Trade instructor program · Purple shirt
Trade instructors give us one class a week. We give them a full Purple Level Membership, the same one we sell for $200 a month. No teaching background required.
It is the door most of our instructors came through. It is also, quietly, the fastest any of them ever got better at clay.
The part nobody expects
Most people read this program as a swap. Free studio, one shift a week, good deal, done.
Then they teach for two months and come find us to say the same thing, in almost the same words. Their own pottery got better. Fast. Faster than it ever got while they were quietly practicing on their own.
That is not a nice sentiment we put on a page to fill it out. It is what teaching does to a maker, every single time, and it is the reason we would run this program even if we did not need the help.
You cannot talk somebody else through centering without finally understanding what your own hands have been doing all this time.
The real trade
We are going to make the selfish case first, because it is the true one. Here is what actually happens to a potter who starts helping other potters.
Somebody asks why their wall keeps going thin on one side, and you open your mouth, and nothing useful comes out. That moment is worth ten hours of practice. You go home, you work it out, and you never lose it again.
On your own you make the same handful of errors on a loop. A room makes all of them. Watching a class fail forty different ways in front of you is the fastest ceramics education there is, and you get it every week.
Narrating what you are doing while you are doing it is a separate skill from doing it. The potters who can do both are the ones who improve on purpose instead of by accident.
Somebody wants a lidded jar. Somebody else wants the foot ring you have been avoiding for two years. A comfort zone does not survive contact with a room full of requests, and that is the whole point.
Every instructed class here runs with four of them. You are never the most experienced person in the building, and you are standing next to people who will happily show you the thing you have been guessing at.
Six instructed classes a month, off hours access, and a shift on top that does not count against any of it. The people who improve fastest here are not the most talented. They are the ones who are here the most.
The deal, plainly
One class, every week, on one side of the studio. Wheel or hand-building, whichever one you belong on. You are support in that room, not the lead. There is always a paid lead instructor running the lesson.
The full thing. Not a stripped down staff version of it. The exact membership we sell to the public for $200 a month, with the private shelf and the glazes and all of it.
Genuinely none. Plenty of very good instructors here started out having never taught anybody anything. What we need is a year or more of real dedication to clay and a personality that likes being around people.
There is no paycheck attached and no hours beyond your shift. It works because everybody involved actually wants to be there, which is also the only reason it has ever worked.
Three reasons, and we will give you all three.
It keeps our operating costs down, which is a direct part of how this place stays affordable for the community. It means every member gets hands-on help instead of waiting in line for one person. And it gives you a place to sharpen your own teaching, your own artistry, and your own connection to the people around you.
Not just a trade. A commitment to growth, service and community, going in all three directions at once.
Your side of it
Everything a paying Purple Level Member walks in with. Same shelf, same glazes, same access, same everything.
12
months in the trade
$2,400
of membership, traded not paid
At our published Purple Level price. Everything in the list beside this sits on top of that number, and none of it is counted in it.
Walk through it
Start to finish, one class. This is the whole job and there is nothing hiding underneath it.
15 to 20 minutes early
Not on the dot. Early enough to settle in, say hello to the team, find out what tonight looks like, and start the class with full energy instead of spending the first half hour catching up to it.
First stretch
Talk to members. Learn names. Offer help before it is asked for. The entire value of this role is that somebody is circulating while the lead instructor is head down in a lesson.
The middle
If somebody is standing around waiting for the lead instructor, that is your cue. Take it. You are also our second set of eyes: someone struggling, a safety thing, a vibe that needs lifting.
Your own work
When the room genuinely does not need you, you are welcome to be at a wheel or a table on your own piece. Radar stays on. That is the trade, and most trades tell us it is the best hour of their week.
After the bell
If nobody needs you when the bell rings, start working the after-class studio checklist. Everybody carries it equally, instructors included, and the quicker it gets done the quicker everyone is out the door.
Every time you are on shift
Six things. They are the whole standard, they apply to every trade instructor equally, and none of them are a surprise once you are in the room.
Time to settle in, catch up with the team, and start on time with full energy.
Talk to members. Learn names. Offer help. Look for anyone stuck or unsure.
If somebody is waiting on the main instructor, step in and support them.
And stay until the full class checklist is done. Shared job, carried equally.
Be our second set of eyes and ears, whether that is somebody struggling, a safety issue, or a vibe that needs lifting.
Positive, friendly and helpful, to members and to the rest of the team. Same zero tolerance policy on negativity that applies to all of our staff.
Before you decide
Plenty of people can help in a pottery studio. Whether you love it here or quietly run out of gas has almost nothing to do with clay, so here is the room described honestly.
Four instructors work every instructed class. Wheel side and hand-building side, a lead on each, and support alongside them. Nobody gets left holding forty people on their own, and nobody has to fake knowing something.
Evening classes are full of people who came to make something after work. People bring drinks. The language is not filtered. The laughing gets loud and stays loud. Monday mornings are the quieter room, and there is no alcohol in it.
Beliefs, religion and politics stay at the door. Every background, every kind of person, same welcome. We say out loud in every class that this is an LGBTQ+ friendly studio, because saying it plainly is the only way anyone believes it.
