Clay workshops for slow, embodied making
Umber Works is a space for grounded, unhurried making.
From longer, immersive courses to gentle family sessions and candlelit evenings, the rhythm of the studio is reflected in the way we gather.
Candlelit Evening Classes
Once a week, on Wednesday evenings, we host a rotation of our four signature, atmospheric tableware classes by candlelight, with a great playlist and gentle approach
Join us as the evening light shifts and the candles are lit for an extended, immersive dive into the intricate beauty of Nerikomi ––––– a focused, rhythmic exploration of colour, pattern, and precision.
We’ll start in golden hour and finish under candlelight.
This session is a deeper exploration than our standard classes, teaching you how to stack and slice clay to create visually complex, marbled slabs and then form these around our studio moulds to create a bowl, small tray, or plate, or an object of your choice. Perfect for those who want to slow down and learn a technical skill in a beautiful setting. No experience needed—just a love for pattern, precision, and attention.
Session Notes
We offer this workshop once a month, on a Wednesday evening (18.30–21.00)
You can opt to have your work glazed in our glossy transparent studio glaze or leave unglazed. Your work will be glazed (if opted for) and fired for you after the workshop, ready to collect around a month later.
Please find our booking policy here.
Our Candlelit Evening series is an invitation to slow, ground, and connect.
In our most-loved Bowls and Plates evening, you will choose and create one of two distinct forms, either a beautiful small bowl or sweet side plate using traditional, plaster drape moulds made in-house at our studio. This wonderful Oribe ware inspired workshop invites you to embrace shapes that are more organic, with a simple and accessible process.
Oribe ware is a distinctive style of Japanese pottery that originated in the early seventeeth century during the Momoyama period, known for its asymmetrical, freeform designs as much as its vibrant copper glazes, bold brushwork and playful motifs. At Umber Works, we admire Oribe ware for its celebration of imperfection and the earthy, organic qualities that align with our own approach to handmade ceramics.
Workshop Notes
We offer this workshop once a month, on Wednesday evenings (19.00–20.30)
For this workshop, you will use “Chalk” — a tactile, sanded white stoneware sourced exclusively from UK clays.
Pictured is the Chalk clay dipped in our transparent studio glaze and our Toast clay with a hand-applied white glaze, an example of what could be achieved in a glazing class.
Your work will be glazed in our transparent studio glaze as standard and fired for you after the workshop, ready to collect around a month later. Or you can opt to return for a glazing class should you wish to explore that element of the process.
Please find our booking policy here.
Our Candlelit Evening series is an invitation to slow, ground, and connect.
In this tactile, peaceful workshop, you will learn to create a beautiful coffee or tea cup for your morning rituals. Working by candlelight over an hour and a half, you’ll be gently walked through creating the vessel of your cup, as well as carving into the surface, or attaching handles, should you wish.
Workshop Notes
We offer this workshop once a month, on Wednesday evenings (19.00–20.30)
For this workshop, you will use either “Chalk” — a tactile, sanded white stoneware sourced exclusively from English clays, or “Terra” — a strong, sanded terracotta brown, also sourced from the English Midlands.
Your work will be glazed in our transparent studio glaze as standard and fired for you after the workshop, ready to collect around a month later. Or you can opt to return for a glazing class should you wish to explore that element of the process.
Please find our booking policy here.
Our Candlelit Evening series is an invitation to slow, ground, and connect.
Kurinuki — a meditative, sculptural, and unique process of creating functional ceramics — literally means “to hollow.” With this unique and deeply satisfying technique, you will only subtract — carving your piece from a solid block of clay whilst playfully working with the two opposing forces we all hold within us: creation and destruction.
In this hour and a half by candlelight, you will be guided through the process of creating a single, beautiful Japanese Yunomi – an informal tea cup or bowl – embracing a wabi-sabi approach to form and balance.
Workshop Notes
We offer this workshop once a month, on Wednesday evenings (19.00–20.30)
For this workshop, you will use our darker clay, Toast — a rich, earthy brown stoneware.
Your work will be glazed in our studio Milk white glaze as standard and fired for you after the workshop, ready to collect around a month later. Or you can opt to return for a glazing class should you wish to explore that element of the process.
Please find our booking policy here.
Immersive Courses
Join an accelerated throwing journey or relaxed handbuilding course. With dedicated tuition and ample 1-on-1 time, these classes offer a grounding ritual for slow making.
