Illustration of a potter in welding gloves laying a feather on a hot white pot, finished horsehair raku vases beside her
Saturday, October 16, 2027 · Alpine, Utah

Horsehair and feather raku, drawn in smoke

No glaze, no reduction cans, no scrubbing. A hot, polished pot sits on an overturned can while you lay horse hair, feathers and sugar across it, and each one burns its own black mark into the clay. Gates open at 9:45 in Alpine, the safety meeting is at 10:00 sharp, and most days wrap up between 1 and 3.

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The details
  • Saturday, October 16, 2027Gates 9:45 AM. Safety meeting 10 AM sharp. Done between 1 and 3 PM.
  • Alpine, UtahDan’s parents’ property. The address is behind a password further down this page.
  • $175 a spotNot included in membership. Raku workshops cost extra.
  • 20 spots20 left right now. Current or past members, 18 and up.
  • Pots coated, burnished and bisqued before you comeTerra sigillata at the studio. No glaze anywhere.
Register

Grab your spot

Saturday, October 16 · 10 AM · Alpine, Utah

$175 a spotNot included in membership
20 of 20 spots left20 total
--Days--Hours--Minutes--Seconds
until the safety meeting starts, and it starts whether you are there or not.

One spot per checkout. A spouse or friend registers separately, with their own name on it. It goes straight to checkout like anything else on the site.

What your spot covers

  • A place in every round, usually one pot per firing
  • The kilns, the propane and the overturned cans
  • Terra sigillata at the studio before the day
  • A huge assortment of feathers, plenty of horse hair and sugar
  • Giant tweezers and every piece of safety gear

What it does not

Membership does not include raku workshops; this is its own $175. Food and drinks are yours to bring.

Who can come

Current or past members of The Clay Hole, 18 and up. A 14 to 17 year old can participate when a parent or legal guardian is also participating and stays with them. Twenty spots, first come, first served.

Where you are going

The address is behind a password

It is Dan’s parents’ home in Alpine, so the address stays off the open internet. Already registered: enter the password we sent you and the address shows up right here. Everyone registered also gets the address by text the week of the workshop.

No password, or it will not work: text Dan and he will send the address straight to you.

What horsehair raku is

No glaze. The pot draws on itself.

A strand of hair is mostly carbon. A very hot, very dry, polished pot is very good at grabbing carbon and never letting go. Lay the hair on, it sizzles and curls, and the pot locks a black line into its own surface as it cools.

Feathers leave a soft, fern-shaped silhouette. Sugar leaves small black dots. Every pot comes out different, and none of it can be drawn on purpose.

The technique itself is laid out in full, with videos, in our University lesson on horsehair and feather raku. This page is about our workshop.

A potter in goggles and welding gloves lays a strand of horsehair on a hot pot resting on an overturned galvanized can
How ours runs

A different kind of raku day

Same barn, same kilns, same safety meeting. Almost everything after that changes.

A cooler firing

Horsehair does not need the heat of a glaze firing, so pots come out sooner and the day runs faster.

Cans as tables

The galvanized cans get flipped upside down. Your hot pot sits on top of one while you work, at a height you can reach from every side.

Gloves or giant tweezers

Everything goes on by hand in welding gloves, or with a pair of giant tweezers for the fine work.

No combustibles, no lid

Nothing goes into a can and nothing gets smothered. The pot cools in the open air where it sits.

No scrubbing

There is no glaze to clean, so what you see on the can is what you take home.

$175 a spot

The extra covers the terra sigillata, the horse hair and the pricier materials a horsehair day goes through.

Read the full rundown of how our horsehair and feather workshops work.

How the day goes

Here is your whole morning, start to finish

Drag the slider and watch the sky do what it is going to do. Mid-October in Alpine usually means a crisp start in the 40s or 50s and a mild afternoon in the 60s.

9:45 AM · Gates open

Park, unload, lay out your materials

Get your pots out of the car and claim a spot near the cans. Sort your hair into small loose bundles and lay your feathers out flat. Once a pot comes out of the kiln, there is no time to untangle anything.

