Pottery Classes Near Utah County, Utah
The Clay Hole is a community pottery studio in Draper, a couple of miles over the county line. Wheel work, hand building, slab molds, the glaze wall and the kilns, all on one monthly membership.
Utah County is bigger than Utah Valley, and the part of it most people forget reaches us by a different road. Membership is the only way in, and there are no drop-in classes.
The county, by which part of it you are in
Sorted by part of the county rather than by minutes, because Utah County is not one shape. It is a valley, a lake shore, a south end and a second valley behind a mountain range.
North county, first over the Point
Lehi
The center of population of the state, and the closest city to us.
Saratoga Springs
The fastest growing city in Utah, on the far side of the lake.
Highland
Named by Scottish immigrants, and still throwing a caber about it.
Alpine
Called Mountainville until somebody compared the view to Switzerland.
American Fork
The canyon mouth, and a festival renamed four times.
Cedar Hills
The smallest and highest, and the only one shrinking.
The middle of the valley
Pleasant Grove
A century of Strawberry Days for a crop nobody grows here now.
Lindon
Named after a linden tree, spelled wrong, never fixed.
Orem
The largest public university in the state, and a window that took twelve years.
Vineyard
Built on the ground the Geneva steel mill stood on.
Utah City
Seven hundred acres of plan, with a grocery store and a pizza place open.
The south end
Provo
The county seat, and the only city on this site with a real pottery works behind it.
Springville
Art City, where high schoolers bought the collection a penny a vote.
Mapleton
Two acres and a horse, and the longest drive we write about.
Cedar Valley is the part with no pages: Eagle Mountain, Cedar Fort and Fairfield. They were not on the original list and we have not written them yet. The section below is the honest answer for anyone reading from there.
Sixty six thousand people live in Utah County and not in Utah Valley
Eagle Mountain sits at the western and northern bases of the Lake Mountains, in the flat Cedar Valley, east and northeast of the town of Cedar Fort. That is a different basin with a mountain range between it and the lake, and Fairfield is out there too.
It is not a hamlet either. Eagle Mountain had forty three thousand six hundred and twenty three people at the 2020 census and is estimated at over sixty six thousand now. That is bigger than most of the cities listed above it on this page.
And it reaches us by a different road. From Cedar Valley the sensible route is SR-73 and then Redwood Road north over the Point, never touching I-15, which lands in Bluffdale a few minutes from the door.
No page for Cedar Valley yet, and that is just true
Eagle Mountain, Cedar Fort and Fairfield were not on the list these pages were built from, so they do not have one. Until they do, the Saratoga Springs page is the closest match: same Redwood Road route, same back way over the Point, same argument.
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 Point is the boundary that actually runs your day
Administratively, you cross from Utah County into Salt Lake County somewhere on a map nobody can see from the road. In practice the boundary that matters is the Traverse Mountains and the two roads over them.
That is the whole reason a studio a couple of miles north of the pinch can honestly write pages for sixteen cities on the other side of it. You are already crossing that gap for work, for the airport, for a game. This is one more reason, and it is the one with nothing due at the end of it.
It is also why we tell Cedar Valley readers to take Redwood Road. Two roads means one of them is usually not the busy one.
- Sixteen Utah County cities have a page of their own, with the real drive on each.
- FrontRunner from Lehi, American Fork, Orem, Vineyard and Provo to Draper.
- Seven days a week, so you pick the hour the Point is behaving.
- Your own shelf, which is what makes a drive from the far end workable at all.
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 across Utah County
Nine pottery businesses in Utah County were checked against their own sites. These three are the ones most likely to beat a drive north.
- Make your own
Throw Art Studio
Provo. A two hour wheel experience at $29.99 a wheel for up to two people plus $9.99 to $14.99 for the piece, four week beginner courses with evening studio access, kids hand building and summer camp. The cheapest honest way in the county to find out whether you like a wheel.
- Make your own
The Kreative Kiln
Pleasant Grove. Six week wheel throwing at $299, a $65 wheel workshop, hand building, paint your own from $20, and kiln firing for work you made elsewhere. A membership is listed as coming soon with no price and no date.
- Paint your own
Patty's Ceramics
Provo, on Center Street. A ceramic supply house with six kilns that fires work for the public, repairs kilns and runs painting classes at $4 a class. Greenware and bisque painting with slip cast molds rather than throwing, and the clearest public firing service in the county.
If you have a piece and no kiln, Patty's will fire it and we will not, because our kilns run members' work only. That one is not close.
What people from Utah County ask
Is Utah County the same as Utah Valley?
No. The county also contains Cedar Valley, behind the Lake Mountains, where Eagle Mountain, Cedar Fort and Fairfield are. Eagle Mountain alone had 43,623 people at the 2020 census and is estimated over 66,000 now.
I live in Eagle Mountain. Is there a page for me?
Not yet. Eagle Mountain, Cedar Fort and Fairfield were not on the list these pages were built from. The Saratoga Springs page is the closest match, because it describes the same route: Redwood Road north over the Point rather than I-15.
How far is the studio from Utah County?
Twenty minutes from Lehi at the north end, about forty from Mapleton at the south, and roughly half an hour from Cedar Valley by way of SR-73 and Redwood Road.
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. Throw Art Studio in Provo runs a two hour wheel experience for about thirty dollars and it is a much better first step.
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 at the front desk.
Do you take beginners?
Most people who join have never touched a wheel. In the fastest growing county in the state, a room where everybody is new to something is not an unfamiliar feeling.
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 Utah County 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.