This page contains references for current students. If you are not a current student and you are interested in joining the studio please see the Classes page:
Welcome!
We are excited to have you join our community of makers! We hope you will find this studio to be a creative space with a group of people ready to support learning and sharing information. This page is meant to be a primer and reference to life in the studio. Please refer back to this information for reminders of studio policies and don’t hesitate to ask questions of your instructor and other students.
Your Enrollment
Enrollment is for eight consecutive weeks of class. The cost of an eight week session is $310 for 3 hour classes. If the studio is closed for holidays, weather, or other contingencies your session will be extended. See policy below regarding make-ups for missed classes.
Getting Started
Each student is assigned a shelf for personal storage. Your self can be customized as you like to fit your needs. Bricks and boards can be found in the cubby on the wall behind the wheels for making additional shelves. Your tools, pots in progress, and any supplies must fit on your shelf. It is helpful to the staff if you leave enough space on your shelf for your bisqueware and glazeware as it gets unloaded, if there is no space on your shelf your pots will be put on the unsigned/unclaimed/overflow shelf. Please check this shelf periodically for your pots as any items left more than 3 months will be discarded or donated to charity. We recommend that you keep a notebook or sketchbook of the items you make so you don’t forget something.
If you need tools we can sell you a set of basic tools at the studio, special tools must be obtained on your own. Feel free to use any of the community tools in the common storage. Students are responsible for their own towels. Towels are to be kept on your shelf. Dirty aprons, clothes, etc. are to be kept on your shelf as well.
Making Up A Class
COVID UPDATE: Please follow CDC and DC guidelines regarding quarantine after travel, after exposure, or illness Please contact your instructor should you need to stay home.
If you know you will miss a class please let your instructor know. If you miss a class you may attend any other class during the week as long as there is space. You are responsible for scheduling a make-up class; we recommend calling ahead to make sure there will be space for you. We prefer that make-ups are done within the 8 week session they are missed, however, we allow make-ups to be made within 1 year of the missed class as long you are continuously and currently enrolled student. If you are no longer enrolled as a current student, you may not attend a class for make-up.
Enrolled student can make-up a class in another class or during Open Studio. If you plan to attend another class ask the instructor of that class if there will be space during their class. During Open Studio Make-Up shifts are Saturday 1-4pm or 2-5pm, and Sunday 9am-12pm or 10am-1pm. When utilizing Open Studio time for a Make-Up please SIGN IN on the sheet.
Open Studio
Open Studio drop-in for currently enrolled students is Saturdays 1pm till 5pm and Sundays 9:00am to 1pm. If attending Open Studio for a make-up see Make-up policy above. If attending Open Studio for Extra Time, the cost is $10 per hour.
Open Studio time is intended for practice; a monitor will be present in the studio to answer studio questions, however, students are expected to work independently. We do not recommend coming to Open Studio to do something you have never done before, like glazing or trimming. The first time you advance to the next step of pottery making should be during class time when you instructor can fully teach you the method. Starting new work during Open Studio is allowed, however, keep in mind that everyone is expected to adhere to the production limit. Should kiln capacity become a problem the studio may impose additional restrictions on production.
Production limit
While everyone is encouraged to work to their own muse in their pottery making, we have limitations of space and kiln capacity. Eastern Market Pottery is a studio devoted to teaching and improving pottery skills, not creating a space for intensive production of pottery for sale. Production limits ensures that everyone equal access to kiln space and everyone’s pots fired in a timely manner, please respect your fellow potters and limit your weekly output to 6 pots of mixed size. An example of a medium pot is roughly a bowl that starts with 1.5 lbs of clay. If larger pots are made the total number should decrease. If you pots are small you may make more. Ask your instructor for guidance on what is reasonable.
6 pots per week means no more than 6 pots per person total between the greenware shelf and the glaze shelf for your class and Open Studio time.
Size considerations. Anything larger than 8 inches in height or 10” in diameter will take longer to get fired, this is because we load the kilns for even density and efficiency. See Firing Policy.
Is this just about the size of pots? No, we are also concerned about the number of pots. Please consider spending more time to create higher quality pots. Try making pots with handles, lids, spouts, or pots with curved or faceted surfaces. Consider recycling pots that are disappointing while they are greenware instead of spending time finishing pots that are not your best work.
Firing Policy
Pieces that measure more than 8 inches in diameter at their widest point or more than 8 inches in height as bisqueware will incur a firing fee of $10. Items that ate less than 2 inches tall and over 10 inches in diameter (i.e. plates) are al subject to the firing fee of $10. In addition, these larger pieces will take longer to fire to make kiln space as efficient as possible. Note that the studio does not have the ability to fire items larger than 13 inches wide at the greenware stage.
Please allow 2 weeks for bisque and 1 week for glaze kiln firing. We try to turn around firings in a timely manner but there are limitations on kiln space, staff time, and electricity to consider. For time sensitive items like gifts, student-sale, of other pottery urgency please try to plan your needs ahead of time. We will try to accommodate firing time requests as best we can.