A slow, immersive journey into working at scale with clay. Our Slow Forms Clay Retreat series is a gentle invitation to step out of the everyday and into a quieter rhythm, centred around my own clay practice. Each retreat offers an extended session or day held in the studio — a space to slow down, work with your hands, and explore with intention and depth.
Slow Forms: Large-Scale Vessels, explores the art of large-scale handbuilding, using traditional techniques to shape contemporary vessels that are generous in size and presence.
Clay endures. Across centuries, it has carried water, grain, wine, and memory — shaping vessels that outlast the hands that made them. In this three-part series, Slow Forms: Large-Scale Vessels, we explore traditional, large-scale coiling techniques to shape contemporary vessels that are generous in size and presence, and which echo ancient and monumental forms.
Working at scale, we follow the rhythms of the clay, returning week by week as it strengthens and settles. There will be the option to explore traditional surface decorations in the final week.
Retreat Notes
This retreat is over three Saturdays (30 May, 6 June, 13 June)
Each retreat day together runs from 10AM until 2.30PM
Floral tea and light refreshments will be offered throughout the workshop
This retreat is for all-levels, including complete beginners
Space is highly limited to receive maximum guidance
All tools, materials and guidance will be provided and firing is included as well
You will leave having created a single, vast vessel in your choice of clay (terracotta, toasted stoneware or white stoneware) which will be yours to collect around 4–6 weeks later, after careful drying and firing
You can join a glazing workshop at a later date for this should you wish but we will explore gorgeous techniques during this series
You can find our booking policy here
We so look forward to welcoming you in for this very special workshop
A relaxed and intimate four-person throwing course at Umber Works — aimed at beginners but open to all levels.
Being one of just four people, you’ll receive careful and attuned adjustments on your technique within our very special studio setting meaning that whether you are just beginning or have already spent some time on the wheel, we’ll tailor the session to get you where you want to be with your throwing practice. Amongst the calm of our studio, you will always have your own, dedicated wheel and a quiet space to practice.
Course Dates
Monday Mornings, 10.00AM—12.00PM
13 April • 20 April • 27 April • 11 May • 18 May • Glazing: 1 June
This course has gap weeks to allow for your bank holiday Mondays
Monday Evenings, 6.45—8.45PM
13 April • 20 April • 27 April • 11 May • 18 May • Glazing: 1 June
This course has gap weeks to allow for your bank holiday Mondays
Tuesday Evenings, 6.45—8.45PM
26 May • 2 June • 9 June • 16 June • 23 June • Glazing: 30 June
For Beginners: How We’ll Work Together
(If you have some experience, each session will be tailored to your needs)
In Week 1, you will be shown how to weigh and prepare your clay for throwing, and carefully shown how to centre your clay, use throwing tools, and work towards creating simple cylindrical shapes.
In Weeks 2, 3 and 4, always with support and ample attention, you will continue to hone your throwing technique and perhaps work towards more complex shapes if you feel confident.
In Week 5, you will be back on the wheel for for turning, and you will learn how to turn (trim) the bases of your chosen pieces to refine the shape and add details such as foot rings.
In Week 6, you will spend this final session glazing your pieces in a beautiful selection of colours of your choosing, ready for their final firing.
Workshop Notes
Each session is two hours work – and we’ll leave time at the end to clean down your workstation and store work.
You’ll keep up to eight of your best pieces to be glazed and put forward for the final firing. Additional pieces can be glazed/fired for a nominal fee (to cover materials and firings costs). Your final pieces will be ready to collect within a month of your final glazing session.
Please bring an apron and old tea towel, and consider cutting your nails short for throwing sessions.
Please find our booking policy here.
A calm, beginner-friendly course in hand-building — where you’ll create your own set of beautiful, usable ceramics for everyday life.
This is a slower, more grounded way into clay. No wheel, no pressure — just your hands, a few simple techniques, and the quiet rhythm of making something piece by piece.
Over four weeks, you’ll learn pinch, coil and slab — three foundational methods that are surprisingly intuitive, and incredibly effective. Hand-building is one of the most accessible ways to begin with clay, and it allows you to create forms that are both expressive and reliably functional.
By the end of the course, you’ll have made your own small tableware set — pieces you’ll actually use, hold, and return to.
What you’ll make
We’ll guide you through creating a cohesive set, with space to adapt as you go. Most students complete:
– Two bowls
– Two plates
– Two cups
You’ll shape, refine and finish your pieces across the first three weeks, and in the final session you’ll glaze your work, ready for firing.
How it feels
Classes are small, relaxed, and gently led — more like being welcomed into a working studio than a formal lesson.
