It’s very straightforward to become a member and you can do it online using the sign up button below.
You pay for your first month (or block of months) now using your debit/credit card or direct debit. You choose your starting date during checkout and book your induction at the end. When you come in for your induction you will sign your contract and induction form. Then you are shown around the studio and given your own shelf. That’s it!
Membership inductions are held daily (except Mondays) at 2.00pm or 5.30pm. Inductions are booked by signing up to a membership. We also send you an e-mail how to book your induction if you have missed it during signup. Member inductions cover our fire and health and safety procedures, and all aspects of how to use the studio. You will also receive a member handbook with all the important information in it.
Turning Earth is an inclusive community and we welcome people of all levels of experience. All we ask is that you know how to use the studio safely, without damaging our equipment or anyone else’s work, and that you follow all of our procedures. Having attended a short introductory course at any studio is enough for us. If you are a total beginner then you can begin as a member, but you will need a few hours of private tuition from one of our tutors before you set off on your own.
Most of our staff members are available to teach you privately. Their rate is £27 an hour, which is significantly discounted because your monthly membership fee covers our overheads (this compares to a market rate of £35 for private tuition elsewhere). Please note this service is ONLY available for studio members. The list of available tutors is printed in the studio and you will beable to contact them directly once you are a member of the studio. Please note that Turning Earth staff can only teach you privately when they are not on duty as a studio technician/teacher, as when they are working officially in the studio they need to be available to help everyone
There are always technicians on hand to answer simple questions and give advice. You are not alone. However, if you want to learn a new process, or have someone sit with you and give you instruction, then you can ask for private tuition. Private tuition is organised directly with ‘off-duty’ staff members, at the price of £27 an hour. You can read more about our technicians and teachers and their specialties on our team page.
You don’t need to bring anything, however, we encourage you to bring your own apron and tools. We sell basic 8-piece tool kits for £5 and we have some spare aprons you can borrow if you forget yours. Please remember that aprons need to be cleaned after every use to prevent you from breathing dry ceramic dust, so it’s best that you have your own and take it home.
Members can come in for a maximum of 15 hours a week. Hours don’t carry over, because this would make the system less stable and create congestion in the studio. Studio membership is for part-time potters and we have an hours limit to make sure we can accommodate everyone. The majority of people come between three and seven hours a week, although there are a minority who you will see in the studio more regularly. The maximum use each week is 15 hours but this is not a ‘recommended dose’.
You cannot share your membership with another person. Studio membership is about more than having a shelf or how many hours you come in. You are sharing the overall costs that make the studio possible - from rent and rates, to the staffing costs that keep everything running. We don’t offer discounts as our aim is to keep the price as low as possible for everyone by sharing the costs evenly. We are not in a position to make assessments of people’s income to make adjustments in a way that we would consider to be fair.
For health and safety reasons, it is not possible to bring a guest in at this time.
Turning Earth doesn’t currently do ‘drop ins’. This is because ceramics is a multi-stage process. You have to make your piece, dry it for a few days, fire it once (which takes a full day and night) glaze it, and then fire it again. So, to really get into it, we think you need to commit for at least a month (but probably more!)
We do occasionaly schedule wheel-throwing taster sessions. Please check our classes page to see if one is available.
Turning Earth doesn’t currently do ‘drop ins’. This is because ceramics is a multi-stage process. You have to make your piece, dry it for a few days, fire it once (which takes a full day and night) glaze it, and then fire it again. So, to really get into it, we think you need to commit for at least a month (but probably more!)
From time to time, we are able to organise some private workshops in our studios. Please contact info@turning.earth if you would like to have more info.
When courses are available they will be listed on the class page. You can sign up for a course n the same page. Please note, there is currently very high demand for classes and some may sell-out very rapidly once they've gone live.
Class students use the studio only at set times during their course. More flexible access is part of membership. If you want to use the studio at other times we recommend that you sign up for membership as well. Taking a course and being a member at the same time is a great way to make rapid progress, as it allows you to practice your skills between sessions.
Yes, you can book a class for someone else. Please just enter the name and email of the person who will be attending when you sign up. If it’s a gift and you haven’t given it yet, please use your own email when signing up and the let us know at what point it will be okay for us to contact them without giving the game away.
We do sell gift e-vouchers for courses. You can purchase gift vouchers from any of our class pages or by visiting this link. Please be aware that our gift vouchers are nonrefundable and they are exclusively valid for course purchases.
Upon completing your purchase, you will promptly receive an email confirmation containing a unique code. This code can be redeemed during checkout for any course at any of our studios. If there happens to be an unused balance left after your purchase, rest assured that it remains redeemable for future course bookings within a one-year validity period. Furthermore, you have the flexibility to apply multiple vouchers for a single purchase.
