Pottery near Riverton

Pottery Classes Near Riverton, Utah

The Clay Hole is a community pottery studio in Draper, straight east across the valley floor from Riverton. A room of wheels, hand building tables, slab molds and a glaze wall, on one monthly membership.

Riverton City Hall and this studio sit at almost exactly the same latitude. Membership is the only way in, and there are no drop-in classes, which is the part most people want to know first.

See membership The drive from Riverton
Two friends sitting in a pickup bed at golden hour checking a board of leather hard bowls under a damp towel, farmland behind them in Riverton, Utah
Getting here

The drive from Riverton

You are going east, not north. Riverton and the studio are at nearly the same line on the grid, separated by the Jordan River and the freeway.

  1. East on 12600 South or 13400 South toward I-15.
  2. South on I-15 to Exit 291, 12300 South, or straight across on the surface roads.
  3. West to Lone Peak Parkway, also signed 125 West, then south.
  4. Lone Peak Parkway runs into Pony Express Rd. We are at 12896, before IKEA.

Six or seven miles across, and about twelve minutes when the roads are behaving. Redwood Road and Bangerter both back up at five, like everything else in the valley.

Nothing useful. Riverton to here is a car trip, and a short one.

When you get here

Parking is free and shared with a few other businesses. Anything not marked reserved for one of them is yours. You come at it from the west, so the building is on your right before you reach IKEA.

Full directions and map
Riverton ground

The first people here lived in holes they dug in the riverbank

Riverton's own history says it plainly. Before the canals came, the settlers lived in crude dugout homes scattered along the river bottom. The South Jordan Canal around 1876 and the Utah and Salt Lake Canal in 1881 opened thousands of acres and the town moved up out of the dirt.

The Old Dome Meeting Hall is what the city put in its own logo. The original dome went up starting in 1899, was dedicated in 1920 and was gone by 1939. Granite bench stones from its foundation still sit as a marker on Park Avenue.

Riverton is now recorded as 100 percent urban. Every acre of the farmland that made it is under something. That happened inside living memory, and people here remember it.

Worth knowing

There is no pottery in Riverton's history that we could find, and the city has no water area at all despite the name. What it has is dugouts, canals and a white dome, and that is enough of a story without us borrowing one.

What is actually here

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.

29pottery wheels
650+brush on glazes
248slab molds
4kilns
  • 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.
See the Mold Room
Why leave your own streets

A city of 45,000 with a rodeo arena and not much for a Wednesday

Riverton does the big communal thing extremely well. Town Days in June with a rodeo, a parade, a carnival, a chuckwagon breakfast and a cornhole tournament. Thirty-three parks and nearly five thousand publicly owned trees.

What it does not have is the ordinary Wednesday. The week between the festivals, when the kids are in bed and the house is quiet and the only thing on offer is another episode of something.

Twelve minutes east there is a room with wheels in it. That is the entire pitch.

  • Four instructed classes a month at the lowest level, eight at the highest.
  • Open studio on Friday evening and both weekend mornings, on top of the classes.
  • Your own shelf, so a piece can sit half done for a week.
  • Nothing to buy first. Clay by the bag, firing by the size of the piece.
See membership Walk through the 360 tour
What it costs

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.

LevelMonthlyClasses included
Green Level$145 a month4 classes a month
Yellow Level$170 a month5 classes a month
Purple Level$200 a month6 classes a month
Black Level$275 a month8 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 membership rules

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.

See membership How membership works
The week

When the studio is open

WhenHoursWhat it is
Monday daytime10:30 AM to 2 PMInstructed class
Monday to Thursday evenings6:30 PM to 10 PMInstructed class
Friday evening6:30 PM to 10 PMOpen studio
Saturday and Sunday mornings10 AM to 1:30 PMOpen 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.

The rest of the field

Other pottery near Riverton

We are not the only option from Riverton, and for some people we are not the right one. Here is what else is close.

  • Make your own

    Bella Rosa Pottery

    In Herriman, just southwest and almost certainly your nearest option for making something yourself. Eight week courses in wheel and hand building, plus shorter Clay Nights and kids' summer camps.

  • Paint your own

    Color Me Mine West Jordan

    3751 W Center Park Dr, near Jordan Landing and an easy run north for anyone in Riverton. Pre-made pieces, you paint, they fire. Different evening entirely.

We could not find a studio inside Riverton city limits where you make the piece yourself. If we have missed one, tell us and we will add it.

Compare 14 Utah studios Every pottery studio in Utah
Nearby

The rest of the South Valley

Same studio, same shelves, a different starting point. See every city in the South Valley. Or by county, every city in Salt Lake County.

Questions

What people from Riverton ask

How far is The Clay Hole from Riverton?

Six or seven miles straight east, about twelve minutes. Riverton City Hall and the studio sit at almost the same latitude, so you are crossing the valley rather than going up or down it.

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. For a single evening, Bella Rosa in Herriman runs shorter Clay Nights.

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 here, so nothing has to be ordered and nothing waits on a delivery across the valley.

Do you take beginners?

The large majority of members had never sat at a wheel before they joined. Every instructed class has instructors working the room, which is the difference between learning it and watching a video alone in a garage.

What are the class times?

Instructed classes Monday through Thursday evenings plus Monday daytime. Friday evening and both weekend mornings are open studio. Twelve minutes east makes a weeknight session a real option rather than a project.

Is there parking?

Yes, and free. Shared lot on Pony Express Road, straight across the valley from Riverton. Anything not marked reserved for another business is yours.

Starting

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 Riverton and join here have never touched a wheel.

See membership Read the FAQs

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.