How Much Does It Cost to Open a Pottery Studio in the UK?

Part of Open Your Studio, our guide series for opening a pottery studio in the UK.

"How much will it cost?" is the question behind every other question when you're opening a studio. It's also the one that most often gets a vague answer. The fear runs both ways. Under-budget, and the money runs out before the first members have paid. Over-spend on the wrong kit, and you're paying it back for years.

We can be precise about part of the answer: the equipment, because we design and make it and price it every week. The rest (electrics, building works, rent, insurance) depends on your building and your town, so we'll be honest about where the numbers firm up and where they don't. For an itemised estimate you can edit line by line, run the Studio Setup Cost Calculator. For ongoing costs, the Kiln Firing Cost Calculator and the Studio Revenue & ROI Calculator pick up where this guide leaves off.

The short answer: equipment budgets at 4, 8 and 12 wheels

These are three worked plans from our Studio Equipment Planner. They're indicative budgets at autumn 2026 UK prices, including VAT, and excluding installation, building works and ongoing consumables. Treat them as a starting point to argue with, not a quote.

Wheel prices are at our multi-wheel price through the Studio Partner Programme: £200 off every wheel when you buy three or more, which brings the Daisy to £999 and the Thistle to £1,499. Kiln prices reflect the ranges we sell at the time of writing. The exact model depends on your power supply and what you fire.

Why the plans look the way they do

Wheels: one per maker, plus a spare, all the same model. The spare covers a fault and gives you a demo wheel. One model means one set of spare parts and one system to teach. The Daisy suits a starter room running taster sessions and beginners' courses. The Thistle is the one we'd put in front of a paying class all day, every day.

Kilns: sized to the wheels, not the brochure. The kiln is the bottleneck in almost every teaching space. Under-size it and students wait weeks for their pots, and some don't come back. Our rule of thumb is 15–20 litres of kiln capacity per wheel, per firing, firing two to three times a week. At 8 wheels, a small test kiln alongside the main one lets you fire a rush job or a test without holding up a full load. At 12 wheels, two kilns matter more than one big one, because when a single kiln fails, the whole studio's firing stops with it. Our guide to choosing a kiln for a studio and the Kiln Size Calculator go into this properly.

Clay processing: optional at first, valuable later. A slab roller saves wrists and widens what a class can make. A pugmill lets you reclaim clay instead of binning it and saves members the job of wedging. In a busy room both earn their place. A starter room can wait.

The costs the equipment list doesn't cover

This is where budgets usually go wrong. None of these items is on an equipment quote, and most of them depend on your building, so we can't give you a single number. Here's what drives each one, with figures only where we're confident.

Running costs: firing, power and clay

Firing. A kiln's electricity use is roughly its power rating × the firing time × how much of that time the elements are actually on. As an example, take a 100 L kiln rated at 7.3 kW doing a mid-fire glaze firing of about 8.5 hours, with the elements on around 62% of the time. That uses about 38 kWh. At 28p per kWh, it's roughly £10–£11 per firing. A bisque firing in the same kiln comes out a little lower. At two to three firings a week, that's somewhere around £90–£140 a month for one kiln, and a bigger kiln costs proportionally more. Business tariffs vary widely and many have standing charges on top, so use your own unit rate in the Kiln Firing Cost Calculator, which can also split a firing across cheap and peak-rate hours. Budget for wear, too. Elements typically last somewhere between 100 and 200 firings, and keeping a spare set and a thermocouple in the cupboard is cheaper than a lost week. For more, see our article on the cost to run a pottery kiln.

Other power. Wheels are cheap to run. They draw under 0.5 kW each, so eight wheels flat out for a three-hour class use under 10 kWh. In winter, heating and lighting a cold unit will usually cost more than the wheels.

Clay and glaze. Usage depends on how many people make, how often and how much they reclaim. The Clay & Glaze Estimator works it out per month. Its starting assumption is that reclaiming cuts the clay you buy by about 30%, which is where a pugmill starts paying for itself.

Making the numbers work

Once you know your setup and running costs, work backwards to what you need to charge. The Studio Revenue & ROI Calculator models memberships, classes and firing fees against rent and overheads, and shows how long your setup spend takes to pay back. Firing fees deserve a line of their own, since the kiln costs real money every time it runs. Our guide to pricing memberships and classes covers how studios structure them.

Where to save, and where not to

Reasonable places to save: start at the wheel count your first timetable needs and add more as classes fill. Buy one wheel model and use the multi-wheel price. Buy second-hand benches and shelving. Leave the extruder until members ask for it.

Places we wouldn't cut: kiln capacity, because it's the bottleneck. The electrics, because they're the hardest thing to redo. The clay trap and the ventilation, because they're cheap to fit and expensive to get wrong. And warranty. Ask any equipment maker what happens if a pedal fails on a Tuesday evening. Ours is a no-questions-asked warranty: fixed next day or replaced.

One last thing on timing. Most of our kilns are built to order, and Kilncare models typically take 8–12 weeks, so budget the deposit early in your plan, not the month before opening.

Setting up at home rather than opening to the public? Our home kiln buying guide is the better place to start.

Keep reading

• How to Open a Pottery Studio in the UK: the whole process, step by step.
• Pricing Memberships & Classes: turning your costs into a sustainable price list.
• Electrical & Power Requirements: the budget line that surprises most people.