POTTERY WORKSHOPS IN SAN FRANCISCO
Intensive, single-topic deep dives for potters who want to learn one thing well.
Our workshops sit between our one-time classes (beginner-friendly, 2.5 hours, no experience needed) and our multi-week classes (8 weeks, structured curriculum). Workshops are typically 2.5 hours to 6 weeks, focused on a single technique, and designed for students who already have some pottery experience — or who want to learn a discipline that doesn't fit anywhere else.
Workshops are limited in size to maximize personal instruction. Some are taught annually, some on rotating schedules. Email kaitlyn@hickoryclay.com to be notified when a specific workshop is next scheduled, or subscribe to our newsletter for early access to new dates.
GOLD LUSTER
Japanese-imported gold overglaze · 2 hours · $125
Friday, May 29th at 6pm
A workshop on yellow gold, white gold, and mother of pearl luster techniques, using gold overglaze imported from Japan. Gold luster is an overglaze that's applied in a third firing — the binder burns off during the firing, leaving a thin, brilliant layer of real gold on the surface of your piece. It's traditionally used as accent or decoration: rims, brushstroke details, signature flourishes.
Over 2.5 hours you'll learn painting techniques, proper safety, and have time to gild 5-10 pieces depending on intricacy. Each attendee receives their own 2-gram bottle of Japanese gold overglaze (white gold or yellow gold) to take home.
Students must bring their own work to gild — already glaze-fired, thrifted, or commercially produced. Any ceramic piece works: handmade, store-bought, even IKEA. Pieces will be fired and ready for pickup the following Wednesday.
Beginners with no ceramics experience and advanced ceramicists will equally enjoy this workshop.
Returning students:
Already have your bottle from a previous workshop? Book the $60 workshop option (instruction and firing only).
Hickory Clay members who've previously taken this workshop can add pieces to any of our gold luster firings throughout the year at no additional cost — one of the unique benefits of membership.
Gold lustre is an overglaze, which is applied after the second firing. The binder burns off during the third firing, leaving a layer of gold on the pieces. It is typically used as accent or decoration. Over 2.5 hours you will learn painting techniques, proper safety and have time to paint your pieces. Depending on intricacy, students will paint 5-10 pieces.
Each attendee receives their own 2g bottle of gold overglaze (white gold or yellow gold.) Students must bring their own work to paint, already glaze-fired or commercially produced. Information will follow on types of pieces to bring. Work will be fired and ready for pickup on the following Wednesday.
GLAZE DESIGN & MIXING
Six-week intensive on formulating your own glazes · $450 · Includes all materials
The deepest workshop we offer. Six weeks of hands-on glaze chemistry, formulation, and mixing — designed for serious students who want to understand how glazes actually work, not just how to apply them. This is the same craft that goes into every glaze in our studio library, and the workshop teaches you to do it yourself.
Week 1: Colorants, composition, and learning mixing/measuring techniques through colored slip Week 2: Base glazes and opacity Week 3: Line blends Week 4: Double line blends Week 5: Minor and major adjustments Week 6: Review of all tests (300+!) and mixing a 1-gallon batch of your own custom recipe
The studio provides base recipes, colorants, glaze materials, and test tiles. Students will leave the final class with a 1-gallon batch of their own custom glaze.
Students mix glazes only during scheduled class sessions and Saturday afternoons due to dust control protocols. Hands-on demonstrations include test batches, full batches, specific gravity measurement, flocculation, and deflocculation. Proper safety practices for each material are covered.
This is the fourth and final class in our four-part Glazing series:
Glaze Techniques
Oxides & Slip Making
Wild Clay
Glaze Design & Mixing (this workshop)
Email ashley@hickoryclay.com with questions or to be notified when this workshop is next scheduled.
THROWING BUD VASES
Wheel throwing intensive · 2.5 hours · $70
A focused afternoon on throwing bud vases — the small, narrow-necked vessels that are some of the most satisfying and most technically demanding forms on the wheel. Bud vases require specific techniques to close the mouth while keeping the form light and airy.
Over 2.5 hours, you'll learn to turn 1.5 lbs of clay into handheld vases with small necks or flared openings. This is a technique class focused on specific wheel skills, not a finished-piece class.
Prerequisites: Students must be comfortable on the wheel and able to center 1.5 lbs of clay. Centering is not taught.
Note on firing: This workshop teaches a technique, but pieces are not automatically fired. If you'd like to keep your work, you must be enrolled in another class or membership at Hickory Clay, or purchase a Drop In session to trim and glaze the piece on your own time.
Email kaitlyn@hickoryclay.com to be notified when this workshop is next scheduled →
An afternoon throwing intensive on bud vases. Have you wanted a guided lesson on bud vases? These small vases require specific techniques to close the mouth, but still allow them to be light and airy. This workshop will teach you how to turn 1.5 lbs of clay into handheld vases with small necks, or flare openings.
This is a technique class; work will not be fired unless students are enrolled in other classes or memberships at Hickory Clay. Outside students may purchase Drop In sessions if they wish to trim and glaze work from this workshop.
Students need to be comfortable on the wheel and able to center 1.5lbs of clay. Centering will not be taught.
STAY IN THE LOOP
Workshops fill quickly. To be notified when new dates are announced, subscribe to our newsletter — you'll get early access to workshop sign-ups before they're posted to the website.
For questions about a specific workshop, email kaitlyn@hickoryclay.com.