Slipway
Your first bowl › Lesson 3 · Throwing
Lesson 3 of 8
MA

Throw a 12 cm breakfast bowl

with Ruth Aldane · 500 g of buff stoneware · 26 min
01Centre the clay
Centre

Dip a test tile before you dip the bowl.

Every kit comes with eight bisque tiles. Dip one in each glaze, fire them with your bowl, and pick the finish you love from the real thing, not a screen.

CeladonGlassy sea-green, pools darker in the throwing lines · cone 10
500 ml dipping glaze£14.00

Your week at the wheel

Upload a photo after each session. Ruth replies within a day with one thing to keep and one thing to change.

Hands opening a cylinder on the wheel
Mon · Session 6Cylinder, 450 g

“Walls are even to the rim now. Next time, open wider before you pull.”

Ruth replied in 3 h
Wed · Session 7Centring drill, 5 × 500 g

“Elbow on your thigh. Let the wheel do the work and the wobble goes.”

Ruth replied in 40 min
Four bisque bowls on a wooden table
Fri · Kiln dayFour bowls, bisque fired

“The second one is the keeper. Glaze it in celadon and let it pool.”

Glaze firing Sat 14 Nov

Start with clay on your hands

Cohorts of twelve, live sessions on Tuesday evenings, and a studio weekend to finish.

Your first bowl8 lessons · starts Tue 1 Dec · beginners
£189
Lids, spouts and teapots10 lessons · starts Tue 12 Jan · improvers
£240
Studio weekend, Stoke-on-Trent2 days · 6–7 Feb · wheels, kiln and lunch
£295

Before you start

Do I need my own wheel? −

No. Lessons 1–4 are hand-building. From lesson 5 we lend a tabletop wheel for £15 a month, delivered with 10 kg of clay.

Where do my pots get fired? +

Post them in our padded box to the Stoke studio. We bisque and glaze-fire every Friday and send them back within ten days.

What if I miss a live session? +

Every session is recorded and broken into steps, so you can scrub straight to the bit you need.

Is clay messy at home? +

Less than you think. The kit has a splash pan, a slop bucket and a guide to setting up on a kitchen table.