 800 West. Six week wheel throwing at $299, a one off wheel workshop at $65, hand building, paint your own from $20, corporate and family events, and kiln firing for work you made elsewhere. All ages and all levels. If a fixed course in your own city is what you want, this is the answer and it is not close. Their membership with round the clock access is listed as coming soon, with no price and no date.
- Make your own
SCERA Art Studios
Orem, ten minutes south. Adult and teen wheel pottery, a homeschool section, pottery for six to eleven year olds, and a monthly one night ceramics evening for sixteen and over at $20. A class program rather than a studio.
- Make your own
White Stone Pottery
Alpine, north and up. One potter, wheel lessons only, five students a class, sixteen and over. Waitlisted, and closed December and January. The site runs on plain http and browsers will say so.
We are twenty five minutes away and The Kreative Kiln is five. If you want six weeks with an end date, or you need a kiln to fire something you made at home, go there. We do neither of those things.
What people from Pleasant Grove ask
How far is The Clay Hole from Pleasant Grove?
About twenty five minutes. West to I-15 at exit 275 or 276, then north over the Point of the Mountain. Fourteen to fifteen freeway miles plus the surface streets at each end.
There is a studio in Pleasant Grove. Why drive to Draper?
For a six week course, do not. The Kreative Kiln is in your own city. The reasons people make this drive anyway are open studio seven days a week, four kilns instead of one, a wall of six hundred and fifty glazes, and a shelf that stays yours.
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. The Kreative Kiln runs a one off wheel workshop at $65 and that is the better first taste.
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, so there is nothing to order and nothing to wait for.
Do you take beginners?
Most people who join have never touched a wheel. A town that throws a full week of parades for a crop it stopped growing understands the value of doing a thing properly whether or not you are good at it yet.
What are the class times?
Instructed classes Monday through Thursday evenings plus Monday daytime. Friday evening and both weekend mornings are open studio. Nothing runs during the fourteen holidays the studio closes for, and the full list is on the class schedule page.
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 Pleasant Grove 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.