Come the New Year, you're bound to set at least one new resolution. Head to the gym, maybe? Abstention from the evening tipple? Finally learn French? While these are all noble pursuits, we believe the king of resolutions is to take up a new hobby, specifically one that lets you get dirty and let out your pent-up creative energy.
Enter ceramics. Set to be next year's trendiest hobby, throwing pots, bowls and mugs is perhaps the most fun you'll have with a heaping mound of clay. With a multitude of studios across London, too, learning the art of ceramics is the resolution you're (finally) set to stick with. We've rounded up the best so you can get throwing.
Perfect for friends throwing together or solo adventures in ceramics
Offering a “holistic, gradual and joyous experience”, Studio Pottery London offers classes, private lessons and solo sessions. “Pottery can be a wonderfully social activity,” the Studio's staff says, so their group taster introductions and 5-week foundation courses are popular pursuits amongst friends. For those seeking “flexibility of coming in your own time” or pursuing the meditative side of pottery, the Studio also offers a member's-only space equipped with several wheels and workspaces, open any time.
Studio Pottery London, 29 Eccleston Place, Belgravia.
Perfect for those looking to deepen their artistic practise, or those on a budget.
An artist-run cooperative, the Ceramics Studio Co-Op prides itself in its accessible, purpose-designed ceramics and sculpture workshop. Partially subsidised by the Arts Council England, the studio is "committed to making the medium available to everyone willing to explore its possibilities,” especially with the “ongoing closure of ceramics workshops in art and design colleges". Offering courses and workshops in ceramics, pottery and glazing (as well as kiln training), the Co-Op is ideal for beginners and those looking to learn more about the practise and its artistry.
Ceramics Studio Co-Op, 73-79 Childers Street, Deptford.
For those seeking a creative after-work activity.
“Like gym membership for potters,” Turning Earth is perhaps the coolest ceramics studio in London. With four locations across the city, Turning Earth is “for everyone, from beginners to part-time professionals”. Courses typically last between eight to twelve weeks, ideal for budding ceramicists to learn the fundamentals of throwing and to create a cupboard full of homemade tableware.
Turning Earth, with studios in Highgate, Tottenham, Hoxton and Leyton.
For those looking to throw pots at home or have a drink at the (potter's) wheel.
“Experience the joy of creativity – at our place or yours,” proposes Social Pottery, the studio whose mantra is to “make, connect and unwind”. With courses in pottery painting and making, Social Pottery provides a multitude of ways to express one's creativity from intensive to uncomplicated. There are ample in-studio offerings: group courses perfect for friends, birthday parties and other celebrations, boozy pottery painting (afternoon and late night), children's pottery painting and taster classes. For homebody potters, Social Pottery provides DIY kits complete with how-to videos to follow along in the comfort of home.
Social Pottery, with two studios in Kentish Town and one in Milton Keynes.
For those who reach their creative heights in hygge-ified spaces.
Founded by ex-corporate lawyer Stine Dulong in 2013, SkandiHus is the ceramics studio that believes that “clay is the gateway into transformation”. Stine, too, says the greatest privilege of her life is to bear “witness to the profound effects working with clay has on almost everyone who walks through the doors" of SkandiHus' three locations across London. Dotted around each studio are outgoing tablewares created by Stine and her team for Nigella Lawson, Anna Jones and high-end restaurants (including The Connaught Hotel and Nobu). Classes are perfect for beginners or clay fanatics; there is something for everyone here.
SkandiHus, with studios in De Beauvoir, Hackney and Walthamstow.
Perfect for members-club devotees.
One of London's most popular studios (their waiting list is over five month's long!), The Kiln Rooms is a private, members-only ceramics and pottery workshop in the heart of Peckham. With evening, day-time and weekend classes, there is ample time to get throwing, glazing and firing. For those with an entrepreneurial streak, The Kiln Rooms gives members opportunity to sell their homemade ceramic wares during their Christmas Sale and Summer Show weekends.
The Kiln Rooms, with three studios in south London (Bellenden Road Arches, Copeland Park and Peckham).
Perfect for those looking to learn from today's best craftspeople in modern ceramics and pottery.
Tucked away in an old Victorian mews and founded by potter Giulietta Hextall, Crown Works Pottery is both school and professional members studio. “I’ve a real soft spot for this beautiful space,” says one of the studio's semi-professional potters, “[it's like sitting down at a communal table to eat, but with throwing.” The classes – kept to a limited number of people of ten per session – come in an array of options, including short taster sessions, beginner and intermediate workshops and more specialist one off master classes.
Crown Works, 11 Temple Street, Bethnal Green.
Mad for ceramics? Discover our guide to Britain's best.
