The Studio
Since 2014
Clyaris began as two evening classes in a room that had spent its first life stuffing armchairs. Twelve years on it is the second room, eight wheels instead of four, and a kiln room that fires three times a week. This page sets it down in the order it happened, the way I teach the wheel: one station at a time, nothing skipped.
Della
Twelve Years
From Four Wheels to Eight
Six dates down the spine, from a secondhand workroom to the studio as it runs today.
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2014
Four Wheels in an Upholstery Workroom
I opened Clyaris with four secondhand wheels and one electric kiln in a former upholstery workroom. There were two evening classes a week, four students to a class because there were four wheels, and every piece any of them made went through the one kiln.
- Wheels
- Four, bought secondhand
- Kilns
- One electric, the 7 cubic foot kiln now called Kiln A
- Teaching
- Two evening classes a week
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2016
Wheel II Joins the Timetable
Students who had finished six weeks of centering and cylinders wanted to know what came after. The answer became Wheel II: lidded forms, pulled handles and spouts, taught over six weeks to people who can already centre without thinking about it.
It still runs on Wednesday evenings from 18:30 to 21:00 for $360, and its dates and inclusions sit alongside Beginner Wheel I on the wheel courses page.
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2019
The Move: Eight Wheels and a Second Kiln
The studio moved to a larger room with eight wheels, which fixed the class size it still keeps: eight wheels, eight seats, never a ninth. A second electric kiln came with the move. Kiln B holds ten cubic feet, and once it was firing every week, local potters without kilns of their own started asking whether they could share the shelves. Kiln rental grew straight out of that second kiln.
- Wheels
- Eight, in two facing rows of four
- Kilns
- Kiln A, 7 cubic feet, and Kiln B, 10 cubic feet, both electric to cone 6
- Class size
- Eight seats, minimum age 16
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An Aside
The Job I Am Proudest Of
Not long after the move, a woman came in with sixty pieces of her late father's greenware. She had found them in his garage, bowls and cups and a few tall jars, sitting bone dry for decades. Nobody knew the clay body or what cone he had meant them for, and I was not going to guess with something that could not be made again.
So I took one small bowl and fired it alone in the test kiln, which was only a few weeks old then. It came through. Over the next three weeks I bisqued and glazed the rest a half shelf at a time, and of sixty pieces only two cracked. She took fifty eight home.
I still keep a photograph of the full shelf, every piece glazed and cooling, above the glaze bench. It is also why the rule stands that unknown clay gets a paid test firing before anything else goes in.
Della -
2020
The Test Kiln and the First Half Shelves
A small test kiln arrived for tiles and single pieces, and the first renters began bringing work in by the 18 inch half shelf. Today a half shelf costs $14 for bisque at cone 04 and $16 for glaze at cone 6, a test firing costs $30, and shared work is fired within five working days of drop-off.
Rent a half shelf -
2023
Open-Studio Membership Begins
For people who had finished the courses and wanted to keep throwing without a wheel or kiln at home, membership opened: wheel access during open hours, one shelf of their own and two half shelves of glaze firing every month.
- Price
- $175 a month, three months at the least
- Firing
- Two half shelves of glaze a month included
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2026
Seven Terms a Year
Courses now run in seven six-week terms. The first begins on the second Tuesday of January, then early March, mid April, early June, late July, mid September and late October. Booking for each term opens four weeks before it starts, and a $100 deposit holds a seat.
Term dates and deposits
The Plan
The Room Itself
One axis runs from the studio door to the fire door, and everything is set out either side of it.
Eight wheels stand in two facing rows of four, stools to the wall, so everyone throws towards the middle and the centre aisle stays clear for carrying boards. The wedging table sits on the axis nearest the kiln room, where Week One begins. The glaze bench sits on the same line nearer the door, with the photograph of that full shelf above it.
Behind the fire door is the kiln room: Kiln A, Kiln B, the test kiln and the shelving that holds work waiting to be loaded. All work comes in and goes out through the one studio door. There is no collection, no delivery, and the wheels never leave the room.
- 1-8Wheels, two facing rows of four, one student to each
- WWedging table, on the axis below the fire door
- GGlaze bench, studio glazes for every course
- KKiln room: Kiln A, 7 cubic feet, Kiln B, 10 cubic feet, and the 1.2 cubic foot test kiln
- DStudio door, the only way in and out for work
The Studio in Figures
- 12 Years teaching in Asheville
- 2 Rooms since 2014
- 8 Wheels in two rows
- 3 Kiln firings a week
Continue
Come Into the Room
Write to hello@clyaris.com with the course and term, or the kiln and cone. The address of the room comes back with your booking.