Studio Spoltore

Kids Clay Club is our year-round after-school clay program for ages 5–7. It runs in four-week sessions, and each one picks up where the last left off — so a maker who stays with us goes from "I made a bowl" to real hand-building skill over the course of the year.

Session 1 is where everyone starts: Getting Our Hands Dirty.

• Week 1 — Pinch pots. The first thing every potter learns. A little bowl, and a creature to go with it.
• Week 2 — Coils. Building up, one snake at a time. Cups, nests, and whatever else shows up.
• Week 3 — Slabs. Rolling flat, building boxes, tiles, and stamped shapes.
• Week 4 — Glaze day. Everyone picks colors for everything they've made. This is the loud one.

These four weeks are the foundation. Once your maker can pinch, coil, slab, and glaze, everything after that gets more ambitious:

• Session 2 — Gifts from the Studio (November) · Making things for other people, finished in time for the holidays
• Session 3 — Creatures & Critters (January) · Building animals with real structure, and clay that doesn't fall over
• Session 4 — Build It Big (February) · Bigger pieces, multi-week builds, more independence

Kids who stay through the year end up genuinely good at this. They also end up with a group — the same faces, every Thursday, a whole school year of Thursdays. That's the part parents tell us they didn't expect.

Returning makers get first pick of seats in the next session, and we hold them for a week before the class opens to the public. There are only eight.

Ages 5–7 is the sweet spot for starting clay — kids are still making things for the joy of making them, before they start worrying about whether it looks "right." We keep it that way. There's no wrong way to build here.

Drop-off is welcome. Grown-ups can stay or take ninety minutes to themselves. Either is completely fine with us.

Thursdays, Oct 1 · 8 · 15 · 22 · 5:00–6:30 PM · Ages 5–7 · 8 spots

What to know before you register:

• $140 for all four Thursdays — that's $35 a class, versus $45 for a single session.
• Please send your maker having already eaten — we don't break for snacks, and food and clay don't mix.
• Dress your kid in clothes that can get clay on them. It washes out, mostly.
• No experience needed. Most of our makers have never touched clay.
• We'll have a short waiver for you to sign at drop-off on week 1.
• Missed a week? We can't offer makeups or partial refunds, but your maker is welcome to catch up at an Open Studio session.
• Pieces are glazed and fired after week 4 and ready by late November. Pickup is at our Saturday farmers market booth.
• Minimum of 4 registered makers to run.
• Dropping off? We'll ask for an emergency contact and the names of anyone else authorized for pickup.

Make something with us. 🤎