Pottery courses and the kiln: planning for pieces that come back later
Clay courses end before the last firing does. Building the course around drying and firing, a pick-up day, unclaimed pieces, and open studio for finishing.
Oct 13, 2026 · 5 min read
The last night of an eight-week wheel course. Twelve students glaze their best bowls, rinse their sponges, and ask the question you've answered every term: "When can I take them home?" The honest answer is "in about three weeks", and half of them look like you've just told them the bowls were lost.
Clay runs on its own clock. A piece thrown on Tuesday needs days to firm up for trimming, a week or two to dry, a bisque firing, a glaze, and a glaze firing, and the kiln only runs when it's full. A course that ignores that ends with unglazed pieces, disappointed students and a shelf of orphaned mugs. A course built around it ends with a pick-up day people look forward to.
Work backwards from the kiln
Start with your own studio's timings, not the textbook's. Roughly, for a mid-fire wheel course:
- Throwing to trimming: two to five days, until the piece is leather-hard. Students trim at the next class.
- Trimming to bone dry: one to two weeks, longer in a humid summer or for thick pieces.
- Bisque firing: a day to fire and a day to cool, once there's a full load.
- Glazing: in class.
- Glaze firing: another day or two, again when there's a full load.
Add it up and a piece thrown in week 5 is ready for glazing around week 7 at the earliest. Anything thrown later won't be glazed in class. So plan the eight weeks like this:
- Weeks 1–3: centring, opening, pulling walls. Lots of practice pieces, most of them recycled.
- Weeks 4–5: keepers. Week 5 is the last wet-clay night, and you say so on the first night.
- Weeks 5–6: trimming and handles.
- Weeks 7–8: glazing the bisqued pieces, plus surface work for anyone who's done.
- Two to three weeks after week 8: pick-up day.
Tell students the schedule on night one, on paper. "Last wet clay is week 5" stops the student who starts a vase in week 7 and then wonders why it's not finished.
Plan kiln space like a seat count
A kiln is a fixed number of shelves. Count them before you set a course size.
Say your kiln fits about 35 mug-sized pieces in a glaze firing. Twelve students keeping six pieces each is 72, which is two full glaze firings for one course, and you probably run three courses at once. That's the bottleneck nobody puts on the registration page.
A few ways to keep it fair:
- A number of pieces per student for glazing, included in the course: "up to six pieces bisqued and glaze-fired". Students choose their best. It also teaches them to be choosy, which makes better potters.
- A size limit, or a piece counting as two once it's taller than about 25 cm (10 inches).
- A firing fee beyond the included pieces, by the piece or by the shelf, posted on the wall.
- Remind them that clay shrinks in firing, often by a tenth or more. The mug that held a perfect cup of coffee wet will be smaller fired. Better they hear it from you than find out at pick-up.
Pick-up day
Treat it as part of the course, not an afterthought. Put the date in the course description before anyone registers: "Finished pieces are ready for pick-up on Saturday, [date], 11 AM to 2 PM."
- One shelf per course, sorted by name, with a sign. Every piece marked underneath, with initials or a stamp, from the first night.
- Two time windows (a weekday evening and a Saturday) catch almost everyone.
- Bags and newspaper by the door. Nobody remembers to bring a box.
- Run it during an open studio, so students who come for their bowls see others working, and some sign up for the next course on the spot. It's the warmest moment you'll have to mention the next term, and the pieces sell it for you.
Send a reminder a week before:
Your pieces from the fall wheel course are out of the kiln! Pick them up on Saturday the 5th, 11 AM to 2 PM, or Wednesday the 9th, 6 to 8 PM. Bring a bag. Pieces not picked up by January 15 will be recycled or donated, so please come by or let us know if you need another time.
Unclaimed pieces
Every studio has the shelf. Some students never come back, some move, some made something they'd rather forget. Without a policy, the shelf grows until it eats your storage.
- Put the policy in the course description and on the receipt: pieces are held for a set time after pick-up day (30 to 45 days is common), then recycled or donated.
- Remind twice: a week after pick-up day, and a week before the deadline. After that, it's out of your hands.
- Hold pieces for someone who asks. "I'm away until February" is a reasonable message, and costs you a shelf corner.
- Photograph the shelf before you clear it, in case someone appears in March sure you had their teapot.
Open studio for finishing
Not everyone keeps up. Someone misses week 4 with a cold and falls behind on trimming. An open studio, a few hours a week where current students can work on their own, solves that and does a lot more. It keeps your regulars in clay between courses, and it's where students become members.
- Who: current students and anyone who's finished a course. Not beginners alone with a wheel.
- When: a weeknight and a weekend afternoon, supervised by a monitor or an assistant.
- How it's paid: a couple of sessions included in the course, then a drop-in or a pack. Say $20 a visit, or $90 for five.
- Clay and firing: clay bought separately (a bag at a set price), and firing at the posted fee.
Say a wheel course is $320 for eight nights of two and a half hours, including a bag of clay, glazes, firing up to six pieces and two open studio visits. That's $40 a night for the course, and the open studio packs carry the keen ones through to the next term.
Where Caletan fits
In Caletan, a wheel course is a class priced as a full course, with its room held every night. Open studio can be a class of its own, with a drop-in price or a pack of visits that counts down each time someone's marked present. The class guide shows both, and for art studios shows the rest.
