A clay studio rooted in community and exploration.
327 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, Ca.
Important Upcoming Dates:
Fall Session 1: Sept. 11 - Oct. 22, 2023 (current)
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Fall Session 2: Oct. 30 - Dec. 16, 2023 (w/ Thanksgiving Break)
FS2 Calendar Preview: By Fri, 10/6
FS2 Open Enrollment: Fri, 10/13 @ 10am
For more details about future events and classes,
please join our mailing list above and
follow us on instagram @wheelhouseclaysf!
A clay studio rooted in community and exploration in San Francisco. WOC artist founded and operated.
Wheelhouse Clay Studio is a collective of artists bounded by their knowledge and passion for ceramics. With years of experience, we want to share our skills to connect with the community and foster creativity in a safe space through clay, art, and dialogue.
Our community studio holds memberships, classes and workshops to help you get started on your clay journey or learn new skills and techniques to elevate your craft. We want to help you tell your visual story. We nurture true understanding of quality and vulnerable exploration to test clay's limits with respect. We hope that as you dive deeper into the craft, you learn new things about yourself and make friends along the way.
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Let's create together!
Classes, Workshops & Group Events
To be the first to know about classes and enrollments, sign-up for our newsletter or follow us on instagram: @wheelhouseclaysf. See you soon!
All classes suitable for ages 15 and up only. Must have proof of Covid-19 Vaccinations and ID.
NEXT 6-WEEK SESSION: FALL TWO - 10/30 to 12/16 (w/ Thanksgiving Break). Open Enrollment: Friday, 10/13 at 10am PST
Note: Due to Priority Enrollment given to current students, some classes may only have a few spots left or are already full before public open enrollment.
6-week course to get you started in the possibilities of clay!
Started Sep 11
495 US dollars
A 6-week course all about the throwing on the pottery wheel!
Started Sep 12
495 US dollarsA 6-week course all about the throwing on the pottery wheel!
Started Sep 12
495 US dollarsA 6-week course all about the throwing on the pottery wheel!
Started Sep 13
495 US dollars
A 6-week course continuing to create on the pottery wheel!
Started Sep 14
495 US dollars
6-week course to get you started in the possibilities of clay!
Started Sep 15
495 US dollarsA 6-week course all about creating on the pottery wheel!
Started Sep 16
495 US dollarsA 6-week course all about creating on the pottery wheel!
Started Sep 17
495 US dollars
2 hr one-time class for those who want to give the pottery wheel a go!
Starts Oct 28
120 US dollarsLoading availability...
2 hr one-time class for those who want to give the pottery wheel a go!
Starts Oct 29
120 US dollarsLoading availability...
Memberships
Current Membership Capacity: Full w/ Waitlist
In order to become a member, it is required for you to have taken two 6-week courses at Wheelhouse at minimum
and have two instructor referrals-- no exceptions to keep it fair. =)
This way, you will be familiar with our studio etiquette, functions and ways of sustaining our safe space. Members are expected to work fully independently and autonomously with respect and consideration of others and our shared resources.
Please be advised that our studio is NOT for production pottery. Our principles emphasize education, elevation of techniques, skills and honing artistic voices. We want members who want to join with the intention to learn not just about clay, but about each other and the community that makes our studio operate with effort, thoughtfulness and reciprocity.
We want to make sure we are the studio for you and vice versa, because when you grow, we grow with you in ways more than the craft. Wheelhouse Clay is not just a place of creativity and making, but also of vulnerability and unlearning.
We do not offer any firing and clay services, temporary memberships or studio drop-in passes at this time.
Alden Enriquez • she/her
Alden is a Filipina immigrant who moved to San Francisco at the age of eight. From her childhood, she learned to value the little treasures found in her surroundings for it brought joy at its purest form. Her culture taught her the importance of gratitude and community, which has made her into an empowered artist today. Alden's work reflects her eye for detail and belief in the power of the collective. She received her BA in Ceramics and Art History with honors at San Francisco State University. As the Founding Principal of Wheelhouse, she practices her art and values by nurturing the studio as a safe space through creative playfulness, mindfulness and sustainability.
