St Ives Pottery

Welcome to St Ives Pottery, a small studio which was set up in St. Ives in 2018. We now run lessons out of a studio in Hayle and offer an experience of wheel-throwing on an electric wheel; beginners and skilled people are welcome.

Our classes are run by Angela, an experienced ceramicist of more than 20 years who started training aged 16. Lessons are for individuals or groups that come together so you will only be with people you know (or one-to-one) to ensure you receive quality tuition.

There have been many challenges since 2020 that we have changed with and adapted to; we moved to a better teaching studio in Hayle which offers easier access and connectivity for people wanting to have pottery lessons.

We look forward to welcoming you to the studio.

About St. Ives Pottery

Cornwall has long been famous for its arts and crafts and the inspiration it provides to those that live and visit here. St. Ives and the surrounding area are perhaps the most well known with St. Ives’ connection to Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada and the development of Studio Pottery influencing ceramics around the world. Cornwall is full of great galleries and artists to visit and you can also partake in the ancient craft of pottery with us in our teaching studio in Hayle, in the middle of St. Ives Bay. 

Rather than just experiencing the art you can have a go at making your own! Join us for a pottery wheel-throwing session. Like all the best studios it is slightly hidden away inside the lovely historically important Hayle Foundry area, within Foundry Farm (where the horses that powered the once magnificent industry were housed). After teaching in the heart of St. Ives for a couple of years, 2020 led to some changes and we expanded to a more accessible space, still within St. Ives Bay. Our Hayle teaching studio has ample parking nearby and easy public transport links via train or bus. Our resident potter will give one-to-one tuition to help people of any skill level and age to create a pot on the electric wheel. 

Our potter, Angela, is a multi-talented crafter and a trained ceramicist. She has been teaching others since she was 18 and loves anything to do with pottery. She works on her own creations and collections as well as offering others a wheel-throwing experience. She also studied and learned the Cornish language to help unlock more of the history of Cornwall which influences her personal work.

Prices and booking

We offer a choice of 2 fun wheel-throwing pottery sessions. Our pottery experiences are a great way to try wheel-throwing and we cater for all skill levels and ages from 3-plus, and it can be as serious or silly as you like. This is private tuition for yourself and up to three friends, so it could be a one-to-one session or a couple, a family session or your friend group. We have two wheels so this is great for two people; larger groups can take it in turns to use the wheels and the time can be split how you like. Booking by appointment only, closed Sundays and Mondays. 

What to expect: A relaxed, flexible learning-to-throw sessions with a demonstration, guidance throughout and plenty of clay so no worries if some efforts don’t go quite to plan. You will learn a lot and achieve great results. The lesson can be for an individual, or split between you and a partner, or a group, up to a maximum of 4 people due to available space. You can keep any of the items you create and can take them away a couple of days later or if you want anything firing and glazing then this can be done at an extra cost (please see further down in Kiln-firing options). After your lesson finishes our potter carefully stores your creations while they dry until they are ‘leather hard’. At this point they will finish the pots and the bases are trimmed and stamped to give a more crisp studio pottery look.

Lesson option one: £65 – 1 hour wheel throwing, please allow an hour and a half as time is needed when you arrive to the studio for the demo, and then afterwards for making any important decisions like which pots to keep, any firing/glazing preferences and additions like handles which will also need to be made.

Lesson option 2: £120 – 2 hours of wheel throwing, please allow at least 2 and half hours. The longer session is great for those who want a longer experience and works well for those wanting to explore pottery further as well as for groups who want to have more turns at throwing. When you arrive you will have a demo from our potter before you start on the wheel. Once you have finished throwing you then need to make important decisions like which pots you would like to keep, if you want to take them away once dried or if any need firing, glazing and if they need any extra parts added after, like adding handles to make a mug or other additions like feet. Our potter will help you make any additions then add them for you once the pots have reached the right dryness to be worked on.  

Kiln-firing options:

Bisque-fired: £4.50 per pot.

Glazed: £11 per pot. – If you create a masterpiece that you want glazed, we can do this for you. You can choose from four colours for your creation, then they will be glazed by us in the studio, dipped in a single colour of your choice. It takes around 8 weeks and includes the bisque-firing, glaze application and second glaze-firing.

We can post them if required at a further cost of £12 within the UK. Each pot is carefully wrapped, packaged and posted using our local post office. Postage is only available to UK postcodes. Obviously everything can still be made ready to take away unfired. However if you want anything firing or glazing we’re afraid if you’re not in the UK then it is collection only.

We provide a towel, apron and washing facilities solely for your use.

Contact us:

Please use the enquiry/booking form to get in touch and we will try to book you in for a private lesson. 

Thank you to everyone for the continued support and interest. Creating pots can be a great experience for many. It is therapeutic, mindful, tactile and joyful, and we try to fit in as many of you as we can, but recommend booking a few weeks in advance as we can get very busy especially at school holiday times. 

Gift Vouchers:

We also offer pottery experience gift vouchers for both our options, so £65 for an hour of wheel-throwing and £120 for two, firing not included. They make great gifts for people who want to try pottery or as a lovely birthday or wedding anniversary present. If you are interested please contact us and we can send an e-voucher. The recipient can book their lesson with us when it suits them.

If you haven’t heard back from us within 5 working days please check your spam folder. We use an email that shouldn’t go to spam folders but some email providers still might, it is mainly hotmail that we have heard about problems with.

Enquiries

To book yourself in for a pottery wheel-throwing experience or for further enquiries please use the form below and we will get back to you as soon as we can (when we are not covered in clay!). Details of the pottery lesson option we currently offer can be found on the Prices and Bookings page. 

We look forward to meeting you.

If you haven’t heard back from us within 5 working days please check your spam folder. We use an email that shouldn’t go to spam folders but some email providers still might, it is mainly hotmail that we have heard about problems with.

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