Person wearing a brown apron and black shirt using a utility knife to cut a piece of clay material on a work table. A container of water is placed on the table near the person.

Pottery handbuilding courses

Handbuilding is pottery without the wheel — coiling, pinching and slab building, using your hands and simple tools. Our six week course in Fishponds, Bristol is open to all levels, from complete beginners to people looking to refine what they can already do.

Small groups, the same tutor each week, and everything provided.

Six week handbuilding course

Open to everyone, from complete beginners to people with some experience looking to refine their skills. You'll be introduced to a range of traditional handbuilding techniques including coil building, slab work and pinch pots.

Each week you'll be guided through structured projects designed to build confidence and skill, exploring form, surface and function within the context of ceramic history. Alongside the guided instruction there's time and support for self-directed making, so you can bring your own ideas to life in a relaxed studio environment.

Whether you want to learn the fundamentals or develop a personal body of work, the course offers a balanced mix of technical guidance and creative freedom.

Sessions are 2.5 hours long. Groups are a maximum of 8 people.

A woman in a brown apron and dark shirt working on flat clay project at a table, with a container of water nearby.

Level 2

Book the handbuilding course →

Meet your tutor

Taught by Lucy Cheminais, a skilled and knowledgeable ceramicist with over 25 years' experience. She makes hand-built and thrown wares that are both good looking and properly functional.

As a resident and tutor here, Lucy draws on her research into studio pottery traditions with a particular focus on ash glazes, exploring how natural materials and historic techniques feed into contemporary ceramics.

A woman with brown hair and bangs stands in a pottery ceramics craft studio, holding a block of dark clay. She wears a brown apron over a dark long-sleeve shirt. On the table in front of her, there are sculpting tools and a tub of water.

What's included

  • Real live tuition throughout — hands-on, in the room, from a working ceramicist.

  • All materials. Clay, tools and glazes.

  • Firing for the work you make on the course.

  • Glazing done for you. Unlike our throwing courses, there's no separate glazing session to book — we'll glaze and fire your work after the course finishes.

More questions? Read our FAQ →

Getting your work back

Your pieces don't come home with you at the end of the last session. Everything has to dry slowly, get bisque fired, glazed, and fired again. It takes up to 6 weeks after your course finishes — we'll be in touch as soon as your work is ready to collect.

Coming up

Not sure?

Not ready to commit to a full course? Try a taster session first →

Not sure whether handbuilding or the wheel is more you? Help me choose →