Things to Do in Seminole Heights: Why a Pottery Class Belongs on Your List
Seminole Heights is the neighborhood I chose on purpose. Here's what an afternoon at the studio looks like, and why it belongs on your list.
When I was looking for a home for Floridian Ceramics, I looked all over Tampa. I kept coming back to Seminole Heights. Old bungalows, big oaks, independent restaurants and coffee shops along Florida Avenue, and a creative streak that runs through the whole neighborhood. It felt like the kind of place where a small pottery studio made sense.
A few years in, I'm more sure of it than ever. If you're putting together a list of things to do in Seminole Heights, I'd like to make the case for spending two hours of it at a pottery wheel.
What an afternoon here actually looks like
You walk in off North Florida Avenue into a bright, calm room with four wheels. There are never more than four students in a class, so I'm at your elbow for the whole two hours. We start with a lump of clay and the one thing everybody is nervous about: centering. Then we open it up, pull the walls, and you throw two bowls. Before you leave, you paint them with underglaze in whatever colors you like.
That's it. No lecture, no pressure, no experience required. BYOB is welcome, and most people bring a bottle and settle in.
"The studio is intimate and Haley gives one on one hands on instruction with each student. Truly a relaxing, creative and fun experience. You can BYOB too :)"
Why this, over everything else on the list
It's the thing you'll remember
Brunch is brunch. A pottery class is the afternoon you tell people about: the bowl that collapsed, the one that didn't, the clay on your forearms. And two to three weeks later you're back to pick up two finished pieces, so it's really two trips to the neighborhood for the price of one.
It's small by design
I cap every class at four people because that's the number I can genuinely teach. You're not in a row of twenty wheels watching a demo. You're in a room with three other people who are just as new as you are, and me, fixing your hands.
It fits the rest of your day
We're a few minutes' walk from coffee, lunch, dinner and a drink after. Book a morning class and make a day of it. Book an afternoon one, walk out muddy and happy, and go eat. Everything you'd want is on the same stretch of Florida Avenue.
It's genuinely for everyone
Couples on a first date, parents with teenagers, friends in town for the weekend, people who moved here last month and haven't met anyone yet. I've taught all of them. The wheel is a great equalizer.
Make it a Seminole Heights day
Coffee first, then class, then lunch with clay still under your fingernails. Or an afternoon class followed by dinner and a walk under the oaks. Either way, you'll leave with two bowls on the way and a reason to come back for them.
Floridian Ceramics is a working pottery studio in Tampa's Seminole Heights neighborhood, run by Haley Melcher, a fourth-generation Floridian. Beginner classes run year-round, no experience needed.