The original photo tour

Nearly 10,000 square feet. Here is all of it.

The Clay Hole at night: the lit storefront signage under a star-filled sky, with light reflecting off the wet concrete out front.

We know so many people would love to see the greatest pottery studio on the planet! Since drop-in tours really derail our team, our classes and our projects, we did the next best thing and photographed the whole place for you. We know you’ve heard a lot about it… welcome to The Clay Hole.

Become a member Start the tour
Draper, Utah Right next to Living Spaces 28 photos and a walkthrough video
A snapshot from before we opened

These photos were taken before our doors ever opened

We shot this photo tour before The Clay Hole had welcomed a single member. It is a fun time capsule, and the studio has grown up a lot since then. For the best and most current look at the place, take the new 360° virtual tour and wander through it yourself.

Take the new 360° virtual tour

A few things that have changed since these photos

  • There are no vending machines. Two big drink fridges took their place.
  • Eight more pottery wheels have joined Spin Class, which now has 24 wheels in three groups of eight.
  • The pick-up and drop-off tables that sit empty in these photos are busy every single day.
  • The student and member shelves that were bare before opening are now full of pots in progress.
  • There is a dipping glaze station out on the floor now.
  • Plenty of other layouts, furniture, tools and corners have evolved as the studio found its rhythm.

Enjoy the old photos for what they are. When you want to see The Clay Hole as it really looks today, the virtual tour is the one to take.

What it adds up to

A million dollars of studio, sitting right off the freeway in Draper

That figure is real, and every dollar of it is in the building waiting for you to use. Here is what is inside.

0Square feet, near enough
0Pottery wheels
0Commercial glazes
0Underglazes
0Molds and forms
0Kilns, one of them 41½ cubic feet
A tour built around you

What are you most excited to make?

Tap what you love most and we’ll tell you what is waiting for you, then take you straight to it.

Or let us walk you through it

The orientation video every new member watches

Same tour, moving, with the explanations attached. It is the video we send members before their first class, so it covers the rules and the where-does-this-go questions as well as the rooms.

Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. If you’d rather watch it there, open it on YouTube.

Zone one

Walking in

The first thing most people say is that it doesn’t look like a pottery studio. It looks like somebody spent a great deal of money on a pottery studio, which is closer to the truth.

The front of the building holds the Information Center, clay and glaze information, whatever demos and workshops are coming up, and the merch. It is also where you will be standing for a good chunk of your first day, because a real instructor walks every new member around in person. The real thing is even better.

The view from the door. Open floor, high ceiling, and most of the building visible at once.
It keeps going. The building is deeper than it looks from the parking lot.
The Information Center. Clay and glaze reference, upcoming demos and workshops, and the merch rack.
Zone two

The wheels

Twenty-nine of them. Twenty-four electric and one kick wheel in the main throwing area, plus four more in the Black Level overflow room.

They are first come, first served, always. On a normal night thirty to fifty people are in the building and about a quarter of them are at a wheel, so there is nearly always one open and waiting for you. Every wheel has a custom-built ware platform beside it so your pieces have somewhere to live while you work.

Want a wheel lesson on night one? Come a few minutes early

First wheel lessons start right at the beginning of class, so arriving on time means you get one on your very first night. We are flagging it here because we want that first night to be brilliant.

Sixteen of twenty-nine. We added another row of eight after this was taken, and new photos are coming.
Past the throwing area. The wheels are the start of the equipment, not the end of it.
Zone three

The Clayground

The giant community tables through the middle of the building. This is where most of the studio actually is on any given night, seventy-five to eighty percent of a class is here, hand-building, sculpting, glazing and working with molds.

More than 150 molds and forms, which is how a complete beginner walks out with a pristine platter on day one. Slab rollers. Extruders. And the odd things we bought because they make the work better: hanging infrared heat lamps for drying, student lockers, a wall extruder.

How the extruders work by level

Handheld extruders open up at Purple Level, and the big wall extruder comes with Black Level. The slab rollers, the worktables and every one of the molds are open to all members, whatever color you are on.