Around three million people follow this studio across platforms, and reels get filmed during class. You do not have to be the star of anything. You do have to be comfortable existing in the background of a video.
The building is ridiculous. It still is not the reason anybody stays. People keep coming back because somebody learned their name and noticed when they were stuck. That is the job, and the clay is how it gets done.
His name is Mud. He is a 35 pound miniature Australian Labradoodle and he is more popular than Dan. Everyone has made their peace with it.
Zero tolerance for negativity aimed at the owner, at management, at each other or at our members. Disagree with us all day long, to our faces, and we will listen and might well change our minds. That is welcome and it has happened plenty of times.
Talk about people behind their backs and you are done. That one has no version where we bend.
The honest part
There is no paycheck holding anybody here. Life gets busy, semesters start, jobs change, babies arrive, and a trade is usually the first thing to go. Spots open up more often on this side than they do on the paid side and we have stopped being surprised by it.
So we run it honestly instead of pretending.
This only works when it is a win for the studio, a win for our members and a win for you, all three at once. If somebody is frequently late, skipping their rounds, leaving cleanup to everybody else or not engaging with members, it is not a good fit, and we will offer the spot to someone else. We would rather tell you that now than be awkward about it later.
And it runs the other way too. If it stops working for your life, tell us. No speech, no hard feelings, no guilt. We will thank you and shake your hand, and you will still be welcome in this building.
Some people do one semester. Some people never leave. Both of those are a success as far as we are concerned.
Every detail
The whole program, grouped in the order people actually ask about it. Open anything you care about.
Monday through Thursday evenings, plus Monday mornings.
One per side per class. A wheel side trade and a hand-building side trade in each class, and that is it.
No. There is always a paid lead instructor running the lesson. You are the person circulating, helping, noticing and encouraging while they are deep in a demo. If you want to grow into teaching properly, this is the best possible place to do it, but it is not the requirement.
Give us notice, then arrange your cover with one of the other trade instructors. Occasional misses are completely fine and life happens to all of us. Silent no-shows are the one version that does not work, because the room notices immediately.
No. Your shift is separate. You still get all six instructed classes a month for your own work, on top of the class you are working.
Yes, when the room genuinely does not need you. Sit down at a wheel or a table and make something. Keep your radar on while you do it, and get up the moment somebody looks stuck.
Purple Level, the full one, which we sell for $200 a month. Not a reduced staff version of it.
Yes. Six instructed classes a month, the private shelf at 36 by 16 by 14 inches with no divider and no neighbor, every slab mold through XXL, six of the seven dipping glaze buckets once you are certified on them, clay at our cost, off hours studio access, bring a friend free, and our monthly bonus drawings.
It ends with your last shift. The membership and the shifts are the same arrangement, so when one stops the other stops. If you want to carry on here as a paying member from there, you are more than welcome, and plenty of people have.
No. Stay as long as it is working for both of us. Some people do a few months. Some have made it their weekly routine for years.
None. Genuinely none. Plenty of good instructors started here having never taught anybody anything.
A year or more of real dedication to it. Enough time in clay that you can confidently help somebody who is one step behind you.
Members are preferred, not required. If you are already here you have a head start, because you know the room and the room knows you.
Wheel or hand-building, whichever one you are genuinely useful on. Tell Kyle which you would prefer when you write in, and say if you could go either way.
It regularly has. Trade instructors get first look when a paid instructor spot opens up, and a lot of our paid team came through this exact door. If a paid role is what you are actually after, read those listings too on our work at The Clay Hole page.
The ask
Email Kyle, our general manager, if these three things are true.
Genuinely. Plenty of good instructors started here having never taught anybody anything, and we would rather teach you our way anyway.
Enough time in it that you can help somebody who is one step behind you. Not a year of owning tools. A year of going back to it.
Same room, same culture, same standard as every person in a studio shirt. Go back and read that section if you skipped it, then be honest with yourself about it.
We keep this list running whether or not a spot is open today, and on this side of the studio they open up often. Put your name on it before you ever see it advertised.
Pick your side, tick things off as you gather them, and use the template if a blank email is the thing stopping you.
Which side would you like to trade on?
Use this exact subject line so it lands in the right pile:
TRADE INSTRUCTOR - Your Name
Your checklist 0 of 10
Template, if a blank email is the thing stopping you
Loading the template.
If a pre-filled email does not open, your device has no mail app set up. Copy the template instead and paste it into whatever you do use.
Give it a week, then text the studio at 385-241-5528 and say you sent one in. Email gets buried in every business on earth and we would rather hear from you twice than miss you entirely.
No mystery
Our general manager sorts the trade applications and gets back to you. If there is no spot open that week, you go on the list, which is the entire reason this page exists.
Kyle will reach out and set up a time to walk the whole program through with you properly. Both directions. If it is not right for either side, we will say so kindly and quickly.
Then you find out what a room full of beginners does to your own pottery. Ask any of our instructors. Most of them started right here.
Last thing
We never know when somebody is going to move away, go back to school, or hand us happy news. What we do know is that the next person we call is already on our list.
Worst case, you hear nothing for a while, and then one day your phone rings.
Use the subject line TRADE INSTRUCTOR - Your Name so it lands in the right pile. If a week goes by with no reply, text the studio at 385-241-5528.
