Lucas Harper Gives Wheel Throwing a Go at Seven Limes
I’ve been to a million paint & sips and butchered my fair share of air drying clay trying to create something that resembles a pot, but I’ve never quite felt proud of my creations. I’m always left craving more from these types of creative experiences. Despite this, for unknown reasons, I’ve never booked on to a wheel throwing class - perhaps out of fear of being bad or not knowing enough. Luckily, I discovered Seven Limes.
Seven Limes Pottery is Manchester's oldest pottery teaching studio and originally started in a West Didsbury garage by the current owner's mum Wendy. Sam, Wendy's son, is now keeping the studio alive in Ardwick near Mayfield Park, less than a 15-minute walk from Piccadilly Station - and yes, there’s free street parking, too.
Seven Limes has a few different routes you can take to get a taste of pottery. Whether you want to attend a fun, one-off workshop and have the hard work (the prep) done for you, or you want to get stuck in and learn the foundations of wheel throwing. I opted to give the fundamentals of wheel throwing a go.
The two-hour long workshop started with a rundown of the process of wheel throwing and learning why certain techniques such as ‘wedging’ and ‘centring’ are important. These steps knock out the air bubbles in the clay and align the particles, making it more malleable, preventing cracking and making the clay stronger. It was really interesting learning about these steps that I would typically overlook. Then, my fantastic teacher Jo ran through the process of creating a bowl, explaining each step with reasons why and helpful tips; my elbows are still glued to my knees. If you know, you know. And if you don’t know, book a class and you’ll find out.
Before long, it was time to tackle the wheel by myself. I started strong with a tapas bowl, keeping the base wide and the bowl walls low. Jo then centred the next ball of clay and I created more of, what I'd call, a ‘bowl'. After picking up skills learnt from the two I'd created, I moved on to the third.
I’d done it. I’d created THE perfect set of three stacking bowls. I was ready to make the career change and pitch my vision to John Lewis. But of course, like all budding potters who get carried away with themselves, I'd gotten too confident and ruined it at the last minute. Whilst trimming the base (literally the final step of creating a bowl), I slashed the bowl, completely ruining the shape. I think I wasn’t holding the trimming tool firmly enough, or maybe I was going too fast.
I wanted to recycle the clay, which they have a heavy focus on and teach all students to do – which is cool. It’s nice when businesses care about waste. Anyway, Jo encouraged me to keep the bowl and helped give it a chance at life. I’ll be back to glaze the bowls; We’re hoping a nice glaze might hide some of the imperfections – what do you think?
Fancy giving it a go yourself? You can find Workshops Here:
Make A Mug workshop (two and a half hours) £40
Saturday 23 May 2026 at 10am
Wheel throwing taster session (two hours) £63
Sunday 10 May 2026 at 9.30am, 12.30pm and 3pm
Saturday 16 May 2026 at 10am, 1pm and 3.30pm
Sunday 24 May 2026 at 10.30am
Seven Limes Pottery, 85 North Western Street, Manchester M12 6DY
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