Hand-Building Pottery Taster Class

£55.00

Date:

Quantity:

Saturdays, 10.00 am - 12.00 pm

Experience: Beginners

Join us for a hands-on taster class, specially designed for complete beginners. In two hours, you’ll be introduced to essential hand-building techniques—pinching, coiling, and slab building—while creating a functional piece such as a cup, mug, or bowl.

Textures, patterns, and decorations will also be explored to enhance your creativity and make your piece uniquely yours.

If you’ve ever wanted to make your own tea or coffee mug, or a cereal bowl, this is the class for you. This informal, intimate session gives plenty of individual guidance and is a great first step in starting your journey with clay—a taste of what you can achieve and a perfect introduction to hand-building pottery.

Please note: This class is for adults (18+).

Before booking, kindly read our Terms and Conditions.

Saturdays, 10.00 am - 12.00 pm

Experience: Beginners

Join us for a hands-on taster class, specially designed for complete beginners. In two hours, you’ll be introduced to essential hand-building techniques—pinching, coiling, and slab building—while creating a functional piece such as a cup, mug, or bowl.

Textures, patterns, and decorations will also be explored to enhance your creativity and make your piece uniquely yours.

If you’ve ever wanted to make your own tea or coffee mug, or a cereal bowl, this is the class for you. This informal, intimate session gives plenty of individual guidance and is a great first step in starting your journey with clay—a taste of what you can achieve and a perfect introduction to hand-building pottery.

Please note: This class is for adults (18+).

Before booking, kindly read our Terms and Conditions.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

The hand-building pottery taster is small so your tutor is able to offer you full support and access to the studio facilities. We recommend classes to be booked in advance; each class is run in a group of a maximum of 8 people.
In the first 20 minutes of the class, your tutor will introduce you to the essential hand-building techniques through a step-by-step demonstration. You’ll then have around 1.5 hours to work with clay, giving you plenty of time to explore, experiment, and shape your own creations. During the session, you can expect to make 2–5 pieces, depending on your pace and style. Hand-building is a skill that grows with practice and patience, so enjoy the process—persistence is the key to progress.
You are going to use a plastic, smooth Pale Buff stoneware clay. This clay body recipe is a blend of selected low iron clays providing an ideal background for a decorative approach to stoneware ceramics. Silica sand makes it excellent for throwing on the pottery wheel too. This clay firing range is 1120°C - 1280°C.
You will work with clay so it will get messy; please wear clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty. We also advise you not to wear jewellery like rings, bracelets or watches during this taster class as the clay may get into bits where it cannot be easily removed or they may get scratched.
This hand-building taster class is all about Practice, Practice, Practice! However, we understand you may want to keep some of the pieces you create. In that case, it’s important to know that making ceramics is a long process, and each stage builds on the previous one, requiring both time and care.
Hand-building your object is just the first step. Once finished, your piece needs to dry slowly to reach the leather-hardstage, which is the right moment for any refining or smoothing of edges and surfaces.
The next step is the bisque firing, where your work is fired at a lower temperature to prepare it for glazing. If you choose to have your pieces bisque fired, you’ll need to sign up for a separate glaze session.
Please note that the glaze session is not included in this taster class but can be booked separately at £35 for up to 5 pieces.
The final stage is glazing your work and firing it again at a higher temperature. This is when the real transformation happens—your creations become finished ceramics, ready to take home and enjoy.
Please note that it may take up to 3–4 weeks before your artwork is ready for collection. Once it is finished, you will receive an email notification. We kindly ask that you collect your pieces within 14 days of receiving this email. Any uncollected work after this time will be donated to our local charity.
If you feel confident, want to learn more, and refine your hand-building techniques, we recommend joining our One-Day Hand-Building Class, or Pottery Wheel Throwing Taster or the Five-Week Pottery Course.