Clay Encounters, your new favorite thing to do in Doha

Do I start with the aesthetically pleasing shop design, the part where you get covered in paint because you don’t know how to underglaze, or the beautiful imperfect sort of pot you end up with? As you can see, there are a lot of – important – things I need to cover, so bear with me.

I stumbled across their Instagram account last week and was more than adamant to check their place out, and believe me when I say that it was the best idea I had this month. 

Located in Qanat Quarter in The Pearl, Clay Encounters is a ceramics studio that brings out the potter (not-so-potter) in you. You can take pottery classes there, attend workshops, buy crafts from their design studio, work with other artists and have fun with family and friends.

The radiant Reema Abu Hassan kindly agreed to sit down with us and talk to us about her (marvelous) initiative. Following her passion for pottery, she quit her job as an architect to open Clay Encounters. She first learned the art of pottery-making in architecture school, where her professor (shout-out to Professor Brian Dougan) taught her how to work with clay. She would go down to the pottery studio whenever she felt stressed or bored, and developed a passion for the art in the process.

 Clay Encounters is a perfect place for both adults and children. Their classes for adults can last up to three hours, and the ones for kids are 45 minutes long. Their classes range from private wheel classes to bead-making classes. You can even book the studio for events; birthdays have been a success. You do not need any experience in the art-making world, that little piece of clay will spark the creativity in you.

You go there, you sit down. You look at your ball of clay for five seconds, come up with – what you think is – a good idea and start working on it. Fifteen seconds in, you realize that your oddly shaped pot is not what you had in mind. Reema tries to comfort you and tells you that “the most beautiful pinch pots are the ones with the most imperfections.” You gain back your confidence and continue pinching as if your life depended on that pot looking half decent. After many trials and errors, you finally underglaze your pot (your phone, the table, and the biscuits on the table along with it). You carve your name on it and leave the studio a proud mama. That’s what you’re in for.

Not only can you make your own clay crafts there, but you can also buy professionally handmade Clay Encounters ones (good-looking ones, for a change). Their design shop also has other artifacts designed by artists from around the globe, ranging from handmade bracelets to cute little notebooks.

Once Clay Encounters has its grand opening, more workshops, classes and mentors will be available. It will offer outdoors classes once the weather gets better. Studio memberships are also going to be available for those of you who take their pot-making very seriously.

Here’s their Instagram account @clay_encounters just in case you wanted to make a good decision yourself. And here’s their location. You know what to do.

Make sure to visit their business page on our website to keep track of related articles. 

Thank you Reema and Clay Encounters for this lovely experience!