The school where
making is the
curriculum.
A converted warehouse where hands sink into wet clay at 7 AM and bronze pours at midnight. No prerequisites. No portfolio required. Just show up willing to fail.
students enrolled last year
across ceramics, sculpture & casting
arrived with zero prior experience
desk jobs, boardrooms, spare bedrooms
gallery exhibitions from alumni work
in the past three years alone
median career-change timeline
from first class to studio practice
Scroll to begin your journey
The Call —
the moment before everything changed.
Every student remembers the exact instant they decided to stop sketching in meeting margins and start making something real.
"I'd been drawing spirals for forty minutes straight."
Marguerite Holloway
Former financial analyst
"I was sitting in a quarterly review when I realized I'd been drawing spirals on my notepad for forty minutes straight. That was the moment. I enrolled in Kiln's evening ceramics class three weeks later and never looked back."
Marguerite Holloway
Former financial analyst
Portland, OR · Ceramics
"The school teaches you to be curious, not careful."
David Osei-Mensah
Retired civil engineer
"Sixty-three years old and I'd never once touched clay. My daughter signed me up as a birthday gift. Within six months I had a solo show at a gallery downtown. The school doesn't teach you to be careful — it teaches you to be curious."
David Osei-Mensah
Retired civil engineer
Atlanta, GA · Sculpture
"Working with metal reset everything I knew about making."
Priya Chandrasekaran
Graphic designer expanding her practice
"I came to Kiln to learn bronze casting for a commission I'd already accepted. I stayed for two years. There's something about working with metal that reset everything I thought I knew about making things."
Priya Chandrasekaran
Graphic designer expanding her practice
Chicago, IL · Bronze Casting
Tap any card to read the full story
The Threshold —
choose your material, begin.
Every course is a door. Behind each one is a different relationship with matter, time, and your own hands.
Hand-Building Foundations
Pinch, coil, and slab construction. No wheel, no rush — just your hands and a block of earthenware.
- ✓Understand clay bodies & firing
- ✓Build 6 finished pieces
- ✓Glaze and kiln fire independently
Wheel Throwing I
Learn to center, open, and pull walls. Expect lopsided bowls. Expect to love them anyway.
- ✓Center consistently
- ✓Throw cylinders & bowls
- ✓Trim and foot work
Plaster Mold Making
The invisible craft behind production ceramics. Learn one-piece and two-piece molds for slip casting.
- ✓Design for moldability
- ✓Pour and demold cleanly
- ✓Produce multiples
Wax Modeling for Lost Wax
Carve and model wax originals that will become bronze. Where sculpture begins before it begins.
- ✓Model in hard & soft wax
- ✓Sprue and gate systems
- ✓Investment casting prep
Bronze Casting Intensive
The midnight course. Molten bronze at 1,850°F poured under your direct supervision. Not for the timid.
- ✓Operate the foundry safely
- ✓Full lost-wax cast
- ✓Chasing and patination
Raku & Alternative Firing
Pull white-hot pots from the kiln with tongs and watch the smoke decide the surface. Surrender is the technique.
- ✓Raku glaze chemistry
- ✓Reduction & post-firing
- ✓Pit and saggar firing
The crack.
The rebuild.
"I spent three months on a piece that cracked in the bisque fire. I sat on the studio floor and cried. Then I swept it up, studied every fracture line, and built the next version from what I'd learned. That crack became the reason my second piece sold."
Marguerite Holloway
Ceramics · Year 1 → Gallery show, Year 2
The Return —
what they made of it.
340 gallery exhibitions. Residencies, commissions, studio practices. These are the people who were sitting at desks three years ago.
David Osei-Mensah
Class of 2023
Solo exhibition at Flux Gallery
Twelve bronze figures exploring memory and migration. Sold out on opening night.
Priya Chandrasekaran
Class of 2024
Commissioned public installation
A 14-foot bronze tree for the Chicago Riverwalk. Unveiled March 2025.
Tobias Wrenfield
Class of 2022
Studio practice + wholesale
Left accounting in 2021. Now runs a 2,000 sq ft studio producing functional ware for 40+ restaurants.
Amara Diallo
Class of 2023
Residency at Haystack
Selected for a six-week residency at Haystack Mountain School. Currently teaching ceramics to incarcerated youth.
Reserve your seat.
The studio is waiting.
Open studio days, weekend tasters, and semester enrollment — pick the date that fits your life.
March 2026
Reserve Your Seat
Three fields. That's all we need. You can ask every question in person.
Free Download
Download the Course Map
A PDF that sequences every class from beginner hand-building to advanced bronze casting — so you can see exactly how the journey unfolds before committing to a seat.