Working with clay and ceramics is a fantastic creative hobby for anyone who enjoys working with their hands. It is a natural material that has been used for thousands of years to make all sorts of objects, from bowls and plates to vases and jewellery. It’s also brilliant for creating sculptures and works of art. The craft of ceramics therefore has a long and varied tradition, and at Studio Pansa you can learn all about it.

Through your hands, you have a direct connection with the material you use to create objects which, if well looked after, can last for centuries. You can eat and drink from them, and use them in all sorts of other ways. Who knows, you might even make something that will be found and cherished by someone else hundreds of years from now! That’s just how durable and beautiful ceramics can be.

These terms are all related, but have slightly different meanings. Studio Pansa offers all these activities, but for the sake of clarity, we’ll explain them briefly.

By ‘clay work’ we mean working with clay, our basic material. Clay is extracted from the ground and is a natural material. There are many types of clay depending on where it comes from, each with different properties in terms of colour, fineness, elasticity and so on. Clay contains water, which makes it pliable and malleable. This allows you to shape it on the potter’s wheel, using hand-building techniques, by casting it, or by modelling or sculpting it.

If you then allow the clay to dry and fire it at a high temperature, well above 1,000 degrees Celsius, the particles in the clay fuse together to form ‘ceramics’ – a very hard and durable material that can be used for many different purposes. Types of ceramics include earthenware, stoneware, terracotta and porcelain. Which of these you end up with depends on the clay you’ve used and how hot you’ve fired it – or ‘fired’, as it’s called.

Pottery is a specific form and tradition of working with clay, the aim of which is to make a pot or other item of tableware. This is mainly done on a potter’s wheel, as it allows you to create beautiful rounded shapes, but it can also be done by hand. At Studio Pansa, you can learn both techniques, from the very beginning right through to the finished product.

Clay is a versatile and flexible material that requires attention and patience, which provides a good counterbalance to the largely hurried digital work that many of us do these days. What’s more, you can’t use a smartphone with clay on your hands, so it’s a good opportunity to ‘switch off’ for a while. Studio Pansa’s motto, “Dirty Hands, Clear Mind”, refers to this.

Many people who work at Studio Pansa also find that they can forget about everything else the moment they get their hands into the clay. Without any distractions, they can concentrate fully on their project. What’s more, when working on the potter’s wheel, you’ll find that you have to keep your full attention on the task at hand. If you don’t, your pot won’t stay centered and will be flung off the wheel! So the clay forces you to stay in the here and now – the very essence of mindfulness.

It is difficult to compare the various studios in Amsterdam, but many of the newer studios got their start at Studio Pansa. Pansa was founded in 2018 based on the shared studio model, and was one of the first open-access pottery workshops in the Netherlands. This led to a boom in studios in the years that followed. The founders and tutors of many smaller studios honed their skills at Studio Pansa. If you have taken a beginners’ course at another studio, Pansa is a good place to continue practicing and working independently, or to take an advanced course.

Studio Pansa is the most comprehensive starting point for anyone wishing to work with ceramics. Since 2018, it has been the largest shared ceramics studio in Amsterdam, offering the most space and the greatest number of workstations. You can become a member for the lowest price in Amsterdam, with no waiting list. Pansa also runs multiple courses and workshops every day, so you’ll always find something to learn about the world of ceramics, pottery and clay.