The Mudlark Pottery studio — a row of pottery wheels and stools facing tall mill windows, shelves of unfired pots along a whitewashed brick wall

Pottery classes · Mabgate, Leeds

Make something with your hands on a Tuesday night.

Eight wheels in an old mill off Mabgate. Six-week courses, two-hour tasters, and an open studio for anyone who catches it. No experience, no talent required — genuinely.

Book a taster · £48 See what's free
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The two-hour taster

You sit at a wheel, we show you how to centre a lump of clay, and you spend two hours making — realistically — two or three wonky bowls. One of them will be genuinely good and you won't know why.

£48 a person, everything included. We fire and glaze your best two pieces and you collect them about three weeks later, because that's how long clay takes and no amount of wanting changes it.

  • · Tuesday and Thursday evenings, 6.30–8.30
  • · Saturday mornings, 10–12
  • · Maximum eight people, so you actually get help
  • · Aprons provided, wear something you don't love
Book a taster
Clay-covered hands throwing a bowl on a spinning potter's wheel

Six-week courses

What's actually free right now

£285 for six weeks, two hours a week, all clay, glazes and firing included. We keep the sold-out ones on the list on purpose — so you can see how far ahead people book and plan accordingly.

Wheel throwing — beginners Tuesdays 6.30pm · from 8 Sept 2 places left
Wheel throwing — beginners Thursdays 6.30pm · from 10 Sept 6 places
Handbuilding — no wheel Saturdays 1pm · from 12 Sept 4 places
Wheel throwing — beginners Tuesdays 6.30pm · from 4 Aug Sold out
Throwing — improvers Wednesdays 7pm · from 5 Aug Sold out

Beginners' courses tend to go about five weeks ahead; the September ones usually fill in August. If everything you want is gone, say so on the form and we'll tell you when the next lot opens rather than putting you on a list you'll forget you joined.

Finished handmade stoneware mugs, bowls and a jug in celadon, speckled oatmeal and charcoal glazes on a wooden shelf

After the course

Open studio

Once you've done a six-week course you can join the open studio: £65 a month for as many sessions as you can get to, plus your own shelf and 10kg of clay a month.

It's quiet, there's a radio, and nobody minds if you spend an entire evening making one thing badly. Firing is charged by volume — usually a few pounds a load.

Open studio, monthly£65
Six-week course£285
Two-hour taster£48
Gift voucher, any of the abovesame price

Things people ask before booking

I'm not artistic at all.

Nor were most people here in week one. Throwing is a physical skill, not a talent — it's closer to learning to ride a bike than to drawing.

When do I get my pots?

About three weeks after you make them. They dry, get bisque fired, glazed, then fired again. We'll text you when they're ready.

What should I wear?

Something washable, short sleeves or sleeves you can push up, and take your rings off. Clay dust gets everywhere. Aprons are here.

Can I buy it as a present?

Yes, and it's the thing we sell most of in December. Vouchers last a year and the recipient books whenever suits them.

Book

Tell us which one.

Send this and we'll reply with a payment link and directions — the mill entrance is not where you'd expect. We answer within a day, usually the same evening.