# How to Structure a Beginner Pottery Class: An 8-Week Curriculum Cluster: For Studio Owners URL: https://claybook.studio/blog/beginner-pottery-class-curriculum/ # How to Structure a Beginner Pottery Class: An 8-Week Curriculum A beginner pottery class fails when week one is a wheel tour and week eight is still "try a mug." Adults need a ladder. They also need to know what done looks like. This 8-week curriculum is built for a weekly 2.5 to 3 hour adult class with 6 to 10 students. It assumes a shared studio, one clay body, and a bisque after week 6 or 7. Adjust hours, not the order. Students who want the public version of the ladder can follow [Your First 10 Pottery Projects](/blog/first-10-pottery-projects-roadmap/). This article is for the person writing the syllabus. ## Rules that keep the series teachable * One clay body for the whole class * Weigh every ball. Put a scale on the table, not in a cupboard * Demo once, then get hands in clay within 15 minutes * Recycle failed work without drama. The lesson is the rep * Homework is short and specific. "Practice at home" is not a plan Use the [clay weight estimator](/guides/clay-weight-estimator.html) when you set target grams for mugs and bowls. ## Week 1: The studio and a pinch pot **Teach:** studio map, wet cleanup, clay stages in one pass, wedging enough to be honest. **Make:** a 250 g pinch pot with even walls and a stable sit. **Success check:** the pot sits, walls are not see-through, floor is not a puddle. Demo [Your First Pinch Pot](/learn/your-first-pinch-pot/). If you want the written steps for students, send [How to Make a Pinch Pot](/blog/how-to-make-a-pinch-pot/). **Homework:** name the stages (plastic, leather hard, bone dry) out loud. Optional: [Studio Etiquette & Cleanup](/learn/studio-etiquette-cleanup/). ## Week 2: Coils or a second pinch, plus joining **Teach:** score and slip. Matching moisture. Why handles and coils pop off. **Make:** a coil cup or two pinch pots joined into a hollow form. **Success check:** joins are scored, slipped, and blended, not mashed. This week saves you later handle tears. Do not skip it because wheels are more exciting. ## Week 3: Meet the wheel, stop at center **Teach:** posture, sticking clay down, coning, what centered actually feels like. **Make:** nothing you keep. Center 200 g until the mound goes quiet. Open only if there is time. **Success check:** three quiet mounds in a row, even if they are ugly. Point students at [How to Center Clay](/blog/how-to-center-clay/) and [Center 200 g](/practice/center-200-g/). Centering is the skill that makes people want to quit. Isolate it. ## Week 4: A short cylinder **Teach:** opening, compressing the floor, first pulls, rim care, water as lubricant not soup. **Make:** a short cylinder from about 200 g. Cut one in half as a group so thickness is visible. **Success check:** walls you could drink from if you had to, floor compressed. [Throw a Short Cylinder](/practice/throw-a-short-cylinder-200-g/) is the drill. [How to Throw a Consistent Cylinder](/blog/throw-consistent-cylinder/) is the reading. ## Week 5: A bowl that is not a doorstop **Teach:** how a bowl differs from a cylinder, curve, leaving clay for a foot. **Make:** a small bowl from 300 g. **Success check:** you can lift it without thinking it is a brick. Floor is planned, not accidental. Use [How to Throw a Pottery Bowl](/blog/throw-pottery-bowl/) as the student link. ## Week 6: Leather hard, trimming, and drying **Teach:** reading leather hard, basic foot ring, slow drying. **Make:** trim last week's bowl or cylinder. Set work to dry under loose plastic. **Success check:** a loop tool cuts a ribbon. The foot sits. [How to Trim a Foot Ring](/blog/how-to-trim-a-foot-ring/) and [Pottery Clay Stages](/blog/pottery-clay-stages/) belong in the class email this week. Cracks will show up if drying is rushed. Send [Why Pottery Cracks](/blog/why-pottery-cracks/) to the people who uncover everything overnight. ## Week 7: A mug body **Teach:** rim comfort, wall thickness for a hot drink, leaving clay for a handle later. **Make:** one or two 350 g mug bodies. No handle yet unless the group is ahead. **Success check:** a lip you would put in your mouth. Matching height is a bonus, not the grade. [Throw a Mug Body 350 g](/practice/throw-a-mug-body-350-g/) and [How to Throw a Mug on the Wheel](/blog/throw-mug-on-the-wheel/). ## Week 8: Handle, review, glaze talk **Teach:** pulled or coiled handle, placement, wrapping so the join dries with the body. Preview bisque and glaze without dumping a full glaze course into the last hour. **Make:** attach one handle well. **Success check:** score, slip, blend, tent. The handle does not droop off the table. If the series includes a glaze week later, use [Pottery Glazing for Beginners](/blog/pottery-glazing-for-beginners/) as the handoff, not a 40-minute lecture on every bucket. ## What to email after each class Three lines beat a newsletter: 1. What we made 2. One success check 3. One homework link (a lesson or a 15-minute drill) Students forget the demo by Thursday. A link they can reopen on the couch is how week 4 cylinders stop looking like week 1 lumps. If you do not want to build that library yourself, Claybook already has the lessons and practice drills in this order. Partner studios give members Pro with a QR flyer, at no cost. Details are on [Claybook for studios](/studios/). ## Mixed-ability and make-up weeks Someone will miss week 3. Do not rebuild the whole class around them. * Keep a "center and a short cylinder" catch-up bay * Pair them with a student who just succeeded, not only with you * Let them skip the bowl and rejoin at mugs if they can center The curriculum is a ladder. Missing a rung is fine. Pretending the rung was optional is how handles happen on pots that still wobble. ## After the series Offer a membership or a "next 8 weeks" that starts at cylinders, not at pinch pots. Graduates who repeat beginner week 1 get bored and leave. Onboarding for those members is a different job. Use [How to Onboard New Pottery Studio Members](/blog/pottery-studio-member-onboarding/). A class is successful when students can name what to practice next without asking you to invent it on the spot. Write the ladder once. Then teach.