The Clayground. Long shared tables, and the busiest part of the studio most nights.
More than 150 molds and forms. Bowls, platters, casserole dishes, bread pans, charcuterie boards.
Slab rollers and hand-building gear. There is a quick video to watch before you use these.
Heat lamps and lockers. The infrared lamps hang over the tables for controlled drying.
Room to spread out. Nearly 10,000 square feet buys elbow room, which matters more than it sounds.
Zone four

Glaze

More than 650 commercial glazes and more than 150 underglazes, from Amaco, Mayco, Coyote, Spectrum, Laguna, Georgies and Speedball. The collection on its own is worth over $100,000, and it is the single most common reason people give for joining.

Most are brush-on. Seven are dipping glazes, for people who would rather not brush. Those need a certification before you touch them, and there is now a dipping station on the floor that these photographs predate entirely.

Your glaze collection grows as you do

Each membership level unlocks more of the collection, and the very highest-end glazes come with Black Level. Green Level members start with our basic glazes and have plenty to play with. Pick the level that fits what you want to make.

The glaze wall. 650 commercial glazes and 150 underglazes, sorted and labeled.
Zone five

Kilns and shelves

Four kilns, one of them a 41½ cubic foot bell lift. That capacity is the whole reason pottery here usually goes into a kiln within a few days instead of waiting weeks for a load to fill.

Then 150 feet of drop-off and pickup tables, so your work is easy to set down and easy to spot when it comes out of the kiln. Fewer hands on a piece means it gets back to you in one piece. And every member gets a private shelf, running from 24 by 12 by 8 inches at Green Level up to 48 by 16 by 16 at Black Level.

150 feet of drop-off and pickup tables. Your work goes down here and comes back here.
The bell lift. 41½ cubic feet, so your biggest ideas get fired right alongside everything else.
Private member shelves. The higher the level, the bigger the shelf.
Zone six

Tools

Thousands of them. We are not rounding up, and we have never managed a precise count.

Which tools you can reach into depends on your level: Green Level members bring a basic set of their own, and every level above that opens up more of the studio’s. Equipment works differently, all 29 wheels, the worktables, the slab rollers and the kilns are open to every member, whatever color you are on.

Thousands of tools. Trimming, texture, carving, sculpting, and a lot of things with no obvious name.
Sorted, not piled. Everything has a home, which is what keeps a shared tool room this good.
And then more. Whatever you dream up, there is a tool here for it.
Zone seven

The Artists Workshop

A whole separate room for the art forms beyond pottery. Stained glass, jewelry making, tie dye, terrariums, metal work.

Where it stands today: the room is built and the workshops do happen, though they run occasionally rather than on a set schedule. Come for the pottery, and treat every workshop that lands as a lovely bonus.

The Artists Workshop. Built for creating well beyond the kiln.
Stained glass, metal, and the rest. Workshops are ticketed separately from membership.
Zone eight

The social side

A pottery studio you want to stay in is a very different thing from a pottery studio.

The Friend Zone is the soft end of the building: big leather seats, group games, or the whole corner to yourself if that is the evening you are after. There is a dart board. There is a board game table with dozens of games on it. Our own work area sits out in the open on purpose, so you can watch somebody who knows what they are doing and quietly steal the technique.

Coffee and cocoa are always on. Cold drinks and snacks are on the honor system, and both live in two big drink fridges now, which took over from the vending machines you can spot in one of these photos.

The Friend Zone. Comfortable seating, group games, and permission to do nothing.
Darts. Genuinely competitive on some nights.
The board game table. Dozens of games, and being productive is entirely optional.
Our work area is out in the open. Deliberately. Watching is how a lot of technique transfers.
Coffee and cocoa. Always on, honor system.
Cold drinks and snacks. Two big drink fridges have taken over from the vending machines here.
One more thing

The real tour is even better

Every new member gets walked around the building in person by an instructor on their first day. Shelf assigned, questions answered, the whole thing done in one go.

Take the 360° virtual tour New member checklist Read the FAQs Class times
The end of the tour

It was built to bring people together. It was built to build.

Nearly every part of this studio is here because somebody wished for it, and now it exists in Utah. Memberships start at $145 a month, which works out at roughly $33 to $36 for a three-and-a-half hour instructed session with four instructors on the floor.

Become a member Joining as a couple?
Every section leads into another one. That was the whole point of taking a space this size.
Pottery everywhere. Some of it has no purpose beyond looking good in a room, which is purpose enough.

These photographs show the studio as it stood when they were taken. We are always adding and rearranging, so where a photo has been overtaken by something newer we have said so right on it.

Nearly 10,000 square feet of it Memberships start at $145 a month
Become a member