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Wheel Courses

Six Weeks, in Order

Every course at Clyaris runs in the same order the clay does: wedge it, centre it, pull it up, trim it, glaze it, collect it. Eight people, eight wheels, one evening or morning a week for six weeks. Your clay, glazes and firings are in the price, and your pieces go through the same two kilns local potters rent by the half shelf, fired at cone 04 bisque and cone 6 glaze.

Specification

The Courses, Set Out Plainly

Four ways onto a wheel, from a single Friday evening to a monthly key to the room.

  • Beginner Wheel I Six weeks · 2.5 hours a session

    Pick one slot and keep it for the term: Tuesday or Thursday 18:30 to 21:00, or Saturday 09:30 to 12:00.

    Includes one 25 lb bag of buff mid-fire stoneware, the studio glazes and every firing.
    $340Six weeks
  • Wheel II Lidded forms, handles and spouts

    Wednesday 18:30 to 21:00 for six weeks. For anyone who has finished Wheel I, or who can already centre and pull a cylinder without help.

    Same inclusions: a 25 lb bag of stoneware, studio glazes and all firings.
    $360Six weeks
  • Taster Evening First Friday of each month

    18:00 to 20:00, one wheel per person. You throw; the studio trims, glazes and fires two of your pieces for you.

    The easiest way to find out whether six weeks is for you.
    $65One evening
  • Open-Studio Membership Three-month minimum

    Wheel access during open hours, one shelf of your own, and two half shelves of glaze firing a month.

    Tuesday to Friday 10:00 to 21:00, Saturday 09:00 to 17:00.
    $175A month
  • Extra Clay Studio stoneware

    Another 25 lb bag of the same buff mid-fire stoneware the courses use, for when the first bag runs out in week four.

    $38Per bag
  • Seats

    Eight per class, one wheel each, never doubled up.

    The wheels stand in two facing rows of four, so everyone can see the demonstration.
  • Minimum Age

    16 and over, for every course.

  • Included

    Clay, aprons at the door, tools on the bench, studio glazes, the cone 04 bisque and the cone 6 glaze firing.

Beginner Wheel I

The Six Weeks

One station a week. Each tells you how long you are at the wheel, what goes home with you, and what you will still be bad at. Everyone is bad at something on the way.

  1. Week I

    Wedging and the Wheel

    Session one · 2.5 hours

    You learn to wedge on the canvas-topped table until the air is out and the clay is one even body, then sit at the wheel and learn its pedal, its splash pan and the speed it likes. By the end you have thrown your first lumps and cut them off without ceremony.

    Session
    2.5 hours, half at the wedging table, half at the wheel
    You leave with
    Your 25 lb bag on your shelf and a forearm you will notice tomorrow
    Bad at
    Keeping the wheel at one speed with your foot

  2. Week II

    Centering, and Only Centering

    Session two · 2.5 hours

    The whole evening goes to pushing a ball of clay to the true middle of the wheel head, opening it, collapsing it and starting again. No cylinders yet. Della says why below.

    Session
    2.5 hours of the same movement, done better each time
    You leave with
    Nothing to keep, on purpose. The clay goes back to reclaim.
    Bad at
    Centering, until roughly the last twenty minutes

  3. Week III

    Cylinders

    Session three · 2.5 hours

    Open, set the floor, then pull the wall up in three passes. The cylinder is the root of almost every form on the shelf, so this is where the clay starts to become something you will keep.

    Session
    2.5 hours, aiming for a straight wall 4 inches high
    You leave with
    Two or three cylinders drying under plastic on the class shelf
    Bad at
    Even walls. The base stays thick and the rim goes thin.
    The whole passage of a pot

  4. Week IV

    Bowls and Trimming

    Session four · 2.5 hours

    First hour: last week's cylinders come back leather hard and you trim a foot into them, upside down on the wheel. Second hour: you throw bowls, which open outward and forgive less than you expect.

    Session
    2.5 hours, trimming first, throwing second
    You leave with
    Trimmed cylinders ready for the bisque, and a bowl or two under plastic
    Bad at
    Knowing when leather hard has turned into too hard

  5. Week V

    Glazing What You Made

    Session five · 2.5 hours

    Your trimmed cylinders from week three go through the cone 04 bisque in the days between classes; the week-four bowls are trimmed at the start of this session and fired with the studio's next load. You come back to pale, ringing pots and glaze them at the bench: dipping, pouring, wiping the foot 6 mm clear so nothing fuses to the shelf.

