A raku kiln glowing with pots beside a flaming reduction can in a pasture, a red barn and snowy mountains behind
Saturday, March 20, 2027 · Alpine, Utah

Raku in Alpine, glowing pots in broad daylight

The first raku day of 2027, at Dan’s parents’ property in Alpine. Gates open at 8:45, the safety meeting starts at 9:00 sharp, and we are done somewhere between 2 and 4. You go home smelling like a campfire, holding pots that did not exist that morning.

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The details
  • Saturday, March 20, 2027Gates 8:45 AM. Safety meeting 9 AM sharp. Done between 2 and 4 PM.
  • Alpine, UtahDan’s parents’ property. The address is behind a password further down this page.
  • $150 a spotNot included in membership. Raku workshops cost extra.
  • 20 spots20 left right now. Current or past members, 18 and up.
  • Pots bisqued and glazed before you comeRaku glazes, B-Mix with Grog or Berlin Gray.
Register

Grab your spot

Saturday, March 20 · 9 AM · Alpine, Utah

$150 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
  • Both raku kilns, the propane and the whole setup
  • The combustibles: newsprint, pine shavings and animal bedding
  • Every piece of safety gear: welding gloves, aprons, sleeves and goggles
  • Scour pads and Soft Scrub to clean your pots on site
  • Raku glazes at the studio, most included (a few carry an upcharge of up to $15)

What it does not

Membership does not include raku workshops; this is its own $150. 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 raku actually is

You pull your pot out of the fire while it is still glowing. On purpose.

Every other firing at the studio, your piece goes on a shelf, we load a kiln, and an electrical panel babysits it overnight.

Raku is the opposite of that. Propane kilns get your pots to almost 2000 degrees, fast. While they are still red-hot and visibly moving, the lid comes off and they come out on long tongs, straight into a metal can of newsprint and pine shavings that catches on contact. Lid on. Inside that can the fire burns through every bit of oxygen it can find, and whatever it cannot get from the air, it pulls right out of your glaze.

That is where the glaze goes copper, or oil-slick, or turquoise with crackle running through it. You are holding the finished piece about twenty minutes after you watched it go into the can, plus a little elbow grease to scrub it.

A smiling member in goggles and a welding apron holds a finished copper raku pot at the daytime workshop in Alpine
Why daytime

Nighttime raku is unforgettable. Daytime raku is when you can see what you made.

In daylight the glaze does its whole show in real color. You watch the copper flash and shift while you scrub it, not under a floodlight. You can see your friends’ faces when their lids come off. You get a real lunch. And when the last pot comes out, you are home in time for dinner instead of lying awake smelling like a campfire, wondering what day it is.

Night

Pure drama

  • Glowing pots, floodlights and a whole lot of dark.
  • Wraps up around 2 or 3 AM.
  • Hard to see your true colors until the next morning.
  • Unforgettable. Also exhausting.
Day

Pure pottery

  • The kiln still glows in daylight.
  • Done between 2 and 4 PM.
  • Every color and every crackle in real sunlight.
  • A cold start, a warm lunch, home for dinner.
How the day goes

Here is your whole Saturday, start to finish

Drag the slider and watch the sky do what it is going to do. Late March in Alpine usually means a frosty start in the 30s and a sunny afternoon in the 50s.

8:45 AM · Gates open

Park, unload, find your people

It is cold. See-your-breath cold, most likely. Get your pots out of the car, plant a camp chair near the kilns, and meet the people you are about to spend six hours standing shoulder to shoulder with. This is the easy part. Enjoy it.

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

Start building now

Every piece you bring has to be made, dried, bisque fired and glazed with raku glazes before you pull into that driveway. Back that up from March 20 and you will see why the time to start building is now.

The raku gods demand that some pots be sacrificed. That is the deal and it always will be. But most of the pieces lost out there failed for reasons built into them weeks earlier, at the studio, before anybody lit anything. Tap a card to see why each one matters.

The glaze rules

  • Raku glazes only, glazed at the studio. Most are included. The spendy ones carry an upcharge that tops out at $15, and you will know which is which before you touch them. Amaco’s raku glazes are discontinued, so do not plan around those.
  • One glaze family per pot. Know exactly which family is on each piece, because they fire to different temperatures. Never mix brands or families on one pot unless you know they fire at the same temperature.
  • Dip if you are certified. Eight Laguna raku dipping glazes live at the studio. They dry slowly, so give them real time, a heat gun or the heat lamps. They need the dipping glaze certification, the same one as our other dipping glazes.
  • Everything gets glazed before the workshop. Use your regular class times, or take one extra studio day on top of your membership. There is no glaze, no glazing table and no time to glaze at the barn.
  • Size limits. Up to four tall, skinny pieces, or up to two wider pieces, with a combined width under 28 inches. Measure each one at its widest point and add them up. Usually one pot per person per firing, so your pieces go in across separate rounds.
Nobody knows what your pot will look like

Not you. Not us. Not the people who made the glaze.

Glaze the same pot with the same glaze a thousand times and you get a thousand different pots. Where it sat in the kiln, how fast it came out, which way the wind blew, how long the lid stayed on. All of it changes the result, and none of it repeats.

Come with a direction instead of a picture in your head. The people who show up for the adventure go home happy.

A table of finished raku vases in copper, turquoise, gold and cobalt lined up in front of a fireplace

Not going to have pots ready

Buy one of Dan’s wheel-thrown bisqued pieces and skip straight to the fire. Ask him at class and he will price them out for you; first pick goes in the order people ask. You still glaze it yourself at the studio before the workshop, and like every pot in raku, there are no guarantees.

Pack the car

What you bring, and what we bring

You bring

  • Your bisqued, glazed pieces. Raku glazes, ready to go straight into a kiln. There is no glazing at the barn.
  • Your own lunch and drinks. Nothing is provided. Or chip in on a group order with everyone else. Plan on six or seven hours.
  • A cooler for whatever needs to stay cold, and a water bottle.
  • A camp chair. Technically optional. Bring one. There is real waiting between rounds.
  • Warm layers for the morning. Hoodie, jacket, beanie. It will most likely be in the 30s when you park.
  • Sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses. Full sun, no shade near the kilns, and glowing pots are bright even in daylight.
  • Long pants and closed-toe shoes. Required. Long sleeves strongly recommended. Natural fibers. Long hair tied back.
  • A box or old towels to carry finished pots home. They will still be warm.
  • A respirator or mask, if you want one. Most people skip it, but the smoke finds you now and then.
  • Extra combustibles to experiment with, if you like. Bone dry only. Damp stuff just steams.

We bring

  • Both raku kilns, the propane, the long tongs, the cans, the whole operation.
  • The combustibles. Newsprint, pine shavings and animal bedding, and plenty of it.
  • Every piece of safety gear. Welding gloves, welding aprons, welding sleeves and safety goggles.
  • Cleanup supplies. Scour pads and Soft Scrub, so the carbon comes off right there on site.
  • India ink, back at the studio. Want your crackle deep black instead of gray? That step happens during a regular class.
  • 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 inside of that kiln is almost 2000 degrees, and several people pull pots out of it at the same time. 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: $150 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 9:10 and you cannot participate, and there is no refund. The safety meeting starts at 9 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. Glazes shift or come out looking nothing like the jar. 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.

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, March 20 · 9 AM

Twenty spots. They fill fast.

Grab a spot, sign the waiver, and start building pots this week. $150 a spot, not included in membership.

Register nowSign the raku waiver

Any questions, ask Dan at class.