7 Pottery Classes to Try in London This September

If you want to learn pottery but aren't sure whether you'll prefer wheel throwing or hand-building, this is probably the strongest starting point we've found. Turning Earth's eight-week Introduction to Ceramics course covers both, giving you time to try different techniques before deciding what you want to pursue further.

Turning Earth recommended this September course to Learn.London for exactly that reason. It's a bigger commitment than a taster, but if you're already fairly sure you want to learn ceramics properly, we'd favour this over a short introductory session.

The class focuses on hand-building rather than the wheel, so you work directly with the clay and learn how to shape a piece by hand. That also makes it a fairly gentle introduction if you've never touched clay before.

We'd choose this if you're curious about pottery but aren't ready to spend hundreds of pounds on a longer course. There's enough time to actually make something, without turning pottery into an eight-week commitment before you know whether you like it.

Muni's taster introduces more than one approach to working with clay, which makes it useful if you haven't yet decided exactly what sort of pottery interests you.

We'd choose this over a very short taster if you already suspect you'll enjoy pottery and want enough time to get properly absorbed in it before deciding whether to continue.

Wheel throwing takes repetition. Centring clay and controlling the shape can feel surprisingly difficult at first, so a longer course makes much more sense if you already know that the wheel is what interests you.

At £445, this isn't the option we'd choose just to experiment. But if you're looking for a proper autumn pottery course rather than a one-off experience, it's one of the stronger late-September starts we've found.

The Friday morning timetable also makes it quite different from the large number of pottery courses built around weekday evenings. You get a three-hour studio session and a full-term format rather than trying to learn everything in a handful of workshops.

We'd look at this if you have daytime flexibility and want pottery to become a regular part of your week rather than something you try once.

The 90-minute session introduces the basic process, including centring the clay and shaping a simple form such as a cup, bowl or small vessel.

You won't learn wheel throwing in an afternoon, but that's not really the point. We'd choose this before committing to a £300–£400 course if you're fascinated by the wheel but have never actually tried it.

You'll use hand-building techniques to form the mug before decorating it with coloured slips. No previous experience is required, so it works as an introduction as well as a more relaxed Sunday activity.

We like it because you know exactly what you're signing up for. If your main motivation is the satisfaction of making an actual object rather than beginning a serious ceramics course, this is probably the one we'd choose.