Pottery Workshops in Los Angeles at Throw Clay LA
Updated: Sep 23
Six-week pottery courses provide time to build skills through instruction and practice, but pottery workshops in Los Angeles offer another way to explore something different, from a focused afternoon to an intensive weekend.
That's where workshops come in.
Our workshop schedule changes throughout the year. Rather than offering the same workshops repeatedly, we look for subjects and instructors that can add something different to the pottery education already happening at the studio. We also invite students and members to tell us what they would like to learn through the workshop interest form on our Workshops page. That input helps us identify subjects for future workshops and understand when there is enough interest to schedule one.
What Is a Pottery Workshop?
A pottery workshop is different from a regular pottery course. Instead of meeting every week for six weeks and progressing through a curriculum, a workshop concentrates on a particular subject over a shorter period of time.
That might mean spending an afternoon exploring a handbuilding technique, examining a particular ceramic tradition, learning a different approach to surface design or watching an experienced potter demonstrate techniques developed over decades of work.
The format depends on the subject. Some workshops are hands-on, while others rely more heavily on demonstration and discussion. Some are appropriate for beginners, while more advanced workshops may require previous experience with clay.
Because each workshop is different, we specify the experience level, materials, schedule and format when registration opens.
Learning from Visiting Potters
One of the things workshops allow us to do is bring artists with distinctive bodies of work into the Throw Clay LA community.
In August 2025, we welcomed nationally recognized studio potter Danny Meisinger of Spinning Earth Pottery to Throw Clay LA for a three-day workshop, Form, Flow & Function.
Danny had spent more than 30 years working at the potter's wheel, developing his work from functional pottery to the large-scale sectional vessels for which he became known. His workshop gave students an opportunity not simply to see the finished work, but to watch how those forms were created and hear Danny discuss the decisions behind them.
Danny Meisinger: Learning by Doing
Danny's own introduction to pottery began almost accidentally. A scheduling conflict in high school in Gardner, Kansas, landed him in a ceramics class. He continued studying ceramics, eventually attending the University of Kansas before leaving school to build his own studio. By 1989, he was working as a full-time potter.
The early years required constant practice. Danny has described being able to throw a three-foot-tall pot while still struggling to pull a dependable handle on a mug. He built a two-chamber wood kiln, sold work at art fairs and continued learning through the daily process of making.
Over time, his work evolved from rows of functional mugs to large-scale sectional pieces. He refined his forms, experimented with atmospheric firing and Cone 6 oxidation, and continued developing the relationship between form, surface and function.
Danny finishing a large vessel. A beautifully glazed vase. Danny trimming a large pot in the studio.
That evolution was one of the reasons we wanted him teaching at Throw Clay LA. Workshops give students access not only to a technique, but to the accumulated experience behind it. Watching how an experienced potter approaches clay, solves problems and makes decisions can change the way you think about your own work.
Workshops Can Explore More Than Technique
Pottery encompasses an enormous range of traditions, materials, firing methods, forms and approaches to making. A six-week course can only explore a fraction of them.
Workshops give us room to go further.
A workshop might focus on a particular handbuilding form, surface treatment or wheel-throwing technique. It might introduce a ceramic tradition with a long cultural history or explore an approach associated with a particular artist. It can also provide experienced potters with an opportunity to concentrate intensively on something outside their normal studio practice.
That variety is intentional. Our regular courses are where students build and refine fundamental pottery skills. Workshops allow us to expand on them.
Who Can Take a Pottery Workshop at Throw Clay LA?
It depends on the workshop.
Some Throw Clay LA workshops are open to anyone interested in the subject, including people with relatively little pottery experience. Others are intended for potters who already understand basic wheel throwing or handbuilding and are ready to explore a more specialized technique.
We don't expect every workshop to appeal to every potter. In fact, that's part of their purpose. A focused workshop can go more deeply into a subject precisely because it doesn't have to cover everything.
Each workshop listing explains who it is designed for and whether previous pottery experience is recommended or required.
Finding Upcoming Pottery Workshops in Los Angeles
Our workshop schedule changes as new instructors, techniques and ideas come into the studio. When a workshop is scheduled, we post the dates, instructor, experience level and registration information on our Workshops page.
Have an idea for a workshop you'd like to see at Throw Clay LA? Our Workshops page also includes an interest form where you can tell us what you'd like to learn. We use that feedback to help plan future workshops.
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.
