Hutong Hunter: Get Your Hands Dirty Learning Practical Art at Yipiantian Pottery Studio

Take a deep dive into the places, people, shindigs and more to be found in the hutongs of Dongcheng, Xicheng and Qianmen with the Hutong Hunter.

Not far from Beixinqiao Exit B, down a side street along the right-hand side of Beixinqiao Santiao, lies a quaint little studio outside which quietly sits vases and pots of all shapes and sizes.

Head inside and you’ll be greeted by more ceramic artworks, from teapots and teacups to bowls and even more vases of all shapes, colors, and sizes. All of these cover shelves and tables, with one wall in particular dedicated to shards of broken pottery, arranged by color and size to make a sort of massive installation.

And, sitting at a potter’s wheel working away at a new piece, you’ll find Lulu.

The studio she runs, Yipiantian, has been Lulu’s pottery-making space for the past five years, and she recently opened the space to people interested in learning the art of pottery.

This is the reason I’m here today, and she gets to work explaining the class. I’ve signed up for a single lesson, just to give the art a try.

I take a seat next to the potter’s wheel and Lulu sets to work, explaining, with a ball of wet clay set upon the spinning table, how to mold a bowl into shape.

“First, find the center with your thumb, then work it in, going down.” I’m mesmerized, watching as she molds the shape of a bowl, her hands expanding, her right hand pinching the side of the bowl and moving up to thin the sides. Then it’s my turn.

I sit down at the wheel and dip my fingertips in a bowl of water nearby, then set to work, adjusting the speed of the wheel as I shape the mass of clay into something more bowl-like.

For this class, which lasts an hour, students have the first half-hour to practice molding any shapes they want on the potter’s wheel, while the last half hour is spent doing everything from scratch. At just RMB 198 for the class – plus the opportunity to take home a piece of your own making – it’s a good deal.

After practicing a while, it’s onto the real deal. I wash my hands and set to work, with guidance from Lulu on shaping everything by hand. It’s a good way of practicing mindfulness: focusing completely on what I’m doing so as not to let it fall to smithereens, more or less.

But, real talk, it’s not as easy as it looks. Finding the center is hard with clay building up on my hands, but it’s fun getting one's hands dirty a bit, so I keep trying, able to start over if a mistake is made without judgment.

Before I know it, I’ve got a bowl big enough to hold a bit of rice with some meat piled atop – the perfect use for a bowl at home.

I pick a glaze, black with bits of gold, and it’ll be fired and ready in ten days, I’m told. Not too shabby.

The one-hour course is the perfect way to dip your toes into pottery making. Plus, Lulu tells me it's a great option for groups and couples – a good way to learn a new skill together, or perhaps to try reenacting that one scene from Ghost.

If you're looking to go all in and learn a bit more about pottery, there are other course options as well. These include the Interest Course (10 classes for RMB 1,500 per person) or, if they’re really eager and looking for something more intense, there’s the Major Course (50 classes for RMB 8,600 per person).

The former allows a student to learn to make different objects via different methods, including on the potter’s wheel or just going at it by hand, while the latter has no limit to how many works can be made, with one-on-one teaching from the ground up, a master class, if you will.

Even though I’m intrigued by the Major Course, I’d settle for an Interest Course to get a handle on pottery basics. I’m considering it even after I’m out the door, with thoughts of a bowl I’ve made deep in the hutongs; an afternoon well spent.

Yipiantian Pottery Studio 一片田陶艺工作室
64 Beixinqiao San Tiao, Dongcheng District
东城区北新桥三条64号
WeChat: 18810880740

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Images: Vincent R. Vinci