Throw Clay LA: A Creative Community
Updated: Sep 23
USC Annenberg journalist Ko Mosley came to Throw Clay LA to photograph and write about what happens inside a working pottery studio: people learning to throw, experienced potters working independently, instructors sharing techniques, and a community that has developed around clay.
Throw Clay LA opened its doors in January 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses across Los Angeles to close and people to pull away from one another. The creative community that has grown since is the opposite: a place where people come together, learn something new, and build connections through making.
Inside Throw Clay LA
At its core, the studio is about access to clay and the process of learning how to work with it. One-time pottery experiences introduce people to the potter’s wheel and handbuilding, while six-week courses bring the same group of students together each week, giving them the time, consistency, and instruction needed to build real skills. For those who want to go further, studio membership gives experienced potters ongoing access to the studio and a community of makers working side by side.
But what defines the space isn’t just the classes or the equipment. It’s the people who return week after week, often alongside the same group, building familiarity, trust, and a shared rhythm in the studio.
In his article, Mosley captured that experience from an outside perspective. He describes Throw Clay LA as “a pillar of connection in the ceramics community,” shaped as much by the atmosphere as by the work being made.
That sense of connection shows up quickly. Conversations start over shared tools, questions about clay, or a piece on the wheel, and continue week to week as students see each other’s work evolve. What begins in class often becomes something more. Our six-week courses give people the chance to settle in, recognize familiar faces, and grow alongside one another.
As one member shared, “A place that feels safe and comfortable to explore our creativity... Having the clay here to discuss can start a conversation, and all of a sudden you make friends.”
Learning and Making Side by Side
The process itself is visible everywhere. Shelves hold work at different stages, from freshly formed pieces drying before their first firing to glazed work waiting to return to the kiln. At the wheels, potters center clay, pull walls and refine forms. At the worktables, other people build by hand, trim, attach handles, decorate surfaces or glaze their work.
Members work on their own projects and at their own pace, but they do it in a shared environment where questions, ideas and experience move naturally between people. Free weekly Member Clinics add another opportunity to learn, with demonstrations and discussions covering everything from throwing and handbuilding techniques to firing, glaze, studio equipment and the practical side of being a working potter.
It’s not about producing perfect pieces. It’s about learning how to work with the material, understanding form, and developing confidence through practice and experimentation.
For someone new to clay, the entry point can be simple. A one-time pottery experience provides a chance to try wheel throwing or handbuilding without committing to a longer course. Those who want to learn more can move into a six-week Build Skills course and, as their experience grows, continue into Refine & Explore courses. Experienced potters who are ready to work independently can become studio members.
Bailey stacking bisqued pots from the kiln. Two members wiring a hand thrown lamp base. A member attaching a handle to a mug before firing.
A Pottery Studio Built Around People
Pottery may be what brings people through the door, but spending time in a working studio changes the experience. You see how someone else solves a problem. You ask what glaze they used. You watch an instructor demonstrate a technique. You notice the progress in the work of someone who has been sitting a few wheels away from you for six weeks.
Those interactions are part of learning pottery, but they are also how a studio becomes a community.
That is what Mosley captured in his photographs and reporting: not simply people making ceramic objects, but people learning, experimenting and working alongside one another.
If you’re curious, you can read Ko Mosley's full feature article here: Throw Clay LA: Meet The Heart Of Downtown LA's Ceramics Scene.
About Throw Clay LA
Whether you’re curious to try pottery for the first time or ready to develop your skills, Throw Clay LA offers one-time pottery experiences, six-week Build Skills courses, and six-week Refine & Explore courses in wheel throwing and handbuilding at our studio in Downtown Los Angeles.
We also offer pottery workshops and private pottery events for groups, while studio memberships provide experienced potters with dedicated space and time to pursue their own work, along with access to studio equipment, glazes, firing services and free weekly Member Clinics.
