Members will be slightly different, these memberships will be offering a sort of open access… in other words whenever you want…bearing in mind that if have special classes or master classes are going on then access will be limited. Memberships will probably allow access for say twenty hours a month… you will still have to book…because we need to make sure everyone will have the appropriate space they need to do whatever work they are doing.

 

One very important element will be storage of members work so we are thinking maybe your own dedicated locker or drawer where only you have access to your stuff. These memberships will mean that your cost per hour to pot about will be at the cheapest rate. You will not get dedicated teachers… indeed much of the time you will be working on your own on your own projects. Maybe… and I mean maybe we may even be able to convert some of our other space to small dedicated personal studio space.

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For obvious reasons to have members come and go when the studio is entirely unsupervised by our own in-house technicians or our teachers will mean a great deal of respect trust and responsibility… so unsupervised memberships will happen but they will take time to evolve. Because we are situated on an industrial unit the place is heaving from 8am until 5pm Monday to Friday then its pretty much dead… so weekend availably and parking could be kool.

 

My forward ideas [This is Stephen Hamilton talking!]  would be to find over the next year or so some super enthusiastic young potters who are actually starting to consider whether they could make a living or a part living from pottery. If I found some folks like that then we could strike a deal where you get free access to the whole studio in return for some responsibilities and help with things generally… I am not talking about cleaning stuff up... I hope that we can end up creating a really vibrant potting community… yes lots of hobbyists and entertainment and experience days, but actually I would like to see the whole pottery industry transformed to the point it is possible to consider potting as a proper career….for that we would have to change everything including the way us brits regards handmade potting… let me finish with this interesting bit of info for you.

 

Twenty years ago in Japan more than 80% of Japanese people ate every day and used hand made tableware. The percentage sadly in Japan is going down. Here in the UK there are no facts or stats but I would be surprised if it is even 1%. Part of my mission here at klayskool is to change all that. But that’s another story for another day. As I write this blurb we are 48 hours away from making our this web site live and after 18 months of planning and purchasing and building we finally open on November 3rd 2025. If you have read down this far then I can only assume you are an enthusiast… so if you are and the whole process excites you then give me, Stephen Hamilton an email through this web site and maybe we can chat.

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Also very interests to talk to any potters who would like to work here and mayve helop teach here.

 

Love to all Stephen Hamilton

Founder of Klay Skool and proprietor of:

Hamanita Handmade pottery