Looking to learn a new skill? Or just trying to tap into your artistic side? It’s so easy to get inspired in NYC thanks to the art all around us.
Between all the art galleries and museums, how could you not want to try something yourself? One of our favorite creative outlets is pottery, which is easy to learn thanks to NYC’s different ceramics studios.
Spend a day learning the basics from an instructor and walk home with a vase or flowerpot you can put to good use! To make it easy, we compiled our favorite ceramics studios that have the best pottery classes in NYC, no matter how much experience you have.
1. Pottery Studio 1, Multiple locations
Pottery Studio 1 offers a wide variety of classes to develop your ceramic skills at any level. In a two hour class learn to make a mug, a bowl, a vase, a candlestick etc., and take home your original piece with you! There are also classes available where you can learn to create and paint your clay creation.
Whether you’re near Manhattan or Brooklyn, you have several locations to choose from to tap into your inner ceramics artist!
📍 Multiple locations
2. Pottery Wheel and Hand Building Workshop at Tribeca ClayWorks, Tribeca
Tribeca ClayWorks is a ceramics studio in Tribeca that offers pottery classes to students of all skill levels. Their “Pottery Wheel and Handbuilding” class is one of their most popular offerings. Students receive one-on-one attention from instructors to help them build their hand skills and explore a particular technique of their choosing.
You’ll learn everything from cover glazing to proper surface techniques, so by the end of the class, you’ll have a handle on all the strategies you need to work on your own.
📍 120 Warren St.
3. Handbuilding and Wheel at 92nd Street Y, UES
The 92nd Street Y is a community center on the Upper East Side that serves as an essential social club. They host regular classes, including their hand building and wheel course, which teaches students of all levels the art of pottery.
Students learn all the basic skills they need to create bowls, plates, vases, cups, and more, including pinch, coil, and slab construction. They also offer intermediate and advanced classes where students can learn more intricate skills!
📍 1395 Lexington Ave.
4. One Day Wheel Class at Choplet Ceramic Studio, Williamsburg
Choplet is a neighborhood ceramics studio in Williamsburg that offers various pottery classes for both adults and children. Their “One Day Wheel” class is perfect for beginners and gives students the basic skills they need to begin working with the potter’s wheel. By the end of the class, students can take home the bowl or cylinder they’ve created after it’s been glazed and fired by an instructor at the school.
One Day Wheel is one of the best pottery classes in NYC for those who want to master the basics of the craft before moving on to more advanced techniques.
📍 238 Grand St., Brooklyn
5. Beginner Wheel Courses at the Potter’s Wheel, Kew Gardens
The Potter’s Wheel is a pottery shop and storefront located in Central Queens that offers unique creations from local artists. They have a beginner’s course that teaches students how to control a pottery wheel to create clay cups, bowls, and plates. The classes are three hours long and are offered three days a week for seven weeks.
Once you complete the beginner’s wheel course, you can move on to the advanced wheel course or take one of their other lessons on hand building or wheel throwing!
📍 120-33 83rd Ave., Queens
6. Handbuilding & Glazing at MUGI Pottery, UWS
Mugi Studios is a pottery gallery and studio located on the Upper West Side that showcases unique work from local artists and offers classes for beginners. We love this studio in particular because of their small and intimate class sizes that allow students to get the attention and instruction they need to succeed.
They offer workshops and classes, including their hand-building and glazing course, where students will learn the proper techniques to craft their own piece of pottery. Mugi Studios has tons of classes for all skill levels and are perfect for everyone including adult classes, kid-specific classes, beginners, and even date night classes! It’s fun no matter what the occasion is.
📍 993 Amsterdam Ave.
7. Tableware Set Workshop at Wilcoxson Brooklyn Ceramics, Greenpoint
Wilcoxson is a Brooklyn-based design studio that hosts hand-crafted pieces and various workshops. They offer mug, planter, and tableware set workshops that teach students everything they need to know about creating practical pieces they can use.
The tableware set workshop features a class size of 10 students and lasts 5 hours (with a 1-hour lunch break). Talk about getting the 1:1 time you need! By the end of the course, you get to walk away with the two large plates, two bowls, and two mugs you made!
📍 67 West St., Brooklyn
8. All Level Workshops at Supermud Pottery, UWS
Supermud Pottery is another spot for the best pottery classes in NYC on the Upper West Side offering classes, craft goods, events, and more. They offer hand-building, wheel throwing, and glazing courses for both kids and adults. Parents and children can even take a class together here and bond over a common interest in a welcoming environment.
They also offer private one-on-one lessons and courses for more experienced artisans. Supermud Pottery is our pick as one of the best pottery classes in NYC for those in search of family-friendly entertainment.
📍 2744 Broadway
9. Pottery Classes at Earthworks NYC, UES
Earthworks NYC is a pottery studio on the Upper East Side offering a retail storefront as well as a space in the back for workshops, events, and classes. Their classes provide everything students need to know to craft a handmade plate or bowl from start to finish.
The lesson’s primary focus is learning how to use the potter’s wheel to shape, trim and finish pots. But they also offer workshops on hand building, as well. Classes meet once weekly for three hours over several weeks (the exact length varies based on the particular session). If you’d prefer to hone in on a particular approach or technique, they also offer one-off workshops that go more in-depth with a specific subject.
📍 1705 1st Ave.
10. Hand Building at Brickhouse Ceramic Art Center, LIC
Brickhouse Ceramic Art Center is a ceramics studio in Long Island City that offers wheel-throwing, hand-building, and glaze chemistry classes. The art center features a fully air-conditioned 4,000 square-foot studio with 12 potter’s wheels in the classroom and five cone art kilns.
Their popular hand-building course teaches beginners the fundamentals of the technique, including coil building, slab construction, pinching, and extrusion. Their classes feature ten students or fewer and meet for three hours at a time!
📍 10-34 44th Drive, Long Island City
11. Ceramic Workshop at Mud on My Hands, Greenpoint
Intro yourself to the world of pottery with this class that comes from a lovely Greenpoint ceramic school. You will learn basic hand-building techniques for making mugs, plates, planters, and more! All materials and firing are included in the class and you can pick up your creation a few weeks later too. The class runs 2.5 hours.
📍 855 Lorimer St., Brooklyn