Two minutes in the studio on a Tuesday
No music, no time-lapse. This is the actual pace of an evening session, which is slower than the internet suggests and is the reason people come back.
Everything except the apron
Twelve hours at a wheel
Six evenings, two hours each, one wheel per person. Never shared, never rotated.
All clay and all glaze
Use as much as you ruin. Nobody has ever been asked to be careful with the clay.
Two firings
Bisque and glaze, both included, both done here.
Six people maximum
Because that is how many wheels there are, not as a scarcity tactic.
Tools to borrow
A full kit at every station. Buy your own later if you carry on, and not before.
Whatever you keep
Fired, finished and yours. Most people leave with four or five pieces.
One
Two
The whole of it. Nobody throws anything worth keeping until the clay sits still, and pretending otherwise wastes a term.
Three
Cylinders, then bowls. You will make far more than you keep, which is the point and not a failure.
You go live
Everything you kept gets finished, fired and handed back. You leave with work, not photographs of work.
Taught by Ruth Aldis
Twenty-two years at the wheel and eleven teaching it. Ruth ran the ceramics evening class at Thornbury Adult Education until it closed in 2024; these sessions are what happened next. Six people at a time, because that is how many wheels there are and how many people one person can actually watch.
for the whole six weeks — clay, glaze and firings included
Six Tuesday evenings, 6.30 to 8.30.
No separate clay charge and no firing fee at the end.
Ruth is in the room for all twelve hours.
Half to hold the place, half in week one, no fee for splitting it.
Up to a week before the first session. Life happens.
Before you book
The things people ask on the phone
If yours is not here, ask. It is a small studio and Ruth answers her own email.
I have never touched clay. Is that a problem?
It is the expected starting point. The six weeks are built for people who have never centred anything.
What if I miss a week?
You can sit in on the same week of the next course at no charge, space permitting. It usually is.
Something you have stopped caring about, and short sleeves. Aprons are here. Clay does come out of most things, eventually.
Yes, and quite a lot of people do. Say so when you book and we will put you on adjacent wheels.
Four spaces behind the building, first come. The street is unrestricted after six.
Thornbury Sessions — a demonstration site built on BPS Lite.