ViaClay — Local services in Oak Park

Three of us in my family just took the Saturday 90-minute ViaClay "One-Time Experience" and had an absolute blast!! My sister and I are total beginners, never stepped up to a potter's wheel before, and we learned so much! We each created two dishes/vessels under Sarah and Joe's helpful guidance.

My college-age Studio Art major kid has been wheel throwing for 8 years, and is very at ease with most aspects of making pottery, but also said they learned some new things today, too! They were given the time, space, materials, and guidance to create 3 amazing flower vases in 90 minutes. I can't wait to see them all glazed.

Bonus: Every station is set up, fully stocked, and ready to go AND we didn't have to clean up our stations afterwards, so all 90-minutes were used for instruction and creation! It was a great value for $80.

ViaClay has two sections: a pottery studio, where it looked like experienced artists were hard at work, and a beautiful, spacious, and super clean pottery classroom where 12 of us took class today.

We all wore masks and there was plenty of space to move around. Gorgeous high ceilings, loads of sunlight, nice cool air conditioning on this 90 degree summer day in Oak Park. Plenty of nearby parking, just $2.00 at the meter. The studio owner, Gabriel Tetrev, checked in on us as well. We had a wonderful experience and I definitely plan to enroll in ongoing classes. I have...

We celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary with a pottery and wine session at ViaClay, and it was the perfect choice! I had booked our spot well in advance, and we were warmly greeted by instructors Jack and Carmen, who were fantastic guides throughout.

Jack started with a quick but clear introduction on how to work with the clay. The pace was swift, but then he walked us through each step, making sure everyone got the hang of it. It was so engaging that we lost track of time, completely engrossed in the creative process. With their guidance, we managed to make three pieces each—more than we expected!

At the end, the trainers helped us glaze and paint our creations, adding a personal and artistic touch to each piece. Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and we’d love to come back to...

Such a fun class! A little stressful if you are a first timer as they teach very fast and there's only two instructors. My mom and I took a while to get the gist of the class and we felt a bit like burdens to the instructors. Otherwise, we loved their personalities and the location of this studio. Our suggestion would be to staff one instructor per pod of 4 students, because we needed guidance for most of the steps and having to stop the instructors to ask for help became stressful as if you were waiting at a restaurant for the host to acknowledge you. For the price, I would have preferred a more tailored one on one experience. We will take this class again, now we know...