The building is very old and does not have handicap access.

There are 6 steps up to the front door of the building.

We are located on the third floor and down a long hallway. There are many stairs to get to us.

We have three elevators in the building which are old and manually operated (You need to pull open or lift up heavy doors to access.) and are not always operational, so you would need to take the stairs up and down. We have two freight elevators and are happy to help teach you how to operate them but they are not always working.

There are no handicap parking spots in this neighborhood or in front of the building, and sometimes you will need to park a block away on popular times.

Many of our students who have mobility issues have figured out ways to get to us with a little help. Call us or email if you want to talk more about accessing the studio.

We know that getting into a class has become as hard as getting a Taylor Swift Concert ticket! We have very low turnover—only about 35 new spots open up each session.

We recommend being on the classes page as soon as registration opens at 7:30am on each session’s pre-announced registration date. Aim to try for a class on Friday AM/PM, Saturday AM, or Monday AM first, as they are the most likely to have openings. Current students register before new student registration opens, so weeknight classes are almost always full before new student registration opens.

YES! Once you are enrolled at the studio as a student or Artist in Residence, you can sign up to work in the studio any time, day or night. We offer 24/7 access!

Studio membership, whether as a student or Artist in Residence is only for you. We do not offer guest passes, and will not be able to fire or glaze work made by someone else (sibling, cousin, child, grandchild, partner, etc.). You will be able to enjoy the studio for your own work only.

Yes. As long as you are a member of the studio (students or Artists In Residence), you are welcome to make in our space or your home studio. So long as you’re limiting yourself to only one large piece per session (over 13” in any direction) and stay under three bags per session, you can make til your heart’s content!

You cannot, however, make work outside of your enrollment time at the studio and then come back and have us fire it. (For instance, sign up for a session or month at the studio, take all your clay home at the end of your time at the studio, make like crazy for a month or two at home, and then sign back up and bring in piles of work.) We will not fire work made outside your enrollment time at the studio.

Yes, you will be able to purchase 25lbs of red or white stoneware from the studio for $35/per bag.

Yes, but there is a fee of $25 per bag that you buy outside the studio. This covers the glazing and firing costs that are built into the price of clay we sell at the studio.

Outside clay MUST be “cone 6” clay. This represents the temperature at which we fire our kilns. Online sources and pottery supply stores will tell you the cone rating of their clays. If you are not certain that your clay is cone 6, please do not bring it to the studio.

You will also need to make sure you keep your clay out of our red and white recycle bins. This is very important!

Yes. We have a lot of members and therefore are not built to handle lots of large work or large quantities of work from one person.

The general rule is that each student may make no more than one large piece (over 13” in any direction) per session. We also ask that you use no more than three bags of clay per session, whether you are buying from us or bringing from outside the studio.

If you know in advance that you’ll need clay, just text or email Kirsten or Elizabeth with your shelf number, red or white clay preference, and proof of payment, and we will leave clay on your shelf the next time we are in the studio.

Yes. You are welcome to buy and use any cone 5-6 glaze and try it out! (Though your teachers may ask you not to use certain glazes that we have learned run all over the kiln and make a mess!)

Make sure you confirm that your glazes are cone 5-6. Some glazes will say cone 05-06. Cone 05-06 is a MUCH lower firing temperature and will not go well. Wrong stuff! :)

We cannot store large buckets of glaze in the studio for you. Make sure you are buying bottles that fit on your shelf or plan to store large buckets at home.

The studio offers only black underglaze. You are welcome to buy any other colors for your personal use.

You can make up your missed class during any other class in the same session. You can even “pre” make-up a class if you know you’re going to be out later in the session. Make up classes do not carry over into the next session.

Contact your teacher and let them know what might work for your schedule and they will reach out to that teacher to make sure there is space for you.

You can take advantage of our flexible make-up policy, but unfortunately if you want to drop out of class, there are no refunds once we are one week (7 days) before a session has started. Almost all of our classes run full, so if you register for class, someone else has been turned away.

If you drop out of class more than a week (7 days) before the first class for any reason. (personal, medical, accident, schedule change, etc.), you will receive a full refund minus a $50 registration fee.

Think of it like university. If you have some kind of emergency or change of plans the school doesn’t refund you. Its up to you to make it to class.

You don’t! Our July/August summer session is a special session that doesn’t “count” toward your normal class enrollment. Our class schedule and teacher lineup changes slightly in the summer, so we don’t consider it part of our standard year.

Normally, if you are enrolled in a session, you get early registration to keep your spot in the next session, so for example, if you’re enrolled in March/April classes, you have first dibs on May/June classes. But summer doesn’t count toward this. Students enrolled in May/June session have first dibs on September/October session no matter what they do for the summer. You can take July/August off entirely, switch classes for the summer, or even be a temporary artist in residence for July/August (or just one) and still have first dibs at early registration for September/October.

Email Kirsten before registration opens to new students. We can see if there is any place to get you back into a class!

Parking for our studio is entirely on the street, so we have to follow the City of Lynn parking ban. If there is a ban, class will be canceled and rescheduled at a new time. If we need to cancel you will get an email with plenty of time to plan.

When you sign up for a class at TCS, you do so understanding that the pandemic is out of our control and we will not be giving refunds or postponing our classes. We will switch to online learning and continue to teach the highest level of ceramics education through our Clay School @Home Studio Program.

We do! Learn more and schedule an appointment here.