How it runs
90 minutes,
three acts
01
Arrive & settle
Doors twenty minutes early. Grab a drink, find your seat, apron on.
02
Paint together
Ninety minutes with your host at the front, moving table to table. Break halfway.
03
Show & take home
Everyone holds theirs up, we take the table photo, depending on what you book we keep it to dry or you take it with you..
What's included
Artist host
Whole session for guided classes
Materials
We got everying you need!
Apron
Yours for the night
Bar
Wine, beer, cocktails, soft, juice
Food
Snacks and Pizza
Bring
Just yourself. Everything is included.
The room
Shoreditch and Chelsea studios. Photos from recent sessions.
Every seat
gets a view
Both studios · 12 seats
The long version
Clay, two ways
Two ways to work with clay. Both about enjoying the process, not achieving perfection.
Pottery at Art Play comes two ways. Hand-building is a calm, hands-on way to switch off and shape clay with just your hands and a few simple tools. Wheel throwing is your first go on the potter's wheel — learning to centre the clay and pull up a bowl, cup or small vessel. Both suit complete beginners and people with some experience alike.
Hand-building or the wheel
In the hand-building class, an experienced pottery instructor guides you through intuitive techniques, with playful exercises and plenty of tactile clay time. In the Wheel Throwing Taster, a pottery tutor teaches you the core techniques at the wheel while you shape your own piece. Full support the whole way, whichever you choose.
Guided, step by step
Hand-building is the mindful one — bigger groups, no wheel, no pressure, just clay and your hands. The wheel taster is smaller and more focused, with six seats per session and your favourite piece professionally glazed and kiln-fired, ready to collect in around four weeks.
Which one is for you?
By the end of either session you'll have created your own unique ceramic piece. See every pottery class and book at book.artplay.co.uk/l/pottery.
Find your flow through calm, hands-on pottery — at the table or on the wheel.
Who it's for
Who's at the table
Who books pottery — hand-building or the wheel — and why.
Date nights
The largest group by some distance, and the reason Thursdays sell out first. It works because it removes the two problems with a dinner date — nothing to talk about, and nothing to do with your hands. You are sitting side by side rather than opposite each other, there is a task in front of you, and the conversation happens sideways while you are both concentrating on something else. People who have been together ten years tell us it felt like an early date. Take that as you like.
Birthdays
Usually six to twelve people, usually organised by one exhausted friend who has been asked to sort something that is not just a pub. Everyone gets the same instructions at the same time, so nobody stands at the edge of a group holding a drink. We seat you together, put the birthday person at the end of the table, and let you bring a cake — tell us in the booking notes and we will keep it cold and bring plates.
Team socials
Small teams book the public session; anything over about fifteen goes private and gets its own page. What managers tell us afterwards is always the same thing — the people who normally say nothing at a work drinks were the ones still there at the end. A shared task does that in a way a bar tab does not. It also has a natural finish, so nobody is trapped waiting for permission to go home.
On your own
More common than you would guess, and completely unremarkable in the room. Solo guests get a seat at a shared table with a host who checks in a little more often. Some people talk to the table all night, some put headphones in and paint. Both are fine, and both count as a good evening. If it is your first time and you would rather sit at the end, say so when you arrive.
Practical detail
Everything else
you might want to check
Price, timings and what's included. Anything else, ask us when you book.
What is included
Everything you need is on the table when you arrive: materials, tools, aprons and an artist host who guides you from start to finish. There's no equipment hire and no materials surcharge. The price you see when you book covers the workshop.
What to wear
Whatever you're comfortable in. Aprons cover most of it, but we'd still skip anything you'd be upset to get paint, clay or wax on.
Long hair is easier tied back, and if you wear glasses for distance, bring them so you can see the demo.
Food and drink
Both venues have a bar with drinks you can order during the session, and kids' workshops have soft drinks too.
You can order from your table, so nobody has to leave halfway through to queue. If you have allergies or dietary needs, tell us when you book or ask a host on the day.
Getting in and getting help
If you have access needs, add a note to your booking and we'll set your table up before you arrive.
Hosts are happy to give one-to-one help to anyone who finds the group format difficult. If you'd like a quieter spot, tell us and we'll do our best to arrange it.
Session length
Shown on each booking page
What you make
Yours to take home when its ready
Group size
Shared room or private hire for 160
Age
listed on each workshop
Good to know
Questions we
always get
Not quite it?
Want to try the wheel? Book the Wheel Throwing Taster. Bringing kids? Try Kids' Pottery. All pottery classes are at book.artplay.co.uk/l/pottery.
Pottery
FROM £32
Hand building at £32, or a wheel throwing taster at £55.
Make & take
GUIDED
Candles
£50
Blend a scent, pour it, take it home the same night.
Vibe n Paint
FROM £25
Unguided paint party with a live DJ. Fridays and Saturdays.
Late