A Clay Hole gift card envelope opening into a pottery studio, with members at the wheel, mugs, jars, sponges and tools bursting out of it
Gift card

Give somebody the thing they keep saying they would love to try.

A Clay Hole gift card spends on a first month of membership, on clay, on glaze, on firing, on the printed books and on workshops. It arrives by email, with your note on it, on the day you choose.

$30 to $1,000 Delivered by email. Nothing ships.
  1. 1Pick an amountAnything from $30 to $1,000. What each one buys is written next to it.
  2. 2Write two linesThe note is the part that makes it land. It goes in the same box.
  3. 3Choose the dayIt arrives in their inbox from us, today or on a morning you pick.
Choose an amount Enough to make something
Their first month, on you
A first month and a long run after it

A Green Level Member’s first month. Four classes a month, and they bring their own tools.

Leave this empty and it arrives as soon as you pay.

  • Arrives by email
  • Spends on almost everything here
  • No physical card
What you are actually giving

Most gift cards are an admission. This one is a push.

A gift card usually says you ran out of time, or ran out of ideas. Everybody involved knows it.

This one is different for one reason. Almost nobody walks into a pottery studio on their own. They think about it for years. They tell people they would love to try it. They look up the price once, decide it is not the right month, and close the tab.

Then somebody hands them a card, and the deciding is already done.

That is the gift. Not the money. The permission.

Their first night

What happens when they walk in.

Worth picturing, because this is the part the card actually buys.

  1. 1

    They sign the waiver and pick a wheel.

    Doors open fifteen minutes before class starts, so there is time to stand around and be nervous. There are 29 wheels.
  2. 2

    Somebody sits down next to them.

    There are four instructors in every class, not one. Nobody spends the evening with their hands in a wet lump waiting for a turn.
  3. 3

    They make something bad.

    Everybody does. The first pot comes out thick and heavy and a little off center, and they keep it anyway. That is the one that decides whether they come back.
  4. 4

    It gets fired twice and goes on their shelf.

    Once to harden it, at cone 05, and once to set the glaze, at cone 5½. In between they pick from 650+ glazes and 150+ underglazes on the wall.
What it spends on

A first month, and almost everything on the shelves.

The four amounts below each cover one full month at that Level, which is the cleanest gift on this page. Everything under them is the rest of what a card pays for.

Green Level $145 Four classes a month. Shared shelf space. They bring their own tools.
Yellow Level $170 Five classes a month, a taller half-shelf, and tools they can use here.
Purple Level $200 Six classes a month, a private shelf, and six of the seven dipping buckets.
Black Level $275 Eight classes a month, the biggest private shelf, and every dipping bucket.

And everything else a card pays for

  • Fresh clay25 pound bags. Higher Levels pay less per bag. From $28
  • Kiln firingBisque firing is free. Glaze firing is charged by the size of the piece. 5 cents a cubic inch
  • Dipping glazeThe deep buckets, charged per piece rather than per bottle. $6 to $11
  • ToolsA beginner’s set covers everything a Green Level Member needs on day one. $25
  • WorkshopsRaku and the rest, run a few times a year and usually sold out. Varies
  • The printed booksThe Glaze Bible and The Book of Molds, spiral bound, full color. $45 to $85
  • Mason stainsThirty two colors, sold by the twenty five grams for coloring clay. $0.85 to $6.85
  • The small kilnFor an approved project that needs its own run rather than a shelf in the big one. $30 a run

Prices as they stand today. A card holds a dollar amount, not a list, so it keeps up with whatever we charge when they spend it.

The practical details

Four things to know before you buy one.

Membership

A card pays a first month, and only a first month.

Membership renews itself every month against a card on file, and a gift card cannot pay a renewal. That is how Shopify works and we have no way around it. So a card can put a new member through their first month. After that it pays for clay, glaze, firing, workshops and everything else, which is most of what anyone spends here anyway.

Existing members

If they are already a member, it cannot touch their membership.

There is no first month left to pay for. Their card still spends on clay, glaze, firing, tools, workshops and the books. Members buy these for each other all the time, and they buy them for themselves when we discount them.

Refunds

We do not refund what is left on a card.

Not a leftover balance, not at any point, and not when somebody cancels a membership. A discount code also has to go on during checkout. We cannot apply one afterwards and we do not refund the difference, so put the code in before you pay.