Leslie Lopez • she/her
Leslie is a Mexican-American artist based in the San Francisco bay area. She takes inspiration from her heritage and the immigrant roots of her family to create work that involves explorations of the self. As a First-Generation Chicana, Leslie takes inspiration from both the joys and the struggles of her identity and reflects it in her work. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from California State University East Bay.
Alexis Reiko Yonan • she/her
Alexis Reiko is a San Francisco based interdisciplinary artist. She took her first ceramics class at City College of San Francisco and immediately fell in love with the medium and the warm community the Fort Mason campus provided. This experience inspired her to begin sharing her knowledge in other community based spaces and finish her degree in the arts at UC Berkeley. She incorporates her wheel throwing and sculpture skills to create ceramic pieces that explore themes around her mixed race Japanese heritage, identity, community and belonging.
Sophia Hernandez • she/her
Sophia Alexandra is an interdisciplinary artist currently working and living in the Bay Area. While taking her first ceramics class at Pasadena City College, she quickly fell in love with the medium and went on to pursue her undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley. The wheel thrown ceramic forms she makes are guided by simplicity and the intimacy of ritual which can be present in the person-object relation. The hand built ceramic projects are an opaque expression of emotion. As she continues to explore the inexhaustible possibilities of clay, she hopes to encourage others to explore in a state of play, through the sharing of knowledge and skills.
Meet the Instructors
Yukiko Watanabe • she/her
Yuki is a Bay Area-based ceramic artist with over 12yrs of pottery journey. Growing up in Japan, she has always been fascinated by the sense of genuine, natural, imperfect beauty that is situated in quietness and serenity. Working with clay gives puts her in a state of peace and “mu” ç„¡ (quiet emptiness), and she hopes you will sense that through her pottery. Yukiko recently launched Eat With Your Eyes Pottery and SF Made Pottery to combine her passion for pottery and the culinary arts. Her tableware designs are based on her imagination of the holistic dining experience and atmosphere.
Ryan McCullen • he/him
Ryan is originally from Maryland but has lived in the Bay Area for almost a decade. He has worked in the world of professional ceramics for almost a decade and a half, both in production and education. As such he is always excited to share knowledge and talk about even the most obscure ceramics techniques! When it comes to teaching, Ryan emphasizes practice and patience while trying out new skills and ideas. Ryan holds a B.F.A. in Ceramics and Printmaking from Frostburg State University.
Lily Wikoff • she/her
Lily first touched clay in highschool. From that moment on she was hooked. Her teacher used to write her passes during study hall and gave her freedom to explore and create, something she was so deeply thankful for. She couldn't get enough and decided to follow her passion and study art. She received her BFA in ceramics in 2005 and began teaching at her local art museum. Lily then continued her education post graduation learning from the masters and greats in Asheville NC. She is currently producing functional tableware and cookware and teach wheel-thrown ceramics at multiple studios in SF.
Kim McCabe • she/her
Kim grew up in Massachusetts and recently relocated to the Bay Area in 2021. As a life long science geek, she has focused her career on STEM education and school leadership. As adult, she found clay and discovered a path to creativity, connection, and community. She is fascinated by the complex chemistry of glazes and biological forms are a major inspiration for her functional designs. Her favorite part of teaching is allowing adults to rediscover their creative potential and reconnect to patience and presence through their interaction with clay.
Emma Logan • she/her
Emma is an artist and educator from Sonoma County. Organic mediums like clay, wool, and paper inspire her sculpture and installation work focused on geographic identity, land use, agriculture, and our varied and sometimes complicated relationships with food. And she’s just as comfortable behind the wheel, focusing on form and enjoying the companionship to be found in the clay community. Out of the studio, Emma is a naturalist and researcher with a passion for sustainable ecology and encouraging people to experience the world using all their senses. She received her BA in Ceramics from San Francisco State University, and her MFA from Mills College in Oakland, CA.
Say Hello!
Questions about enrollments and classes or just want to say hi? =)
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Follow our journey!
: @wheelhouseclaysf