Make your own mugs, cups and pitchers in this beginner pottery workshop in Sonoma, one of the more practical crafty team building activities for groups from around the Bay Area. Using a slab-building method, your group rolls, shapes and sculpts clay into handmade kitchenware you will actually use.
The private workshop runs two hours and is priced at $100 per guest for groups of 10 to 20 guests. It is perfect for beginners. An expert potter known for her textures shows you how to use fun tools to press designs and patterns into the clay, so your pieces are functional and beautiful too.
What's Included
- Two hours of slab-building instruction from an expert potter
- A tour of the kilns
- All the clay and tools you need
- Firin
Make your own mugs, cups and pitchers in this beginner pottery workshop in Sonoma, one of the more practical crafty team building activities for groups from around the Bay Area. Using a slab-building method, your group rolls, shapes and sculpts clay into handmade kitchenware you will actually use.
The private workshop runs two hours and is priced at $100 per guest for groups of 10 to 20 guests. It is perfect for beginners. An expert potter known for her textures shows you how to use fun tools to press designs and patterns into the clay, so your pieces are functional and beautiful too.
What's Included
- Two hours of slab-building instruction from an expert potter
- A tour of the kilns
- All the clay and tools you need
- Firing of your mugs, cups and pitchers
- Shipping your finished pieces back to you
What You Will Make
- Mugs built from rolled slabs of clay
- Cups with textures and patterns of your own design
- Pitchers shaped and sculpted by hand
Why It Works for Groups
Slab building is approachable from the first minute: there is no wheel to master, so everyone starts making right away. The texture tools invite play, and guests quickly start trading ideas and patterns across the table. That kind of easy, shared making is what creative team building activities should feel like.
With private groups of 10 to 20 guests, it fits a department outing or a larger set of friends, and still works well among team building activities for small groups at the lower end. It suits a team day, a birthday or a bachelorette party, and among christmas team activities, a set of handmade mugs that arrives later by mail is a gift that keeps on giving.
Your potter brings a love of texture to every class, so expect to experiment with fun tools to create amazing designs and patterns that make each container shine. Because the method is slab building rather than the wheel, guests can focus on design and form, and the finished set of mugs, cups and pitchers reflects each person's own style once it comes back from the kiln.
About Your Host
Your class takes place at a nonprofit arts and community hub that has been bringing people together since its founding in 1952. For more than six decades it has worked to inspire creative expression in the Valley of the Moon, and it cares for a grand, historic building that now holds ceramics studios, art rooms, a kitchen, a dance studio and a hidden outdoor garden.
The center offers a broad range of classes for people of all ages and abilities, from ceramics and painting to fiber arts, culinary arts and printmaking, and it hosts community events through the year. Its team and group program pairs your group with one of its teaching artists in a private studio space, and the staff help you shape the experience around your group, your time frame and your goals.
Booking a group experience follows three simple steps. First, you reach out to discuss your group size, interests and ideal date, and the team helps you choose the right creative activity. Next, you tailor the workshop to your needs, select your time frame and finalize the details. Finally, your group enjoys a private, guided workshop in a dedicated studio space, with a teaching artist making sure everyone has a memorable, hands-on experience. All ages and skill levels are welcome.
There is a large amount of on-site parking, plus EV charging spots, which makes it easy for a team to arrive together from anywhere in the North Bay.
How the Workshop Runs
- Arrive at the pottery studio and tour the kilns
- Learn how to roll even slabs of clay
- Press designs and patterns into the clay with texture tools
- Shape and join your slabs into mugs, cups and pitchers
- Leave your pieces to be fired and shipped back to you
Good to Know
- The workshop is beginner-friendly; no pottery experience is needed
- Wear clothes you don't mind getting messy in
- Clay and tools are provided
- Pieces are fired after the workshop and arrive later by mail
Plan Your Pottery Workshop
Share your preferred date and group size to check availability. At $100 per guest, with clay, tools, firing and shipping included, it is a welcoming, soothing place for a team or a group of friends to learn a new skill and make wonderful memories together.