Unfortunately, you cannot make up classes that you miss on another day. This is because all of our courses tend to be full and it is too tricky to balance people moving around. If you miss one or two sessions on a course you should be able to catch up the following week. We recommend that you only take a course if you can commit to doing all but one or two of the dates. It’s particularly important that you attend the first three sessions so you can get started with techniques.
Our courses are non-refundable. Please make certain that you can attend the course before you sign up.
Turning Earth isn’t set up to accommodate professional artists. You need to be able to work within the time constraints (up to 15 hours a week) and the space constraints (up to 30L glaze firing per month). This is to make sure that we are able to process everyone’s work fairly. Please see the In Production website for our professional studio space in Leyton (E10).
We recommend that you leave at least 6 weeks between accepting a commission and its delivery date. This is to ensure you have a couple of weeks to make the piece and dry it, and to accommodate up to 2 weeks for each firing. It is not likely to take this long, but as things can go wrong, it’s best all round not to over commit.
Likewise, we recommend you budgeting a 25% ‘failure rate’ into your making. This way, if something goes wrong you will have plenty of pieces left.
Turning Earth artists work can be purchased directly from them. We always credit the maker on our pictures so it should be easy for you to reach them. If you get in contact, please let them know how you found them. We also hold regular studio sales, where hundreds of Turning Earth artists exhibit their work. See events to find out when the next sale will be held.
That’s great! Get in touch! We sometimes have positions coming up for people with a ceramics degree or a similar amount of on-the-job experience
Our Studio Technicians do the bread and butter work that keeps the studio going. From packing and unloading kilns, to reclaiming and pugging clay, to mixing and developing glaze recipes. Technicians each have different expertise, and all undergo detailed Turning Earth training to enable the studio to operate with consistency.
The Technicians have a lot to do in a short amount of time. They work hard. If you would like to make one a cup of tea, it will probably be appreciated. So do ask.
We fire kilns constantly everyday and, unfortnuately, we don't have the capacity to rent them out at the moment.
Turning Earth opened in December 2013. It was the first studio of this kind in London, and is closely based on similar community studios in the US.
Our office hours are Tuesday to Friday from 10am until 6pm.
If you have a complaint or a comment, please contact us at feedback@turning.earth We want to know what is and isn’t working for you. It’s how we make things better.
Our quarterly studio sale is a highly sociable event, and it’s worth attending even if you are not selling anything. We have live music and food onsite, and it’s a great day.
We also have an annual member party, either in the Summer or for Christmas.
If you sign up to our Turning Earth Members Facebook page you can stay up to date with all the other members’ events in the studio.
Our clay is sold at discounted prices to our members only. If you are a non-member we unfortunately cannot sell you clay. We recommend that you use Ceramatech based in Tottenham, which delivers across London.
We buy all of our clay through Potclays, based in Stoke-on-Trent.
There are similar studios opening up in the city. There is The Kiln Rooms in Peckham, which is smaller in scale and offers a tailored service for aspiring professionals (they are currently at capacity, but it might be worth getting onto their waiting list if you live in that area).
We are a social enterprise structured as a for profit company. We have a social remit - to expand affordable access to ceramics in London and this informs everything we do.
It is relatively common to lose a piece during firing or because of glaze errors. This can be down to a number of factors. Some that the potter can control, such as how well compressed the clay was, to if there were air bubbles in it, or if the glaze thickness was right. At other times there can be an unavoidable technical issue, that might happen in any studio - for example if a kiln relay fuses (which is an unpredictable occurrence) and the temperature went too high. We do what we can to manage all the predictable, manageable studio processes to prevent damage to your work. We would recommend that anyone practicing ceramics allows a 25% failure rate to cover the unpredictable nature of the craft. Sometimes you might do better than this, and sometimes worse. There is always something to learn from it.
Where a member has been negligent in their making of their work (for example in leaving air bubbles in the clay and creating an explosion in the kiln, or applying glaze too thickly so that it drips) and it has damaged our equipment, Turning Earth charges a breakage fee to help cover the cost of replacing damaged parts. Similarly, on the rare occasion that Turning Earth has been negligent in our handling or firing of a piece we will give you a small refund. (This is discretionary and does not cover breakages when handling particularly delicate pieces - these should be discussed with the manager and loaded in the kiln directly by the maker - we cannot take responsibility for the safety of very delicate work in a community studio. Similarly, if a kiln malfunction was outside our control we cannot take responsibility for it).
It is possible to take a break from the studio, depending on your contract.
Read more about how membership suspensions work here.