Pottery Classes Near South Salt Lake, Utah
The Clay Hole is a community pottery studio in Draper, about twenty minutes south of South Salt Lake. A room of wheels, hand building tables, slab molds and a glaze wall, on one monthly membership.
South Salt Lake has spent a decade deliberately becoming a place where things get made. This is the same idea with clay. Membership is the only way in, and there are no drop-in classes.
The drive from South Salt Lake
Straight south on the freeway. It is the most boring drive on this whole site and that is a compliment.
- South on I-15 from about 3300 South.
- 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 fifteen miles, roughly twenty minutes free flowing. One road almost the whole way and no decisions to make.
Three TRAX stations and the S Line streetcar all start here, and none of them reach us. It is a drive.
When you get here
Parking is free and shared with a few other businesses. Anything not marked reserved is yours. No meter, no app and no permit.
A city that decided on purpose to be about making things
The Creative Industries Zone was set up around 2017. Six breweries and distilleries within walking distance of each other, with painted barrels and kegs outside every one of them, and a set of recycled metal robot mailboxes that nobody who has seen them forgets.
Mural Fest runs on a ten year plan to put a hundred murals on the city, and it is close to getting there. The arts council's stated aim is keeping the character of the neighborhood and helping the arts stay in their home base.
That is not a slogan somebody bought. It is a city that looked at what it had, which was warehouses, and decided that warehouses are where things get made.
One more thing that started here
Pete and Arline Harman bought a hamburger stand on State Street in 1941 for seven hundred dollars. Pete met Harland Sanders at a restaurant course in Chicago in 1951, Sanders came out and cooked his chicken in that kitchen in 1952, and it became the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in the world.
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 can walk to six places that make something. None of them let you do it
That is the gap. South Salt Lake is full of makers and almost none of it is participatory. You can drink what somebody brewed, look at what somebody painted and photograph a mailbox somebody welded.
The murals are on the walls of buildings you do not go into.
Twenty minutes south there is a room where the entire point is that you are the one doing it, and where the thing on the shelf at the end has your fingerprints in it rather than somebody else's.
- 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, which is the closest thing to a studio of your own without the rent.
- Seven days a week, which fits a shift that is not nine to five.
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 South Salt Lake
You are the best served city on this whole list, and a couple of these are five minutes away. Here they are honestly.
- Make your own
Pottery Night SLC
181 W 1700 S, which is in South Salt Lake, not Salt Lake City, and people there will tell you the difference. Single session wheel classes where you make and glaze in one night and collect the piece a week later. If you want one evening, this is your answer and it is on your own street.
- Make your own
Workshop SLC
153 W 2100 S, minutes north. One time pottery nights, beginner wheel and hand building, continuing ceramics, and a membership with recurring weekly hours.
- Make your own
Salt Lake Pottery Studio
965 E 900 S. Wheel and hand building, kids, one time experiences, multi week courses, memberships and private events. The broadest offering in the city.
Three good studios within a few minutes of you, and we are twenty minutes away. Take one of theirs unless what you specifically want is scale: a room of wheels rather than a handful, 650 glazes rather than a shelf, and four kilns. That is the only honest argument for the drive.
What people from South Salt Lake ask
How far is The Clay Hole from South Salt Lake?
About fifteen miles, roughly twenty minutes straight down I-15. It is the simplest drive on this site.
There are three pottery studios within five minutes of me. Why drive to Draper?
Mostly you should not, and we will say that plainly. Pottery Night, Workshop SLC and Salt Lake Pottery Studio are all good and all closer. The one thing we have that they do not is scale, and if the thing stopping you at a smaller studio is waiting for a wheel or running out of glazes, that is what the drive buys.
Can I take a single pottery class instead of joining?
No, not here. Pottery Night SLC is in your own city and does exactly that: make and glaze in one evening, collect it a week later.
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 and firing is charged by the size of the piece.
Do you take beginners?
Most people who sign up have never thrown anything. Every instructed class has instructors working the room.
What are the class times?
Instructed classes Monday through Thursday evenings plus Monday daytime. Friday evening and both weekend mornings are open studio.
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 South Salt Lake 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.