Pottery Classes Near White City, Utah
The Clay Hole is a community pottery studio in Draper, a few minutes south of White City. Wheels, hand building tables, slab molds, glaze and firing, on one monthly membership.
Membership is the only way in. There are no drop-in classes and no single sessions, which is the part most people want to know first.
The drive from White City
Straight down. You come off the bench, pick up I-15 and you are here before the car has warmed up.
- West to I-15, then south.
- 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.
Three or four miles south and a couple west. Under ten minutes. You could leave after dinner and still get two hours on a wheel.
Crescent View TRAX is the nearest stop and it is still about three miles from the door. Driving is the answer, and it is a short one.
When you pull in
Parking is free and shared with a few other businesses. Anything not marked reserved is yours. There is more of it in this one lot than in several blocks of your own city, which at 0.87 square miles is not a high bar.
Less than a square mile, completely surrounded, and it has said no since 1964
White City is 0.87 square miles with Sandy on every side of it. It has resisted annexation for sixty years. It became a township in 2006, a metro township in 2017 and a full city on 1 May 2024, which means anyone still calling it unincorporated is out of date.
Ken White and Cannon Papanicholas founded it in 1955 and building started in 1957 on Galena Drive. The streets are named for minerals and flowers. Galena, Onyx, Sego Lily, Larkspur. It looks like 1960 in a way that nowhere else in this valley does.
White Towers pool is the landmark, and it is four dollars a swimmer at any age. In the sixties they froze it and skated on it in the winter.
Why this page exists at all
Most businesses write White City into the Sandy page and move on. A place that spent sixty years refusing to be Sandy has earned its own page, and this is it.
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.
A mile square of houses and one pool
White City is 5,500 people on 0.87 square miles, which is one of the densest patches in the valley. Three elementary schools and a middle school inside walking distance. Mature trees, mid-century ranches, and not a lot of square footage left over for anything else.
It is a good place to live and a small place to be bored in. There is one pool and it is closed from Labor Day to Memorial Day.
Eight minutes down the freeway is nearly ten thousand square feet of somewhere else to be, open seven days a week including the eight months the pool is shut.
- 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 matters more in a small house than a big one.
- Teenagers 14 and over can join alongside a parent who is also a member.
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 White City
There is nothing in White City itself, which is true of almost everything in White City. Here is what is near.
- Paint your own
Color Me Mine Sandy
51 W 10600 S, effectively at the end of your street. You choose a piece that is already made and decorate it. The easiest evening on this page by a distance, and not the same activity.
- Make your own
Cottonwood Clay Studio
7587 S State St in Midvale, straight north up State Street. Taught classes on weekdays, with open studio kept for people enrolled in a current class.
Nothing inside White City, and at 0.87 square miles that is not a criticism. If something opens, we will add it.
What people from White City ask
How far is The Clay Hole from White City?
Three or four miles south and a couple west, under ten minutes down I-15. You can leave after dinner and still get a full session in.
Is White City part of Sandy?
No, and people there will tell you so. It is completely surrounded by Sandy and has refused annexation since 1964. It became a full city on 1 May 2024.
Can I take a single pottery class instead of joining?
No. Monthly membership is the only way in. For a single evening, Color Me Mine in Sandy is a few minutes away and is paint your own.
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, which is useful when home is a 1960s ranch with no garage to spare.
Do you take beginners?
Most members had never touched clay before they walked in. Every instructed class has instructors working the room, and nobody there will care that you have never done it before.
What are the class times?
Instructed classes Monday through Thursday evenings plus Monday daytime. Friday evening and both weekend mornings are open studio. Open all year, including the eight months White Towers is closed.
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 White City 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.