Classes at Paper and Clay Make Pottery Accessible to Community
Students at a Wheel-Throwing Class
Photo Credit: Lesley Keegan
For the last 18 months, Paper and Clay has served the Melrose community as an artisan gift store and display space for local artists. Now, fans of their pottery can try their hands at making their own through owner Lesley Keegan’s pottery class offerings.
Keegan, who began her art career as a potter before opening Paper and Clay in 2022, offers two main types of pottery classes: hand-building, where pottery is shaped by hand, and wheel-throwing, where potters use a wheel to help them shape their work.
Class participants do not need any prior experience with pottery, Keegan emphasized. Even beginners will emerge from a hand-building class with a finished piece as long as they follow her directions. Wheel-throwing, she said, can take a few classes to master the technique, although beginners are likely to have more success creating a finished piece in their first class if they start with something small.
Students at a Hand-Building Class
Photo Credit: Lesley Keegan
With hand-building, Keegan pointed out, it’s easier to get creative in construction early on, while wheel-throwing requires artists to master the technique first, before being able to make something original. “You have to let go of your expectations,” Keegan said, when working with the pottery wheel.
All of the class offerings include materials and firing, so students can take home a finished piece once it has been fired in the kiln.
Students can sign up for a single class or multiple at a time, and Keegan offers pottery classes multiple times per week. She caps wheel classes at 3 students at a time, so she can offer more intensive, hands-on instruction.
See the pottety class options at Paper and Clay here or book a class here.
For more experienced potters, Keegan also offers clay-by-the-pound, which includes use of tools, wheel, studio space, and firing in the kiln.
Paper and Clay also hosts classes and programs offered by local artists and teachers who don’t have their own space. Keegan pointed out that this is one thing she had hoped Paper and Clay could offer to the community: providing other artists who don’t have a physical space with a way to connect with the community. These class offerings are as varied as Crafty Creatures classes for kids, sound baths and reiki, and house-buying classes.
While art class offerings are often focused on children, Melrose is fortunate to host Paper and Clay and Follow Your Art, both of which offer art classes for beginners and experts of all ages, making it easy to take up a new hobby and create beautiful objects at any age.
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