(Choose a Throwing or Handbuilding Pathway)

A steady, supported introduction to pottery making, designed to build confidence through regular weekly practice and time spent understanding how clay behaves in your hands.

This six-week course offers two pathways - Throwing or Handbuilding - both rooted in the same aim: to develop material understanding and skills, while gradually becoming more independent in how you work.

Many people choose to return to the course. Each iteration builds confidence, expands skills and opens the door to more individual projects over time. You don’t need prior experience to begin - and you don’t need to get everything right on the first pass.

If you already know you’d like to spend longer learning, the Foundations in Pottery Making Bundle, includes two six-week courses and saves £100. It’s a simple way to keep returning at a steady pace, with time for skills and friendships to deepen.

Two Pathways, One Structure

Throwing Pathway

Begins with the potter’s wheel as the main focus for the first four weeks. You’ll learn to centre, open, lift and finish simple forms, using repetition and rhythm to build control.

Handbuilding Pathway

Begins with bench-based making using coils, slabs and modelling techniques. You’ll explore form, structure and surface through slower, more adjustable processes by hand.

The Shared Journey

→ Weeks 1–4: Foundations in your chosen pathway

→ Week 5: Diagnostic & experimental cross-over

• Throwing groups move to the bench to adapt thrown forms

• Handbuilding groups step behind the wheel for an exploratory throwing session

 → Week 6: Glazing & surface

Together, the six weeks offer practice, variation, reflection and finish - a road, some structure, and enough support to keep moving forward.

Practical Details

→ Duration: 6 weeks

→ Session length: 2.5 hours per week

→ Prerequisites: none

→ Includes: all materials, tools and equipment

→ Firings: Each place on the Throwing pathway includes up to 10 litres of fired work, and each place on the Handbuilding pathway includes up to 20 litres, glazed and processed through our kilns as part of the course. Additional fired volume can be processed for a per-litre fee.

→ Aprons: clean aprons provided

Booking

Choose your preferred Throwing or Handbuilding pathway from the listings below and select the date that suits you.