What a Pottery Studio Website Needs

What the site is actually for

A pottery studio sells several different things to several different people, and most of them arrive with a single question.

A beginner wants to know whether the next wheel class has room. A potter who has finished a course wants open studio time. Someone who makes pots at home without a kiln wants to know what firing costs.

Add the parent booking a birthday party, the office planning a team evening and the partner buying a gift certificate in a hurry, and the website has six jobs.

Most studio sites do one of them well, usually the gallery, and leave the rest to email.

Who the site is talking to

• Beginners looking for a first class with room in it.
• Returning students ready for the next level or open studio.
• Members checking studio hours, kiln schedules and rules.
• Outside potters who need firing and want a price.
• Party and event bookers wanting a date and a cost per person.
• Gift buyers who need a certificate today.

The last group is the one most studios underserve. A gift certificate that can be bought and printed at eleven at night gets bought; one that needs an email and a reply often does not.

A class calendar that shows spaces left

The most useful thing on a studio site is a calendar of classes that says how many places remain.

Wheel classes are limited by the number of wheels, so they fill. A beginner who sees two spaces left books now; one who sees only a date emails, waits and may book elsewhere.

Each class listing should give every session date, the time, the level, the price and what it includes.

When a class is full, say so and offer a waiting list rather than removing it. A full class is information too: it tells people to book the next one earlier.

Prices for clay, firing and membership

Pottery has more small charges than most activities, and unexplained ones cause friction at the counter.

Say whether a course includes clay, glazes and firing, or whether clay is bought by the bag. Say how firing is charged, by piece, shelf or volume, with a typical mug as the example.

For outside potters, state which clays and temperatures your kilns fire. Many studios fire only clay they sell, because the wrong clay can melt onto a kiln shelf, and that reason is worth a sentence.

Memberships need the same plainness: monthly cost, hours included, shelf space, clay rules and any minimum commitment.

What beginners should wear and expect

A first-time student has small, practical worries that stop them booking.

Tell them to wear clothes that can get muddy, keep nails short, tie back long hair and leave rings at home. Say whether aprons and tools are provided.

Then explain the part that surprises everyone: the pots do not go home that night.

Work has to dry, be fired, be glazed and be fired again. A sentence saying when finished pieces will be ready to collect prevents a great many disappointed phone calls.

Studio policies on one page

Every studio has rules that get explained one student at a time. Put them on one page and link to it from every booking.

Cover missed classes and make-ups, refunds and transfers, and minimum ages for children's classes.

Then the rules particular to clay: cleaning wheels and floors, which glazes are safe for pieces used with food, and how long finished work waits on the shelves before it is cleared.

That last one saves arguments, since a student told in writing how long work is kept has little ground to complain when it is gone.

A worked example

A pottery studio in a converted storefront runs beginner wheel courses, a hand-building class and members' open studio in the evenings.

Its schedule lived in a monthly PDF linked from the home page. Every week the owner answered the same emails at night: is there room on Tuesday, what do I wear, when can I collect my bowls.

The rebuild gave each course its own page with dates, price, what is included and a count of spaces that went down as people booked. Full courses stayed visible with a waiting list.

A beginner page covered clothes, nails, hair and the time from wheel to collection, with a photograph of a shelf of first pieces waiting for glaze.

The evening emails did not stop. They changed, from questions the website could have answered to questions only the owner could.

Gift certificates and parties

Gift certificates should be sold online and delivered by email or as a printable page, with the value or class named and the terms stated plainly.

With Valentine's Day ten days away, a date-night wheel class sold as a gift is worth a line on the home page now, not on the thirteenth.

Parties and team events need a page of their own: group sizes, what people make, how long it takes, the price per person, the deposit, and when the pieces can be collected.

Show the work students make

The gallery most studios have shows the instructors' best pieces. It is the right place for those, and the wrong picture for a nervous beginner.

Photographs of first-course bowls, a little lopsided and glazed by people plainly proud of them, show what beginners really make. Ask students' permission and photograph the shelf of finished work at the end of each course.

The counter-case

A very small studio with four wheels may run so few classes that a booking system is more than it needs. A simple list with spaces left, kept current every week, does most of the job.

A studio that mainly sells its own pottery rather than classes needs a shop first and a schedule second. And a studio that fills every class from a waiting list should start with the policies page and gift certificates.

For most, the order holds: a calendar with spaces left, plain prices, and the answers a beginner needs before the first class.

What to build first

1. Build the class calendar with spaces left.
2. Publish the prices for clay, firing and membership.
3. Write the beginner page on clothes and collection.
4. Gather the policies onto one linked page.
5. Sell gift certificates that can be bought tonight.
6. Add a party page with prices per person.
7. Photograph student work, with permission.

Step one changes the most. A calendar showing how many places are left answers a beginner's first question and lets them commit while they are still keen.

The same approach for a club with a winter season is in what a curling club website needs.

Frequently asked questions

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