Moment 1 of 8

The start time is real. The rest is not a schedule. Raku takes exactly as long as raku takes, and nobody leaves until the last pot is out and the site is clean, because whoever lands in the final round deserves the same crowd the first round got.

Prepping your pots

The surface is decided weeks before the fire

Every piece you bring has to be made, coated in terra sigillata at bone dry, burnished and bisque fired before you pull into that driveway. Back that up from October 16: the terra sigillata, the burnishing and the bisque all have to happen first. Tap a card to see why it matters.

The surface rules

  • Terra sigillata, burnished, then bisqued. Coat at bone dry, burnish, and send it through the studio bisque. Your pots arrive with all three done.
  • No glaze anywhere on it. Not a drip, not a rim, not the inside. The whole technique depends on bare, polished clay.
  • Same size limits as every raku day. Up to four tall, skinny pieces, or up to two wider pieces, with a combined width under 28 inches. Usually one pot per person per firing.
  • Use your regular sessions. Coating and burnishing happen during your normal class times or open studio, or on one extra studio day on top of your membership.
What goes on the pot

The feathers and hair are on us

We bring a huge assortment of feathers, including turkey, pheasant, duck, rooster and dozens of other birds from around the world. Plenty of horse hair too, in medium and heavy coarseness, and sugar. Ostrich, peacock and other large feathers are not supplied. Bring those if you want them, along with anything else you want to try.

Horse hair, heavy and medium

Heavy hair burns thick, dark lines with a strong curl and a gray smoke halo beside them. Medium hair draws a finer line. Both are supplied, and both make for a satisfying first pot.

Mane and finer hair

Finer, wispier lines. Lighter, so it drifts in a breeze. Lovely mixed in with tail hair.

Feathers

A soft branching silhouette, like a fern pressed into the clay. Needs a hot pot and firm contact.

Sugar

Small round black dots wherever the grains land. Goes on last, because it bounces.

We supply

  • A huge assortment of feathers: turkey, pheasant, duck, rooster and dozens of other birds from around the world
  • Plenty of horse hair, in medium and heavy coarseness
  • Sugar

Bring your own

  • Ostrich, peacock and other large feathers, which we do not supply
  • Any other animal hair you want to try
  • Syrup, and string soaked in syrup
  • Yarn
  • String soaked in shoe polish
  • Polyester thread
  • Anything else dry and carbon-based you want to try

Ferric chloride

Ferric chloride gives rust oranges and browns. We do not supply it. Bring your own if you want it, and keep it in its own container and in gloved hands.

Pack the car

What you bring, and what we bring

You bring

  • Your pots. Terra sigillata, burnished, bisqued, no glaze. Wrapped in something soft.
  • Extra mark makers, if you want them. Ostrich, peacock or other large feathers, other animal hair, syrup, yarn, string, thread.
  • Ferric chloride, if you want it. We do not supply it.
  • Your own lunch and drinks. Nothing is provided. Or chip in on a group order.
  • A cooler and a water bottle. Standing next to a kiln dries you out.
  • A camp chair. There is real waiting between rounds.
  • Layers. Crisp at 10, warm by lunch. Sunscreen and a hat too, because the sun at that altitude does not care that it is October.
  • Long pants and closed-toe shoes. Required. Natural fibers. Long hair tied back.
  • A box or old towels for the trip home.
  • A sealer for later. We do not supply it. We recommend Renaissance Wax, Trewax with Carnauba, Mink Oil, or a clear acrylic spray like Krylon.

We bring

  • The raku kilns and the propane, the tongs, and the overturned galvanized cans you work on.
  • A huge assortment of feathers, including turkey, pheasant, duck, rooster and dozens of other birds from around the world. Plenty of horse hair, in medium and heavy coarseness. And sugar.
  • Giant tweezers for the fine work.
  • Every piece of safety gear. Welding gloves, welding aprons, welding sleeves and safety goggles.
  • The terra sigillata, at the studio, before the day.
  • The safety meeting and the choreography.

No spectators

Participants only. Everyone near the kilns has sat through the safety meeting and signed the waiver, and that is exactly what keeps the day boring in the best possible way.

Safety

Everybody goes home with all their skin

The kiln still runs well over a thousand degrees, and hot pots move between people. That is the part of this nobody jokes about.

