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Clyaris
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Write to hello@clyaris.com. Open Tuesday to Saturday in Asheville.

Pottery Studio · Asheville, North Carolina · Since 2014

Clyaris

Wheel classes in six-week terms. Kiln space by the half shelf or the full load.

The Courses Rent the Kilns

8 wheels · 2 electric kilns · cone 6 · terms from $340

Elevation of one of the studio's electric kilns A drawing set under a stepped arch with a sunburst behind it. An eight-sided top-loading electric kiln stands on its stand: three steel-banded sections, a lid with a handle, a peephole in each section picked out in green, and a control box with two dials and a pilot light on its right face. ELEVATION CONE 6

From the Bag to the Shelf

The Passage of a Pot

Eight stations, in the order every piece at Clyaris passes through them. Students throw, trim and glaze with their own hands. Renters bring bone-dry work in after the fourth, and the kilns take it from there.

  1. Station I

    Wedge

    The wedging table · ten minutes a ball

    Clay comes out of the bag uneven in moisture and full of trapped air. It is kneaded on canvas, ram's head or spiral, thirty or forty turns, until a wire cut through the ball shows a clean face with no holes. An air pocket left in a wall is what cracks a pot in the kiln.

    Clay
    Buff mid-fire stoneware, 25 lb bags, one included with every course
    Tools
    Canvas-topped table and a cutting wire
    Wedging is week one of Wheel I

  2. Station II

    Centre and Throw

    The wheel · a session runs 2.5 hours

    The wedged ball is slapped onto the wheel head, wetted, and pushed with braced arms until it spins true without a wobble under the hands. Only then do the thumbs open it, the floor is compressed, and the wall is pulled up in three or four slow passes.

    Wheels
    Eight, set in two facing rows of four
    Seats
    One wheel each, never more than eight to a class
    Week two is centering and nothing else

  3. Station III

    Trim

    Leather hard · a day or two after throwing

    Once the pot is stiff enough to stand upside down, it goes back on the wheel inverted, tapped to centre, and the heavy clay at the base is shaved away with a loop tool until a foot ring stands. This is where a pot loses its weight and finds its line.

    Tools
    Loop and ribbon trimming tools
    The check
    Tap the base and listen. A thick floor sounds dull.
    Wheel I teaches these three stations, then glazing in week five

  4. Station IV

    Dry

    Under loose plastic, then open shelves · about a week

    Pots dry slowly under plastic so that rims and handles do not outrun the body, then sit uncovered until bone dry. The test is the cheek: greenware that feels cold against your face still holds water, and water turns to steam in a kiln.

    Ready when
    Pale, light, and room temperature to the cheek
    House rule
    Work that is cold to the cheek is sent home to dry

  5. Station V

    Bisque at Cone 04

    Electric kiln · about 10 hours, then a day to cool

    The first firing drives the chemical water out and turns clay into ceramic, still porous enough to drink glaze. Bisque pieces may touch and nest, which is why an 18 inch half shelf holds more than it looks.

    Firing
    Cone 04, about 10 hours
    Cooling
    24 hours before the door opens
    Rent the same kilns by the half shelf

  6. Station VI

    Glaze

    The glaze bench · studio glazes included with courses

    Bisqued pots are rinsed of dust, then dipped, poured or brushed. The foot is wiped clean 6 mm up from the base, because glaze turns to glass at cone 6 and a glazed foot welds itself to the kiln shelf.

    Clear foot
    6 mm, wiped, no stilts
    Not on our shelves
    Lead-bearing glazes, glass, or metal inclusions

  7. Station VII

    Fire at Cone 6

    Electric kiln · about 12 hours with a slow cool

    The glaze firing climbs to 2,232 °F, where the glaze melts and the stoneware tightens until it holds water. A slow cool lets the glaze surface settle and spares the pots the sudden crack potters call dunting.

    Peak
    Cone 6, 2,232 °F, the top of what these kilns do
    Kilns
    Kiln A at 7 cu ft, Kiln B at 10 cu ft, a 1.2 cu ft test kiln
    Rent the same kilns by the full load

  8. Station VIII

    Collect

    Tue and Thu 10:00-13:00 · Sat 09:00-12:00

    Fired work waits on the collection rack under your name for 21 days. After that it moves to the seconds shelf, and whatever it sells for buys clay for the first-Friday taster evenings.

    Window
    21 days from the kiln opening
    Delivery
    None. Work leaves the way it came, through the studio door.

The Studio in Four Figures

  • 12 Years teaching in Asheville
  • 8 Wheels, eight seats a class
  • 2 Electric kilns plus a test kiln
  • 2,232°F Peak heat at cone 6

Two Ways In

Come to Learn, or Come to Fire

The same eight wheels and the same two kilns serve both. Students throw on them in the evenings. Working potters without a kiln of their own rent the firing space by the shelf.

For the Hands

Wheel Courses

$340Wheel I · six weeks

One session a week for six weeks, two and a half hours each, on Tuesday or Thursday evenings or Saturday mornings. A 25 lb bag of buff stoneware, studio glazes and every firing are included. Terms begin the second Tuesday of January, then early March, mid April, early June, late July, mid September and late October, and booking opens four weeks before each.

  • Wheel II, lids, handles and spouts$360
  • Taster evening, first Friday 18:00-20:00$65
  • Open-studio membership, three-month minimum$175 / mo
  • Extra clay, 25 lb bag$38
See the Courses

For the Fire

Kiln Rental

$14half shelf · bisque

Bring bone-dry work, labelled on the foot with the clay body and target cone, to the drop-off window on Tuesday or Thursday 10:00-13:00 or Saturday 09:00-12:00. Shared half shelves are fired within five working days. Full loads are booked at least 48 hours ahead.

  • Half shelf, 18 inch, glaze to cone 6$16
  • Kiln A, 7 cu ft, bisque / glaze$85 / $95
  • Kiln B, 10 cu ft, bisque / glaze$110 / $125
  • Test kiln, 1.2 cu ft, per firing$30
See Kiln Rental

I opened Clyaris in 2014 in a former upholstery workroom, with four secondhand wheels, one electric kiln and two evening classes a week. Nearly everything the studio does now began with someone asking: a second course, a second kiln, then potters from across town wondering if they could rent a shelf in it.

The room is bigger and the kilns fire three times a week, but the order of things has not changed. Wedge, centre, throw, trim, dry, fire, glaze, fire again. If you are curious how a four-wheel workroom became this, the whole story is written down.

Della

Continue

Coming to learn or coming to fire, the prices, dates and rules are set out in full on the next two pages.

Ready to book a seat or a firing? Write to the studio with the course and term, or the kiln, cone and number of half shelves.