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Now accepting applications

Studio Assistant
& Trainee Instructor

A hands-in-clay opportunity to learn everything about pottery and studio life from the ground up — inside a fully equipped family studio in Klerksdorp. No experience required. Just curiosity, warmth, and a willingness to work.

Studio Clay Craft Studio
Location 17A Williams St, Wilkoppies, Klerksdorp
Type Part-time → Full-time
Start date As soon as the right person is found
Experience needed None — we train from scratch

Learning a craft while helping build a studio.

Clay Craft Studio is a fully equipped, family-run pottery studio in Wilkoppies, Klerksdorp. We have wheels, kilns, a glazing room, and everything needed to run classes and workshops for children, adults, families, and corporate groups. What we are looking for is the right person to grow with us.

This is not a job where you show up and follow a script. It is a role where you will gradually learn every aspect of studio life — making pottery, teaching others to make pottery, running a kiln, managing bookings, handling customers, and eventually standing in front of a class and guiding people through their first pot. We will work with you at your pace and build your skills properly.

"The goal is simple: we want to find someone who loves making things, is naturally good with people, and wants to spend their working life in a studio. If that's you, we'll teach you everything else."

  • Set up pottery wheels, workbenches, and tools before classes and workshops
  • Prepare clay — wedging, weighing, and organising clay supplies for sessions
  • Assist the instructor during classes — supporting students, fetching tools, keeping the session moving smoothly
  • Help with glaze preparation and support students during glazing sessions
  • Handle kiln loading and unloading under supervision as your skills develop
  • Manage customer communications — WhatsApp bookings, enquiries, collection notifications, follow-ups
  • Keep the studio clean, organised, and welcoming throughout the day
  • Assist with birthday parties, corporate workshops, and special events
  • Help manage the studio's social media — photographing finished work, posting content, engaging with followers
  • Gradually begin assisting with and eventually leading your own class sessions as your pottery skills grow
  • Wheel throwing — centring, opening, pulling, trimming, and finishing
  • Hand-building — pinch, coil, slab, and decorative techniques
  • Glazing — application methods, layering, and glaze chemistry basics
  • Kiln operation — loading, firing schedules, and kiln maintenance
  • Teaching methodology — how to break down complex skills for beginners, children, and nervous adults
  • Studio management — scheduling, stock management, customer relations, and daily operations
  • The full ceramic process from raw clay to finished, fired object
Full
Kiln setup — bisque and glaze firing on site
Electric
Pottery wheels — multiple stations
Glaze
Room with full range of stoneware glazes
All
Materials supplied — clay, tools, aprons

The right person — not the perfect CV.

We are not looking for a ceramics graduate or someone who already knows how to throw on a wheel. We are looking for someone whose character is right — and then we'll build the skills together. Here are the qualities that matter to us:

🤲
Hands-on by nature

You like making things. You're comfortable getting dirty. You don't mind physical work and you don't need to be asked to clean up.

😊
Warm with people

You're naturally good with all ages — including nervous beginners and excited six-year-olds. Putting people at ease is something you do without thinking about it.

🔥
Genuinely curious

You want to understand how things work. You'll ask questions about the kiln, about glaze chemistry, about why clay cracks — because you actually want to know.

Reliable

Classes run on a schedule. Students are counting on the studio being ready. You show up when you say you will, and you let us know if something comes up.

📱
Good communicator

Friendly and clear on WhatsApp, helpful and professional in person. Able to explain things simply to people who have never made pottery before.

🌱
Wants to grow

You're looking for more than a job. You want to build a skill, develop a craft, and eventually be the person in front of a class who makes someone's first pot possible.

Starting small. Growing with the studio.

We want to be completely honest about this from the start. The role begins in a learning phase — you will be working, contributing, and developing real skills from day one. During this phase the compensation is a stipend rather than a full salary. As your skills develop and you begin running your own classes and workshops, the structure changes.

Learning phase

Stipend-based while you develop fundamental studio and pottery skills. Duration depends on how quickly you progress — typically 2–4 months.

Teaching phase

Once you begin running your own sessions, you move to a base pay plus a share of class revenue. The more classes you run, the more you earn.

We are committed to building something sustainable with the right person. As Clay Craft Studio grows — and it is growing — your income and your role in it will grow with it. We see this as a long-term relationship, not a short-term hire. If you are the right person and you commit to learning the craft properly, we will commit to building your career alongside the studio.

  • Location: 17A Williams Street, Wilkoppies, Klerksdorp — this is an in-person, in-studio role
  • Hours: Part-time to start, with the path to full-time as class volumes grow
  • Age: We're looking for someone young and eager — the exact age matters less than the energy and attitude
  • Transport: You'll need reliable transport to Wilkoppies
  • Background: No pottery experience required. Any background in art, crafts, teaching, childcare, or customer service is a plus — but not essential
  • Start date: As soon as we find the right person

Ready to apply?

Send us a WhatsApp message introducing yourself — who you are, why this appeals to you, and what draws you to pottery or teaching. We'd rather read something honest than a formal CV. Include photos of any creative work if you have it — it doesn't need to be pottery.

Questions before you apply? Just send a WhatsApp to +27 72 480 1712 — we're happy to tell you more about the role and the studio before you commit to a full application.