8 Week Introduction Course
Introduction to making ceramics using a pottery wheel and hand-building techniques
Creating pottery and art out of clay is a beautiful and fulfilling experience. For many of our students, taking a pottery class sparks a lifelong passion for this craft. This pottery course will give you an introduction to the basic techniques for making ceramics and an opportunity and put them to practice on a project. It is suitable for complete beginners who are keen to explore pottery but are not ready to commit to a full course.
What will you learn in this course?
- Preparing clay / wedging
- Making pottery using pinching techniques
- Making pottery with coiling techniques
- Which tools you need and how to use them
- Throwing pots on the potter’s wheel
- Joining pots together and attaching parts to your pot
- Making handles
- Using decorating slips
- Sgraffito decorating
- Slab building techniques
- Using plaster hump moulds
- Making cylinders and bowls on the wheel
- Trimming pots to refine the shape
- Making foot rings
- Applying glaze to your pieces
Course structure
This course consists of 8 sessions. Each session is a lesson of 3 hours (including cleaning up at the end of the lesson).
Session 1: Kicks off with an introduction to ceramic materials and the processes of making and firing ceramics, as well as Health & Safety in the studio. You will learn how to prepare your clay and start working on your first project.
Sessions 2-4: Students continue to work on their projects while the teacher introduces new techniques to build on your skills, including hand-building, wheel throwing and glazing.
Session 5: Last chance to start new pieces. After this session, you can still practise your making skills to improve, however it is not possible to finish and glaze fire those pots.
Session 6: Cut-off point for the firing queue. This session is dedicated to getting your pots ready to be bisque fired.
Sessions 7-8: Are dedicated to glazing your pots. These are usually ready to be collected 2-3 weeks after the end of your course.
Please be sure that you can attend all of the scheduled lesson dates before you sign up. It's particularly important that you attend the first two and the final sessions, otherwise you may struggle to keep up with the rest of the group or end up with unfinished projects at the end of the course. It is not possible to get extra sessions if you do not attend your scheduled lesson.
Things to know
- Courses are non-refundable once in progress or when the course is sold out.
- When your work is ready to be fired, there’ll be a charge of £5 per kg for materials and fuel.
- Our cancellation and missed class policy is available here.
- Our cancellation and missed class policy is available here.
- Our cancellation and missed class policy is available here.
- Our cancellation and missed class policy is available here.
- Gift vouchers for classes are available for purchase on our voucher page.
Frequently asked questions
You’ll need to bring your own apron to the class and make sure it is clean. Dirty aprons are notorious dust spreaders which is a danger to yourself as well as your fellow students. We recommend choosing non-natural fabrics as they tend to trap clay dust more easily.We advise you to wear sensible clothing and shoes as pottery can get quite messy!
Once a place has been booked, the fees are non-refundable. However, if we are still able to sell your place to another student before the course starts, we’ll be happy to swap your place over and refund your fees. We’ll do our best, though you’ll understand we can’t make any promises.
On most courses, you should be able to catch up in your next lesson. The first few and last few lessons are the most crucial lessons as that’s when you’ll learn how to get started and when you’ll finish your projects. It is important not to miss these. It is not possible to catch up on a class or sit in on a lesson on a different course. To make sure that you make the most of your course, it is very important that you make sure that you can make all the class dates before you sign up to a course.
You should wait at least 2 weeks after your last lesson before coming to collect your class pots. Please note that you won’t receive an email from our team when your work will be ready to collect. You’ll have to collect your work within two months of ending your course. Our studios are busy with a continuous stream of new students and we do not have the space to store your pots for any longer than that.
Our full Students FAQ is available here
Our full Students FAQ is available here
Our full Students FAQ is available here
Our full Students FAQ is available here