You don’t need any experience. We’ll guide you step by step, and there’s plenty of time and support to help you get pieces you’re genuinely proud of.
It’s a lovely course to come to on your own, or with a friend — a consistent, grounding moment in the week.
The details
Each session is 2.5 hours, with time at the end to tidy and settle your work.
You’ll keep up to six of your favourite pieces to be glazed and fired. Additional pieces can be finished for a small fee, though we gently encourage making with intention.
Your work will be ready to collect a couple of weeks after the course ends.
For those of you who feel comfortable with the fundamentals of throwing on the wheel, and would like to explore more considered shapes ––– we invite you to join Altered Forms. This is a natural next step to progress from a beginner's course or a series of recent throwing tasters where you're looking to really immerse in the process.
This relaxed, four-person evening course has been designed to offer you refine your throwing skills in a calm and supportive setting.
We ask you feel confident centring your clay and pulling a basic form. Beyond that, we will work with you at your level and you will receive gentle, hands-on guidance and adjustments to support your throwing practice.
With attentive guidance, you can spend more time developing key skills, throwing more complex shapes and larger weights of clay if that's something that you feel comfortable with and want to work towards, and then further explore, based on your interests: creating more complex forms and additions including vases, water vessels, spouts; adding handles for mugs, jugs and pitchers; carving for functionality (colanders, strainers, candle holders) and surface decoration (fluting, textures, additional of other clays); working with slips; and finishing and refining your work. Or if you are using this course to build a natural foundation for your beginner's course, then you are more than welcome to work within a range and with shapes that feel right for you.
To offer you maximum support, we will never have more than four in our throwing classes and you will always have your own, dedicated wheel and a quiet space to practice.
Course Dates
Tuesday Evenings, 6.45—8.45PM
14 April • 21 April • 28 April • 5 May • 12 May • Glazing: 19 May
Monday Evenings, 6.45—8.45PM
8 June • 15 June • 22 June • 29 June • 6 July • Glazing: 13 July
Included
This course includes the use of our house clays, either Toast or Chalk. Should you wish to work in other clays, they are available to purchase as an extra, subject to availability – please get in touch for pricing and we will gladly provide in advance.
Workshop Notes
Each session is two hours – but we’ll allow for ten minutes at the end to clean down your workstation.
This series is aimed at those with a little experience, however if it speaks to you and you are just starting out, we’ll support you to work at your level. Just get in touch if you have any questions.
Please bring an apron and old tea towel, and consider cutting your nails short for throwing sessions.
Please find our booking policy here.
Open Clay
Once a month we host our signature Open Clay workshop –– — a relaxed, playful hand-building hour, open to all. Our commitment to accessible, affordable workshops for all.
Once a month, on the second weekend, we run our signature Open Clay — a relaxed, playful hand-building sessions, open to all.
Children and Families Session: 9.45–10.45
Open clay is best for ages 3+ but if your younger one might enjoy the tactile experience or you have any questions, please get in touch.
Each families session will teach a different, seasonal theme such as imprinting clay with flowers, or making tiny animals however your child is always welcome to create absolutely anything they want.
Each person making something requires one ticket as ticket prices are based on materials, glazing and firing. If you would just like to watch your child/ren create, then of course please just book your child/ren’s space on this Families session. If you would like to make something as well, please book yourself a ticket too.
Each ticket includes the firing and glazing of one final favourite piece at the end of the session. We glaze all work created in Open Clay in a transparent glaze so their final piece will appear a warm brown. Work will be ready to collect around a month later.
Please find our booking policy here.
Once a month, on the second weekend, we run signature Open Clay — a relaxed, playful hand-building hour, open to all.
Open Clay is a relaxed, hand-building session to give you a sense of working with this tactile, therapeutic material.
Each session is themed so you can either follow along with us and learn to create a piece for your home or daily rituals (such as a little coffee cup, a candlestick, an incense holder) ––– or let the clay and your own imagination lead you. You will be taught a simple pinching technique and then free to explore through making.
Pinching is perfect for creating small holders for oil, salt or incense or a little cup although we encourage you to create without judgement or expectation.
Your ticket includes a set volume of clay to work with.
You are welcome to put forward a maximum of 2 pieces for glazing and firing.
Notes
Your ticket includes your clay plus glazing and firing for UP TO TWO pieces. We glaze all work created in Open Clay in a transparent glaze so your final piece will appear a warm, earthy brown. Your work will be ready to collect around a month later.
