We take advanced bookings only. Available classes can be booked on the courses page on our website, and if we’re fully booked join our mailing list for notification of when our next classes are available for booking.
If you can’t find any classes or workshops, then unfortunately we’re fully booked. However we do release our beginner courses every 6 weeks and our taster and throwing weekends 2-3 months in advance. You can join our mailing list for notification of release dates if we’re fully booked.
Pots are ready for collection 3-5 weeks after a course or workshop. We’ll email out when they’re ready to collect with times we’re in the workshop. If we take time to get around to our emails, then do feel free to get in touch with us after 5 weeks, as they’re likely ready. We have some people report not receiving our collection email, even though it’s been sent, so please make sure to set our email addresses (@7limes.co.uk) as a safe sender so it isn’t automatically filtered out as spam. We’re always in every Monday to Thursday 5-9pm for collection.
All our courses are designed for people who have never tried pottery before. They’re structured with expert guidance to give you the best chance at making pots for your skill level. We recommend trying our taster class first to try your hand at throwing and hand-building, which will give you the best perspective of what pottery making has to offer. Our 6 week courses teach all the basic skills in hand-building and throwing, and our throwing weekend will suit those interested in throwing only. You can see all our courses on offer on our pottery courses page.
We offer tasters for first timers, 18 weeks of beginner courses covering the basics of hand-building, throwing, turning, glazing, slip application, and an intensive 2 day throwing weekend for those looking to get into throwing pots. You can see all our courses on offer on our pottery courses page.
Our throwing weekend is for intermediates and beginners, and will be adjusted with demonstrations to suit your level. We have regular classes for those who have completed our beginner courses, so get in touch if you’re interested in these, and we run more advanced courses in throwing and specific making techniques within the studio. You can see all our courses on offer on our pottery courses page.
We’re open all year round with a break between Christmas and New Year.
The length of time it takes to learn pottery varies widely between people and depends on your goals, frequency of practice, complexity of skills you want to acquire, and any previous transferrable skills to making in arts and crafts. Many can make a decent bowl throwing for the first, second or third time with good tuition in a taster class; can make well made mugs, cups, planters, plates, and small sculptures in our 6 week beginner courses; and can really start developing their throwing skills in a 2-day throwing workshop. It takes around 3000 hours of active learning to be able to competently make pottery (around 2 years full time) and 10,000 hours (5 years full time) to master any craft. With good tuition and guidance you’ll learn at a far faster rate than without. Read more about how long it takes to learn pottery.
Our studio is too busy to offer a firing service.
Unfortunately we only teach adults 18 and over.
Yes you can 21 days prior to the course start, with a £5 admin fee. However, within 20 days of the time of a workshop there is a requirement that the place is first resold in order to issue a refund or transfer the place. The more notice the more chance it will resell, but do understand we can’t make any promises. Please see our full refund and cancellation T&Cs.
Normally you can’t transfer to another class or make it up another time. However, in our beginner courses we do allow a ‘pass it on’ system, where if someone cannot attend and let’s us know, we can offer that space to someone else who has missed a class. Then possibly a free space will come up in future for you too. This of course is not guaranteed and we’d give a 50/50 chance of it happening. If a place doesn’t come up you can always pay for a single class to finish any pots off, just get in touch.
We run 18 weeks of beginner courses, divided into 6 week blocks, so you can try them out without committing to the full course. Each 6 week block covers different hand-building and throwing techniques, which can be started at any 6 week interval, and all the courses include throwing tuition. We release our beginner courses for booking every 6 weeks, but they do book up fast, so sign up to our mailing list for notification of when classes are available for booking. In 2023 the beginner courses cost £130 per 6 week block.
We’ve hosted many corporate events, team building workshops, birthdays and hen do activities. Get in touch to discuss availability and arrange a date. You can read more about our team building and private pottery events here.
We require a good level of skill and a high level of independence to join our shared studio, such experience you would get from taking all our courses and workshops. If you’re applying from outside and think you have appropriate experience then you can apply by sending us images of your work and telling us about your experience level.