Nearly 10,000 square feet. Here is all of it.
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.
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.
The studio keeps growing, so here is what is new
We added a whole row of eight wheels after the wheel room was photographed, so there are twenty-nine in there now rather than the sixteen you can see. There is a brand new dipping glaze station on the floor too. And two big drink fridges have taken over from the vending machines. New photos are on the way, and we wanted you to hear about the good stuff early.
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.
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.
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. Think of this page as the preview. The real thing is even better.
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.
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.
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. We are saying so up front so you can pick the level that fits what you want to make.
Kilns and shelves
Four kilns, one of them a 42 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.
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.
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 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 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. This page is here so you can get excited first.
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.
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.