A first-timer's guide to the wheel

Duration: 2 hours
Class size: 8 people max
Included: clay, tools, glazes, firing
Pickup: about 10 days later

Your first session at Fern Hollow is two hours, and by the end of it you will have made at least one bowl with your name on the bottom. Here is how the evening flows, so you can spend it making things instead of wondering what happens next.

We start with wedging: kneading the air out of a fresh ball of clay. Then comes centering, the skill everything else depends on, and the one that feels impossible for about twenty minutes and then suddenly does not. Your teacher stays within arm's reach for the whole first hour.

What you will make

Most first-timers finish two pieces: a small bowl and a cup or planter of their own design. Both go to our kiln the same week, and you pick a glaze color before you leave. Finished pieces are ready for pickup in about ten days.