That process mirrors the club’s swift rise from a small idea to one of the most sought-after creative communities on campus. 

The Brown Ceramics Club was first established as a student organization in Fall 2022, with modest membership. When junior Julia Gu joined the leadership team in Spring 2024, the club had about 50 sign-ups, she said. That fall, the club rebranded as Pottery@Brown, and interest skyrocketed: There are currently 1,850 students on Pottery@Brown’s mailing list, according to Gu, who now serves as the club’s president.

In her first year at Brown, Roxy Hazuka, who fell in love with clay as a high schooler, learned that there wasn’t a ceramics department or pottery studio on campus. Determined, she contacted RISD about the possibility of using their studios, only to learn that the space is reserved specifically for RISD students enrolled in the school’s ceramics program.

“I thought, ‘Well, I’m not even anywhere close to that,’” said the Brown senior, who is pursuing concentrations in environmental science and applied mathematics. “So when Pottery@Brown came about, I was thrilled. I hopped on that train right away.”

She wasn’t the only one.

To accommodate as many interested students as possible in their modest studio, they adopted a cohort structure: There are two cohorts per semester. In a typical week, the club hosts roughly a dozen two-hour studio sessions per cohort — each led by two Pottery@Brown studio aides — that can accommodate about six students. Gu estimates that 400 students, including studio aides and members of the club’s executive board, are able to participate in a cohort each year.

Clearly, Gu said, the club has generated more interest than it can accommodate. So they developed a process similar to a ticket lottery: Pottery@Brown sends out email reminders about sign-up “drops,” and takes in students on a first-come, first-served basis, she said.

“We try to be as fair as possible, but we understand it’s a competitive process,” said Zheng, who added that the club also hosts themed, one-off workshops throughout the academic year open to all students.

Between the raw material and specialized tools and equipment required to produce work, ceramics is  expensive compared to mediums like drawing or painting. A typical six-week class at a private studio can cost around $400, with additional fees for extra clay or certain glazes.

For many students, that cost makes pottery feel out of reach. But at Brown, participation is free.

In its first year, the club received generous funding from the Brown Arts Institute, which helped purchase throwing wheels and initial materials. It now relies on funding through the Undergraduate Finance Board — an elected, student-led board that manages the student activities funds — to sustain operations, buying hundreds of pounds of clay and paying for firing services at Artists’ Exchange in Cranston, Rhode Island, each semester. Still, students pay nothing.

For Tina Li, a senior studying applied mathematics and economics, joining a cohort offered a low-stakes outlet for creative expression.

“I always see TikTok videos of cute pottery projects, and I feel like it’s such a cool art form that anybody can try — but it’s a little inaccessible, because you need all the materials and stuff,” Li said. “I don’t necessarily get to be very artistic with my concentrations, so this is a really fun way to sort of explore that side of me.”

A new community, shaped by hand

Inside the studio, artistic exploration unfolds slowly, equal parts focus and feel. Students sit behind the pottery wheels, their feet carefully placed on the pedal to achieve the perfect speed and elbows braced against their knees as they guide dense, wet clay upward in deliberate motions. It’s a process that demands focus, but not urgency.

“At a rigorous school where academics can be somewhat all-consuming, it’s easy to feel like you need to be studying or working in a library all the time,” said Sasha Watson, a first-year student at Brown who has served as a studio aide since the fall. “So being in the studio and building in at least two hours a week to work with your hands and out of your head seemed really rewarding to me.”

That feeling is what many students said they love the most about working with clay.

“When you’re throwing something on the wheel, you’re stuck in the same position for a while and you have to put a lot of energy into maintaining that one position,” said Gu, who observed that other artistic practices she enjoys, like music, tend to “look ahead” and require more attention to what comes next. “But with ceramics, you only get one product out of it, and you have to focus on what’s directly in front of you. I think that’s what makes it quite meditative.”

With one person working on one wheel with one piece of clay, one may assume that ceramics can be isolating. But students said the reality is the exact opposite — it’s a deeply communal practice.

Students work alongside each other, asking for help or offering gentle guidance. They brainstorm. When a piece collapses or breaks, they grieve. When it comes out better than imagined, they celebrate.

“They’re very supportive,” Li said. “They welcome anyone from a complete beginner to people who are experienced ceramicists. They’re always willing to help out … and I think it’s just pretty admirable to see a student-run club like this, because before they made this club, pottery was not a thing on campus.”

That sentiment is particularly significant to Gu, who was raised in the Seattle area, surrounded by the tech industry.

“Growing up, ‘scalability’ was a concept that was always thrown at me,” she said. “Now, I’ve been able to apply that to leading Pottery@Brown, and it makes me really happy. I’m turning it into something that’s meaningful for me, and it’s really nice to build this community.”

Back in the studio, Li presses her thumbs into the center of a spinning mound of clay, shaping something that was once formless. Across the line of four wheels, others do the same. Each piece is different, but all borne out of the same clay.

Some will collapse or crack. Some will be fired, glazed and kept as heirlooms. And some will be recycled, ready to begin again.