Hands OnPottery

Hands On Pottery has taught ceramics from a unit at the Hartley Business Centre off Haydn Road in Sherwood, Nottingham, since Elaine Kirby founded the studio in 1990. Now run alongside her son, potter Chris Geeson, the school teaches wheel throwing, hand building and glazing through short courses, one-off workshops and longer-term open access sessions for people working on their own projects. The studio operates from this single unit, with its own kiln room, rather than as part of a wider chain of branches, and has taught several generations of Nottingham potters over more than three decades. Small class sizes and one-to-one tuition are central to how sessions are run, with tutors on hand throughout open access time rather than only at set class hours.