Rikko M.
Yelp
Good Dirt LA is the perfect place for you if you're looking to get an introduction to pottery. My girlfriend booked an introductory pottery throwing class for me a month in advance... the wait was certainly worth it!
The studio itself is pretty small and easy to miss- it's located on the intersection of Short and Centinela. If you miss it, don't worry since there is plenty of street parking , as long as you don't book an evening class. If you do book an evening class, it'll probably take place during peak rush hour so you'll most likely need to utilize the small parking lot behind the studio. They share this lot with the other small businesses in the vicinity, so there are only 2 spots available.
The interior is much of what you would expect from a potter's studio. Most of the room is filled with pieces created by other students, which are nice to draw inspiration from. There are plenty of tools to use and as for the potter's wheels, it seems that there are only about 6 or 7 available at most. Due to the limited availability of the wheels, I advise to book a class as soon as you can as they do fill up fast.
As for our class, our instructor Jesse was very helpful and hands-on throughout the whole class. He began our session by describing the tools, types of clay, and how the potter's wheel works. It was followed by a brief, but in-depth demonstration in which he showed us the technique and form required to shape a block of clay.
As we started on our own pieces, I realized that shaping clay is much harder than it looks but fortunately Jesse was there to provide continual guidance. I absolutely destroyed my first two pieces, but there is plenty of clay to use. I really appreciated that although many of us made less-than-perfect pieces at the end, Jesse made an effort to make light of the situation and that it's OK to make happy mistakes. After an hour of shaping, I was finally able to pump out two ceramic pieces- a small sauce dish and a bowl!
At the end of the class, we were instructed to clean our stations and choose two out of all of the ceramic pieces we created. There are plenty of glazes but for the introductory class, you can only pick a maximum of two glazes from a selection of five, one for each your pieces. Unfortunately the class doesn't cover glazing and firing (the instructor does this at another time), so expect to come back to the studio in three to four weeks to pick up your finished pieces.
The only reason that I'm rating Good Dirt LA as four stars is because their online class reservation system is not at all that intuitive. When we attempted to schedule our class, we were told to email them after our purchase to "secure" our spots, even though there is a record of how many spots are reserved/open. This wasn't too obvious but by the time I realized it, someone else confirmed their spot before us and I had to reschedule our session a week later.
Overall, I had a great experience and I'm yearning for more! There was a lot to take in for just one class, so I'm hoping to book a 4-week consecutive class package. Hopefully this time I won't have any issues with the reservation.