Every unload is choreographed and walked through before the lid ever closes: where you stand, where your hands go, who moves first. We have not had an injury at one of these, and the reason is that everyone out there runs the same play. That is why the safety meeting is not optional, and why anybody who misses it cannot participate. Everybody sits through at least one in person, first-timers without exception.

  • Sign the waiver before you come. Every participant, every workshop, even your fourth one. It is checked at the gate.
  • Dress for it. Long pants and closed-toe shoes are required. Long sleeves are strongly recommended. Long hair tied back. Natural fibers like cotton, denim and wool, because synthetics melt.
  • No horseplay, no practical jokes, no joking about safety. Not once, not as a bit.
  • Nobody participates under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, or anything else that changes your balance or judgment.
  • Stay for the whole thing and help clean up. Both are part of the price of admission.
Sign the raku waiverGet certified for raku

The online raku certification

It is the safety meeting on your couch, with a short quiz at the end. Optional, and recommended. Once you have also sat through a meeting in person, being certified means you can help set up during the next one instead of hearing it again, so the first pots go in the minute the meeting ends. You still arrive on time, you still sign the waiver, and you still do exactly what you are told near the kilns. Take the raku certification.

Workshop policies

The questions that come up every time

Is this included in my membership?

No. Raku workshops are optional and cost extra: $175 a spot. Your membership still covers the studio time you use to get your pots ready.

Can I get a refund or reschedule?

No refunds for any reason, and no switching to a future workshop. These fill up, and a refund means somebody else missed the spot. You can sell your spot to another current or past member for what you paid or less. Tell Dan at class who is taking it, so the right name is on the list.

What if it rains or snows?

Light rain, we fire. Dress for it and come anyway. If heavy rain or snow is rolling in, we reschedule and Dan texts everybody directly, so keep an eye on your phone that week.

What happens if I am late?

Arrive after 10:10 and you cannot participate, and there is no refund. The safety meeting starts at 10 AM, it cannot be repeated for one person while nineteen others stand around a lit kiln, and gates open fifteen minutes early for exactly this reason.

What if not enough people sign up?

There have to be at least seven registered participants to run a workshop. If fewer than seven register, you choose between a full refund or a spot at the next raku workshop.

Can I leave early?

No. Everybody stays through the last firing and through cleanup. Whoever lands in the final round deserves the same crowd and the same hands the first round got.

Can I bring someone to watch?

No. Participants only. Everyone on site has sat through the safety meeting and signed the waiver, and that is what keeps the day running smoothly. You might see a guest or two out there with Dan; those folks are cleared ahead of time.

Who can register?

Current or past members of The Clay Hole, 18 and up. A 14 to 17 year old can participate when a parent or legal guardian is also participating and stays with them.

How many pots, and how many firings?

Up to four tall, skinny pieces or two wider ones, under 28 inches of combined width. Usually one pot per person per firing, so your pieces go in across separate rounds and everybody gets the kiln more than once.

Is my pot going to survive?

Maybe. Pots crack. Marks land where they want, not always where you planned. That is raku. Build to the rules on this page and bring one piece you would be sad to lose and one you would not.

Is a horsehair pot food safe?

No. No glaze, a porous body and a decoration made of carbon. It is decorative only, and it does not hold water.

Do I need to seal it?

Most people do, for a richer look and a little protection. We do not supply sealer. We recommend Renaissance Wax, Trewax with Carnauba, Mink Oil, or a clear acrylic spray like Krylon.

Raku in 2027

Every raku workshop this year

Six Saturdays in Alpine: two daytime raku days, two nights and two horsehair and feather days. Each one is twenty spots, open to current and past members, and priced on its own, outside of membership.

New to horsehair? See how the horsehair and feather workshops run. Want the whole year? The full 2027 calendar.

Also in 2027

The rest of the year at The Clay Hole

See the whole 2027 calendar

Saturday, October 16 · 10 AM

Twenty spots. They fill fast.

Grab a spot, sign the waiver, and start building pots this week. $175 a spot, not included in membership.

Register nowSign the raku waiver

Any questions, ask Dan at class.