Please find our booking policy here.
Throwing Sessions
Intimate four-person throwing tasters and courses mean more time dedicated exclusively to you, with the hands-on 1–on–1 guidance you need to truly learn
For those of you who feel comfortable with the fundamentals of throwing on the wheel, and would like to explore more considered shapes ––– we invite you to join Altered Forms. This is a natural next step to progress from a beginner's course or a series of recent throwing tasters where you're looking to really immerse in the process.
This relaxed, four-person evening course has been designed to offer you refine your throwing skills in a calm and supportive setting.
We ask you feel confident centring your clay and pulling a basic form. Beyond that, we will work with you at your level and you will receive gentle, hands-on guidance and adjustments to support your throwing practice.
With attentive guidance, you can spend more time developing key skills, throwing more complex shapes and larger weights of clay if that's something that you feel comfortable with and want to work towards, and then further explore, based on your interests: creating more complex forms and additions including vases, water vessels, spouts; adding handles for mugs, jugs and pitchers; carving for functionality (colanders, strainers, candle holders) and surface decoration (fluting, textures, additional of other clays); working with slips; and finishing and refining your work. Or if you are using this course to build a natural foundation for your beginner's course, then you are more than welcome to work within a range and with shapes that feel right for you.
To offer you maximum support, we will never have more than four in our throwing classes and you will always have your own, dedicated wheel and a quiet space to practice.
Course Dates
Tuesday Evenings, 6.45—8.45PM
14 April • 21 April • 28 April • 5 May • 12 May • Glazing: 19 May
Monday Evenings, 6.45—8.45PM
8 June • 15 June • 22 June • 29 June • 6 July • Glazing: 13 July
Included
This course includes the use of our house clays, either Toast or Chalk. Should you wish to work in other clays, they are available to purchase as an extra, subject to availability – please get in touch for pricing and we will gladly provide in advance.
Workshop Notes
Each session is two hours – but we’ll allow for ten minutes at the end to clean down your workstation.
This series is aimed at those with a little experience, however if it speaks to you and you are just starting out, we’ll support you to work at your level. Just get in touch if you have any questions.
Please bring an apron and old tea towel, and consider cutting your nails short for throwing sessions.
Please find our booking policy here.
Our Throwing Tasters are relaxed and intimate introductory workshops – for those who have always wanted to see what it is like to throw at the wheel. They are aimed at and suitable for complete beginners, however if you have a little more experience, we’ll work with you at your level.
You will be one of four people in this class. To offer you maximum support, we will never have more than four in our throwing classes and you will always have your own, dedicated wheel and a quiet space to practice.
Each element is so important when you learn to throw, so we will work gently through each step including how to weigh and prepare your clay for throwing, how to centre your clay, use throwing tools, and work towards creating a simple cylindrical shape.
At the end of the session, you will choose your favourite piece to be glazed and fired for you in our transparent studio glaze, or opt to return for a glazing class. Additional pieces can be kept for a nominal fee, to cover the firing costs, but we encourage you to be mindful of our planet and only fire pieces you will truly love and keep.
Workshop Notes
Each session is two hours – but we’ll allow for ten minutes at the end to clean down your workstation.
Your final piece will be ready to collect around one month later.
Please bring an apron and old tea towel, and consider cutting your nails short for throwing sessions.
Please find our booking policy here.
A relaxed and intimate four-person throwing course at Umber Works — aimed at beginners but open to all levels.
Being one of just four people, you’ll receive careful and attuned adjustments on your technique within our very special studio setting meaning that whether you are just beginning or have already spent some time on the wheel, we’ll tailor the session to get you where you want to be with your throwing practice. Amongst the calm of our studio, you will always have your own, dedicated wheel and a quiet space to practice.
Course Dates
Monday Mornings, 10.00AM—12.00PM
13 April • 20 April • 27 April • 11 May • 18 May • Glazing: 1 June
This course has gap weeks to allow for your bank holiday Mondays
Monday Evenings, 6.45—8.45PM
13 April • 20 April • 27 April • 11 May • 18 May • Glazing: 1 June
This course has gap weeks to allow for your bank holiday Mondays
Tuesday Evenings, 6.45—8.45PM
26 May • 2 June • 9 June • 16 June • 23 June • Glazing: 30 June
For Beginners: How We’ll Work Together
(If you have some experience, each session will be tailored to your needs)
In Week 1, you will be shown how to weigh and prepare your clay for throwing, and carefully shown how to centre your clay, use throwing tools, and work towards creating simple cylindrical shapes.