    Session
    2.5 hours: half an hour trimming last week's bowls, then the glaze bench, with the test tiles on the wall to choose from
    You leave with
    Glazed pieces loaded for the cone 6 firing
    Bad at
    Guessing how a raw glaze colour will look once fired
    How the kilns are fired

  6. Week VI

    Collection Evening and Critique

    Session six · 2.5 hours

    The cone 6 load comes out and everyone's work goes on the long table. We talk through each piece: the walls, the feet, where the glaze ran and why. Then the bisqued bowls come out and you glaze them in the first half hour, before a last stretch at the wheel.

    Session
    2.5 hours, critique first, a free hour at the wheel after
    You leave with
    Your fired cylinders, wrapped. The bowls you glazed tonight go through the next cone 6 firing and wait for you in the collection window for 21 days.
    Bad at
    Hearing what is good about your own pots

A Note

Della on Week Two

Written at the glaze bench

People ask why the whole of the second week is centering and nothing else, and the honest answer is that everything after it depends on it. A pot thrown off centre tells you so at every stage: the wall thins on one side, the rim wobbles, the trimming tool skips, and in the kiln the thin side slumps. So for two and a half hours you will push a lump of clay to the middle of the wheel head, open it, collapse it and do it again, and I will not let you skip ahead to cylinders, not even if the person on the next wheel seems to have it, not even in the last half hour, because a cylinder pulled from clay that is nearly centred teaches your hands the wrong thing, and it takes weeks to unteach. The clay tells you before your eyes do. You feel it in your wrists first, a small knock once every revolution, and then one evening the knock is gone and the clay runs under your palms as if it were standing still while the wheel turns, and your eyes only catch up a second later. In 2015 there was a student who spent the entire evening fighting a single ball, cutting it off and rewedging it four times, and on her last try, with everyone else already sponging out their splash pans, it went quiet under her hands and she laughed out loud, a proper surprised laugh, and the whole room stopped to look. I still think of that laugh whenever someone is close. And the elbow, which I cannot leave out: brace it. Lock it against your hip or your thigh, never floating out in the air, because the strength comes from your body and not your arms, and I will walk round and tap the elbow of anyone whose elbow has wandered, which by the end of the evening is usually everyone, me included on a long day.

Week three, I promise, is cylinders.

Della

Wheel I, Counted

  • 8 Seats in every class
  • 6 Weeks to a fired pot
  • 15hrs At the wheel and bench
  • 25lb Of stoneware included

Terms and Deposits

Seven Terms a Year

Booking for each term opens four weeks before it starts. Eight seats go quickly in the January and September terms.

  1. Term I Second Tuesday of January Booking opens mid December
  2. Term II Early March Booking opens early February
  3. Term III Mid April Booking opens mid March
  4. Term IV Early June Booking opens early May
  5. Term V Late July Booking opens late June
  6. Term VI Mid September Booking opens mid August
  7. Term VII Late October Booking opens late September
  • Deposit

    $100 holds your seat for the term and slot you choose.

  • Balance

    Due seven days before the first session: $240 for Wheel I, $260 for Wheel II.

  • Cancelling

    Cancel 14 or more days before the start and the deposit comes back in full.

    After that, the seat can be moved to the next term once.
  • Missed Session

    Make it up at one Saturday open session in the same term. Your shelf and your clay will be waiting.

To book, write to hello@clyaris.com with the course, the term and the evening or morning you want. The contact page has the hours and the drop-off windows; the studio address comes with your booking confirmation.

Book a Seat

Plainly

What the Courses Are Not

  • No courses for anyone under 16 The wheels, trimming tools and kiln room are set up for adults, and each seat needs steady hands for the full 2.5 hours.
  • No parties or private bookings of the room The first-Friday taster evening is the nearest thing, and it runs as an ordinary class of eight.
  • No off-site sessions, school visits or mobile wheels The wheels never leave the studio. Everything is taught in the room where it is fired.
  • No pots thrown to order for shops or weddings The studio teaches and fires. It does not take production runs or commissions.

Continue

After the Course

Ready for a seat? Write to the studio.