Delivery

Nothing ships. There is no physical card.

It is an email with a code in it. If you want something to hand over, send it to yourself and print it. People do that, and it works fine.

Delivery

You decide whose inbox, and what day.

Both of these are in the box at the top of this page, and most people never notice they are there.

Straight to them

Their email, your note, and a date.

Put their address in and it lands in their inbox. Write two lines while you are there. Pick a morning if you want it to turn up on the day rather than the moment you pay.

Or to you

Turn the email off and it comes to you.

Then you hand it over in person, or print it and put it in a card, or forward it on the day. The code is the same either way.

The note is the part that matters

It is also the part people skip. If you are wondering whether an email really feels like a gift, open your own inbox and picture the one that says somebody just bought you a month of pottery. It reads fine. What makes it land is the line underneath it saying why they thought of you.

Two sentences is plenty. Two hundred characters is the limit.

If they have never touched clay

They do not need to know anything.

This is the worry that stops people buying one.

  • ✓No experience. Classes are mixed, and nobody is expected to walk in knowing how to center.
  • ✓No drawing ability, and no need to think of themselves as artistic.
  • ✓No tools at Yellow Level and above. A Green Level Member needs their own set, which is $25.
  • ✓No equipment at home, and nowhere to put a kiln. That is the whole point of a studio.
  • ✓Old clothes, closed-toe shoes, rings off and long hair tied back. That is the whole dress code.
  • ✓They do need to live near enough to Draper to come to class, because the card only spends here.

Worth a look before they come: what to wear and bring, the class times, and the walk around the studio so they can see the room before they stand in it.

Pick an amount

Start from what you want it to do.

Tap an amount and it selects itself in the box at the top.

  • A small nudge, to see whether they take to it$30
  • Enough clay and firing to finish a few real pieces$75
  • Their first month, at the Level most people start on$145
  • Their first month, with a shelf to leave work on$170
  • Their first month, the dipping buckets and a private shelf$200
  • A first month and the clay and firing to fill it$300
  • A first month, a workshop, and clay after both$500
  • Two people starting at the same time$300

One code can be spent more than once until the balance runs out, which is how two people split a larger one. Fourteen amounts in total, up to $1,000.

Questions

The ones we get asked.

Can they use it to pay for a membership?

For a first month, yes, as long as they are not a member yet. Membership is a subscription that renews against a card on file, and Shopify does not let a gift card pay a renewal. So a card covers the first month at checkout and nothing after it. Everything else in the studio it pays for without any of this fuss.

Does it expire?

No. Our gift cards do not expire, and there is no limit on how many anybody can buy.

What if they do not spend all of it at once?

The balance stays on the code and they keep using it until it runs out. What we do not do is pay out a leftover balance, ever, including if they cancel a membership later.

How does it actually reach them?

By email, from us, with the code in it. Put their address in the box at the top and it goes straight to them on the day you pick, with your note. Leave that off and the email comes to you instead. There is no physical card and nothing ships.

Can I buy one for myself?

People do, mostly when we discount them around the holidays. The same rule applies: if you are already a member it cannot pay your monthly charge, but it covers clay, glaze, firing, tools, workshops and the books.

Can I use a discount code on a gift card?

When we are running one, yes, and it has to go on during checkout. We cannot add it afterwards and we do not refund the difference, so put it in before you pay. We usually only discount gift cards around the holidays.

What if they lose the email?

Text the studio on 385-241-5528 with the name it was bought under and we will find it. The balance lives on the code, not on the email, so nothing is lost.

Can two people share one?

Yes. The code holds a balance rather than a single use, so two people can each spend part of it. Two first months at Green Level, at $145 each, come to $290, so a $300 card covers both with change left over.

Can they buy another gift card with it?

No. Shopify blocks that one, not us.

They live out of state. Is it any use?

Only if they can get to Draper. The card spends in this studio and nowhere else, and nothing we sell ships apart from our printed-on-demand merch. If they are far away, this is the wrong gift.

One more thing

They are not going to book this for themselves.

That is why this works. The people who would love it most are the ones who keep deciding it is not the right month.

Pick an amount, write two lines, and let somebody else do the deciding for once.

Choose an amount

And if you have read this far doing quiet arithmetic on yourself, that happens more than you would think. Membership starts at $145 a month.

If you are weighing amounts, the gift card guide lays out all twelve and what each one covers.