Sunken Studio is a working pottery studio in South Bank, Leeds.

A place to learn, test ideas, and spend time with clay in a calm, shared environment. The studio supports different ways of working - whether you’re just beginning or building a longer-term practice.

“Amazing studio! I can’t get enough of coming back here. There’s such a great range of things to do - every visit feels fresh and relaxing. It’s so satisfying to walk away with something I created. The space is beautiful, calm, and welcoming, and the staff are always friendly and supportive. Highly recommend!” Glory M

Choose how you want to take part:

Half-day Workshops

Focused introductions to clay, with everything provided.

“I had an amazing time learning how to handbuild. The studio is so well set up and everyone was so welcoming. I would highly recommend this to anyone wanting to learn or improve their skills.” Leona KB

Short Courses

Build skills over time across throwing, hand-building, and surface.

“A gem of a studio! I did the 12-week Pottery for Beginners course and absolutely loved it. The space is beautiful, really well equipped and the tutors are brilliant at sharing their knowledge and encouraging you at every step.” Chloe H

Masterclasses & Progression

Specialist sessions, visiting makers, and shared learning.

“If you want to understand glazes in order to develop your own, I cannot recommend this course enough. The amount of detail was perfect and balanced perfectly with practical sessions to make the theory come alive. The course was small enough to offer you support when required but large enough to enable a good amount of colours and test tiles to be developed. Thank you Chris and the team at Sunken Studio for an enjoyable 4 days.” Yvonne T

Membership (Regular practice)

Ongoing access to a purpose-built studio for independent work.

“Wonderful community space. I’ve been a member here since January 2024 and have truly enjoyed every moment I’ve spent here. The facilities are excellent and the tuition first class. Can’t recommend giving a class or tester session a go highly enough! You’ll find yourself wanting to join our community in no time!” Phil A

Start with a workshop or get in touch.

Building Strong Foundations and Respecting Your Time

At Sunken, our courses begin with the fundamentals: how clay behaves, how forms are built, and how small, steady decisions shape what you make. You’ll spend time working with core forms - cylinders, bowls, straight-sided pots - as a way of building familiarity and confidence in your hands.

Across the programme, you’ll also encounter surface and glazing, so your understanding of the material develops as a whole. These foundations are about giving your work somewhere solid to rest.

When people are ready to move beyond structured courses, membership offers the time and space to follow their own questions. Members work at their own pace, with access to a well-resourced studio and steady support, where specialists are on hand as projects evolve.

Our teaching is intentionally simple and measured. A few clear limits create the conditions for focus. Each step builds on the last.

We’re mindful of people’s time. There are many ways to learn ceramics, but working in a shared studio with experienced tutors means you’re not left piecing things together alone. Questions are answered as they arise, problems are worked through in the room, and understanding grows through practice.

The studio itself plays a role in this. Located in the centre of Leeds, it’s a purpose-built, specialist space - organised, calm, and designed to support sustained making. Over time, it becomes a place to return to, where work deepens through familiarity and connection.

Together, the structure of the courses and the openness of membership create a steady path: foundations first, then the space to continue.

Who Joins Our Courses?

Many people arrive in a bit of a personal storm. A move to a new city. A stretch of grief. A moment where work, life or identity is shifting, and they need somewhere steady to land.

They don’t usually arrive with a fixed plan. They come with a sense that they want to spend their time differently - more slowly, more deliberately, with their hands involved in the work.

Clay suits that instinct. It asks for care and attention. It rewards steadiness. It has its own pace, and working with it gently reshapes how people move through their time. Building forms, managing fragility, returning week after week - all of it creates a kind of focus that many people find they’ve been missing.

The people who join our courses are often looking for something tangible. They enjoy problem-solving, making things for themselves, and learning through doing. For many, the studio becomes a counterweight to work that is fast, digital and admin-heavy - a place where effort is visible, time feels contained, and small decisions matter.

In the studio, you’ll find adults who value calm and the chance to ask questions as they go. The atmosphere is organised, spacious and welcoming, with everything in place to support sustained making. Located just outside the city centre, and easy to reach by public transport, it becomes a place people return to - not to escape life, but to meet it with a little more steadiness.

Studio Environment

Our studio is a dedicated, adult-only ceramics space in central Leeds - a place many people arrive at when they’re looking for something steadier to step into.

It’s specialist-led, calm and supportive of sustained making. The space is open and uncluttered, with room to work, think and move without feeling rushed. Everything is arranged to make the work feel manageable, even when the rest of the week doesn’t.

Sessions are for adults aged 18+, and you’ll often be working alongside experienced studio members, which adds to the attentive, settled atmosphere in the room. Over time, the studio becomes a place people recognise - somewhere familiar to return to, where work deepens through practice and presence.

Tools and Equipment

The studio is set up to support focused, independent making, with the tools and equipment you need close at hand.

Wheels: Each participant on wheel-based courses works on their own wheel for the duration of the course. This gives you a consistent place to return to each week and keeps the rhythm of learning steady. Wheels are only shared when a project genuinely calls for it.

Handbuilding equipment: The studio is equipped for a wide range of handbuilding approaches, including a slab roller, large workbenches, whirlers, rolling mats and pins, texture tools, and a wall-mounted lever extruder with dies for coils, handles and formed lengths. There’s also a selection of bisque, plaster and wooden moulds for press, drape, hump, slump and drop-form work - giving you time and space to explore different ways of building form.

Small tools: All essential tools are provided during your course.

Kilns: Electric kilns on site are used for firing work, with all firings managed by the studio team as part of the course structure.

Storage & clay management: Work-in-progress is supported by damp storage bays, poly boxes and reusable storage crates, with clay management handled as part of your place on the course - so you can focus on the making rather than the logistics.

Wedging bench: A heavy concrete wedging bench, set lower than the main workbenches, provides a comfortable, stable place to practise wedging - one of the first skills people begin to settle into as they build their relationship with the material.