Nine out of ten people who book a first class pick the wheel. I understand why: it's the image we all have of pottery, the one from films, from those videos where clay turns into a bowl under two steady hands. What those videos leave out is the minutes before and after.
So here's the comparison between the two techniques, the one I wish I'd read before my own first class.
Wheel-throwing
You sit at a wheel that spins. The clay is wet, slippery, and it pushes back. The first step is called centering: you have to bring the lump to the exact middle of the wheel head, and until it's there, nothing else can happen.
It's physical. You push with your arms, not your fingers, and you use the weight of your upper body. This step has nothing to do with artistic sense and everything to do with a precise movement your hands have never made before.
Once it's centered, you open the lump, then pull the walls up. That's when the gesture becomes satisfying, almost hypnotic. It's also when a piece can collapse in a second because you pressed a little too hard.
What you get: round, even, symmetrical shapes. Bowls, mugs, small vases.
What's frustrating: centering, on day one. You will fail at it. Everyone does!
What hooks people is the moment it works. The feeling is hard to describe. That's why they come back.
Handbuilding, up close
No machine. You work by hand, at a table, with slabs of clay, coils, and a few simple tools.
You build the piece section by section: cutting, joining, smoothing the seams. It's slower, closer to model-making, and far more forgiving. A mistake can almost always be fixed. A piece doesn't collapse because you breathed too hard.
Handbuilding also leaves more room for decoration: textures, imprints, cut-outs, shapes that aren't round. What you get: free forms. Plates, trays, containers, decorative objects.
It's less spectacular, but you almost always leave with something close to what you pictured.
The most common misconception
A lot of people believe wheel-throwing is « real pottery » and handbuilding is the simplified version for those who can't manage the wheel.
That's wrong, and it's actually backwards: people built by hand for thousands of years before the wheel was invented. These are two distinct techniques, each with its own constraints and possibilities. Plenty of professional ceramic artists never touch a wheel in their entire career.
Personally, I love throwing. And I still keep handbuilt pieces in my own collection, to vary the movements, the tools, the postures, and the feel of clay at different consistencies.
So which one?
Choose wheel-throwing if that's precisely the experience you want, if failing doesn't bother you, and if you like the idea of a skill you tame over several sessions. And yes, you have to be fine with getting messy!
Choose handbuilding if you want to leave with an object that looks like you from the very first time, if you already have specific shapes in mind, or if you're coming with someone who might get frustrated by a demanding technique.
Choose both if you really can't decide. They're completely different experiences, and plenty of people end up preferring the one they didn't pick first.
How it works here
Both of our introductory classes run 2.5 hours and cost $75 each.
The introduction to wheel-throwing runs Saturday mornings at 10:30. You leave with one piece, which we fire and glaze afterwards.
The introduction to handbuilding follows in the afternoon at 2:30. You make two pieces.
Both run in small groups, which means I can spend real time with each person. At the wheel that's essential: the correction often happens with my hands over yours, if you're comfortable with that.
And if it sticks, there's a next step
A 4- or 6-week session lets you come back, start over, and see the difference between your first class and your last. That's where progress becomes visible. You take your pieces from start to finish!
All the formats, dates and remaining spots are on our pottery classes in Montreal page.
Marie