Hand Building Pottery Class | Olive Branch Pottery

May 11

Written By Nhi

We tried a hand building pottery class at Olive Branch Pottery located at 744 Shaw St, Toronto, ON M6G 3L8.

Olive Branch is a small pottery studio tucked away just off of Bloor St. a little east of Ossington Station. They offer 2.5 hour classes on Thursday evenings and Saturdays.

Laxci and I signed up for their Thursday class through their website and had two of our friends to come join us too!

When we first walked in we grabbed aprons and took a seat at a big table with other students. Each class hosts 10 people. We each got a board to work on and a big block of clay. Our instructor Darina gave us a short demo of two main techniques in hand building; how to pinch pot and make slabs. After that we had the freedom to make whatever we wanted. There were different moulds and wooden tools for us to use to roll and shape our clay. Darina was available if we had any questions but the class gave you the freedom to get creative with few prior instructions.

I used to take a ceramics course back in high school and really enjoyed it so it was very exciting to do pottery again. I asked Laxci to come along and this was her and our friends’ first time doing pottery. She thought we were going to paint pottery or use a wheel. She did not expect to be building and attaching everything by hand so she was quite surprised when she saw the slab of clay in front of her. lol.

We had lots of fun getting creative and making something from scratch. It was a great environment to quietly work on projects but also converse and connect with friends and other students while working.

Laxci and our friend Rachel came in not knowing what to make but using the different print rollers and moulds available they made some super cute pieces. Lacxi made some bowls with pretty patterns and textures. Rachel made a bear plate and a bowl with a cute cactus on the bottom!

Our friend Ben and I went in with a plan. I wanted to make a spoon rest that was shaped like a pan with a fried egg on it. It ended up growing in size and became a big plate with handles. Ben wanted to make a Bulbasaur planter and he really delivered! See all our end products below!

What is kind of different about this studio is that their pricing is split up as you attend classes and how many pieces you fire. Classes are $35 where you work on hand building or glazing your pieces. Then you pay $5 per piece to get them fired. When you come back to paint and overglaze your pieces, it would be an additional $35 class. You will need to fire your pieces again to complete them. During this class you are also free to create more pieces as well. All of which will follow the same firing fee. The whole experience follows a pay as you go process.

This was the first visit for us so we spent it building our pieces. Towards the end some of us had time to underglaze parts of our pieces. This could be applied when the clay is still wet to colour details, especially if the colour you want is not available as an overglaze. The last 15 mins of the class were dedicated to clean up. We paid our firing fees (cash, e-transfer, or through website) and placed our pieces aside to dry and be fired.

We will receive an email within 5 weeks from the studio when our pieces have been fired. Then we can book another class to glaze our pieces; giving them colour and making them food safe (the shiny part).

I really enjoy creating things and pottery is an activity I’ll always love. I recommend trying pottery even if you don’t know what to make. It’s a fun activity to get creative and you get to take home something you worked hard on making.

Stay tuned on an update for when we come back to glaze our pieces!