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Want to start making your own fancy ceramics? Here’s where to get started with pottery classes in London
Londoners are potty for clay. Places on pottery courses across the city are getting snapped up quicker than a discounted Edmund de Waal vase, so if you want to sink your hands into some wet clay and imagine you’re in ‘Ghost’, you’d better book your London pottery class in advance. Here are four things to remember before you get behind the wheel:
Be ready to get messy
Bring an apron, unless you don’t mind walking around in clay-splattered clothes for the rest of the day.
Stay centred
It can take a while to centre your clay on the wheel, but it’s worth getting it spot-on so your pot’s walls are an even thickness.
Go slow
Any quick movements can throw your pot off-centre and that can be the beginning of the end.
Be philosophical
Just when it looks like you’ve made a beautiful vase, it collapses! Take a deep breath and start again. That one just wasn’t meant to be.
Recommended Need for more inspiration for new hobbies? Check out our list of the best classes in London.
Skandihus
You’ll want to quit your job and become a potter as soon as you enter one of Danish ceramicist Stine Dulong’s beautiful studios: two in Hackney and one in Walthamstow. Try a taster session or take a six-, eight- or 12-week course and you’ll soon be trying to recreate her stylish Scandi creations (coveted by the likes of Nigella Lawson and Ottolenghi).
Turning Earth
With four studios in Hoxton, Highgate, Tottenham and Leyton, Turning Earth offers regular classes, but is also a thriving open-access members’ studio for more seasoned potters, who want to drop in regularly to work on their own projects. It’s the perfect place whether you’re a beginner who wants to see what it’s all about or are aiming to take your potting to the next level.
The Kiln Rooms
If you haven’t picked up a piece of clay since school, fear not. The Kiln Rooms offers one-off four-and-a-half-hour taster sessions and five-week beginners’ courses where you can learn all the basic techniques and see if pottery is for you. Or book a private session to master the basics one-on-one.
Kana London
Is your kitchen looking a little drab? Make your own set of tableware at Kana with guest teacher Sinead Axworthy. Over five weeks, you’ll create something to eat off, a vessel to drink from, a table decoration and two other small dining items. All of which will teach you plenty of techniques and give you the perfect excuse to throw a dinner party.
Crown Works Pottery
If you want to get to grips with the devilishly difficult wheel, taking one of the weekend intensive throwing courses at this Bethnal Green studio should sort you out: then, graduate to sessions teaching you how to make a lidded casserole dish or tea bowl. You’ll soon be having your very own ‘Ghost’ moment.
Ceramics Studio Co-op
This Deptford co-operative is collectively run by artists and dedicated to widening access to pottery education. As well as running 12-week courses, it teaches specific one-off workshops on throwing, glazing and using the kiln to help you hone your skills and build up your confidence.
Clay Time
If you’re better with a paintbrush than a pottery wheel, visit this not-for-profit community studio for one of its drop-in sessions. It provides the prebaked pieces and the decoration is up to you.
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