Welcome Made With Clay Studio Member!

We are delighted you are joining us at Made With Clay Studio at the beginning of what we hope will be a nurturing creative journey together! Below is some key information about the building and your first visit to us. Please read this carefully and let us know if you have any further questions: 

Location/Arrival

Made With Clay Studio is based at Vasanta Hall, Gernon Walk, in Letchworth. We are a two-minute walk from the town centre and a ten-minute walk from Letchworth train station. On arrival you will be greeted by your tutor.

Parking

Vasanta Hall is on a residential street which backs onto a walkway. This means that there are only two allocated parking spaces and these are reserved for staff. However, there is plenty of parking in Letchworth town centre and on the roads around Gernon Walk.

Health and Safety

Please bring your own apron, washing up bowl and cloth to wash up any shared equipment at their table. If you have your own tools, feel free to bring them. Otherwise, you will be able to use our beginner’s tools until you have your own.

There are specific health and safety guidelines for working with clay and we will discuss these during workshop sessions but keeping the studio clean is one of the most difficult but important tasks we do. We take it very seriously for the protection of your health.

Beginners/experienced

Those of you who are just starting out with ceramics will be taken through all the different methods of making and the different materials you can use to finish and decorate your work (slips, glazes etc.). You will be then encouraged to plan and design your own projects and will be supported throughout that process. You are expected to bring a sketchbook to your sessions to record ideas, processes and materials. These are available to buy at the studios along with basic tools. 

We welcome complete beginners and have enough experience to take you through to setting up your own workshop if this is something you would like to do.

It is important that everyone arrive and leave on time but if you do miss a session, we make every effort to allow catching up at another session within the same month. Our volunteer Exchanges Kate deals with that via a WhatsApp group that you can ask to be added to.

Payment

The cost of the 3-hour weekly workshop is £150 per calendar month which is going up to £160 in October 2024. This works out at just over £12 an hour accounting for 4-5 sessions per month (2-3 sessions for the alternate Saturday 6-hour workshops). Costs include tutorship, some equipment and materials and firings up to 20 litres a month. 

Please note that these are membership prices. The cost of a bespoke one off workshop is around £20 an hour per person.

Please make a payment of £160 in advance of your first workshop session and set up a standing order each month on the date you began. If you wish to terminate this arrangement, please give us one months notice. If this is financially difficult for you, please discuss this with Debbie and she will make other arrangements if need be.

WhatsApp groups

We have a news group which everyone is added to. This is kept for essential communication.

The swaps group is run by our volunteer Kate who tries exceptionally hard to accommodate students who cannot attend their normal class and would like to attend another class instead.

The glaze chat group is run by students. You can join it by clicking the link found in the ‘about’ section on the news chat.

There is also a makers/ sellers chat as we have recently been setting up a twice yearly sale of students work.