In Weeks 2, 3 and 4, always with support and ample attention, you will continue to hone your throwing technique and perhaps work towards more complex shapes if you feel confident.
In Week 5, you will be back on the wheel for for turning, and you will learn how to turn (trim) the bases of your chosen pieces to refine the shape and add details such as foot rings.
In Week 6, you will spend this final session glazing your pieces in a beautiful selection of colours of your choosing, ready for their final firing.
Workshop Notes
Each session is two hours work – and we’ll leave time at the end to clean down your workstation and store work.
You’ll keep up to eight of your best pieces to be glazed and put forward for the final firing. Additional pieces can be glazed/fired for a nominal fee (to cover materials and firings costs). Your final pieces will be ready to collect within a month of your final glazing session.
Please bring an apron and old tea towel, and consider cutting your nails short for throwing sessions.
Please find our booking policy here.
Children’s and Family Pottery Sessions
Umber Works is family-owned studio (we have tiny ones of our own) so children are most welcome here. Join our seasonally-themed Open Clay workshops and out-of-term time sessions or celebrate birthdays with us.
For little ones who have always wanted to have a go on the wheel, we are opening up Throwing Class slots new for the Easter holidays and May half term.
Tickets are per child to come and play.
Any fired work will be charged at £5 per piece.
Class-groups will be small however please anticipate some rotation and turn taking around the wheels.
Due to the hands-on nature of teaching throwing (such as gentle hand adjustments) a parent or guardian’s presence is required for the duration. The studio is a gorgeous space to relax and we’ll make you comfortable.
If you would like your work fired (and we do encourage earth-conscious making and only firing what will truly be enjoyed) there will be an additional £5 per piece paid at the end of the session via card or exact cash. All unfired clay is recycled in house.
Photography by Chloe Krog
Explore, Play, Clay.
Sensory, sculptural, freestyle sessions during the School Holidays.
Tickets are £10pp to come and play
(Adults, you’re welcome to play too in which case please book yourself a slot, or simply watch)
If you would like your work fired (and we do encourage earth-conscious making and only firing what will truly be enjoyed) there will be an additional £5pp paid at the end of the session via card or exact cash
Photography by Chloe Krog
Once a month, on the second weekend, we run our signature Open Clay — a relaxed, playful hand-building sessions, open to all.
Children and Families Session: 9.45–10.45
Open clay is best for ages 3+ but if your younger one might enjoy the tactile experience or you have any questions, please get in touch.
Each families session will teach a different, seasonal theme such as imprinting clay with flowers, or making tiny animals however your child is always welcome to create absolutely anything they want.
Each person making something requires one ticket as ticket prices are based on materials, glazing and firing. If you would just like to watch your child/ren create, then of course please just book your child/ren’s space on this Families session. If you would like to make something as well, please book yourself a ticket too.
Each ticket includes the firing and glazing of one final favourite piece at the end of the session. We glaze all work created in Open Clay in a transparent glaze so their final piece will appear a warm brown. Work will be ready to collect around a month later.
Please find our booking policy here.
Gift Cards
All of our workshops – from candlelit evening classes, to throwing tasters, to longer dedicated courses – are designed around calm and mindful engagement in a beautiful, serene and intimate studio setting. Present someone you love with a gift voucher to one of our sessions.
Present someone you love with a gift voucher to one of our sessions.
All of our workshops – from candlelit evening classes, to throwing tasters, to longer dedicated courses – are designed around calm and mindful engagement in a beautiful, serene and intimate studio setting.
Valid for six months, our gift vouchers allow recipients to choose from a range of thoughtfully guided workshops, making them a meaningful present for anyone looking to spend time on themselves.
Notes
Vouchers are priced per person.
Vouchers are valid for workshops within six months from the date of purchase however we encourage the recipient to book early to ensure a place on their chosen workshop and to avoid disappointment.
Please note, to be mindful of the planet, our gift workshops are sent as digital voucher codes and not physical, plastic gift cards. On purchasing, please let us know the email address of the recipient and whether you’d like their gift voucher email delivered immediately or on a date in the future. We will then send/schedule their “You’ve been Gifted a Workshop” message which includes their redemption code. Please note that postponing the delivery date doesn’t extend the validity period, unfortunately.
Terms of Purchase
Please find our Gift Voucher Policy here and read through to ensure you agree before purchasing.
All gift vouchers are non-refundable without exception and expire automatically six months from the date of purchase.