Weekly course
Ten two-hour sessions to progress steadily: hand-building — pinching, coils, slabs — alongside wheel throwing, decoration and glazing. You keep the same weekly time slot.
€600 for 10 sessions of 2h
View details and bookHand-building · no wheel
Hand-building pottery in Paris: shape clay with your hands
Pinching, coiling, slab building: hand-building needs no wheel and is the most direct way to learn clay. Nadine Tawil Abou, a ceramicist trained at ATC, teaches it at L'Oiseau Bleu in Paris's 7th arrondissement, with firing and glazing included.
What is hand-building?
Pottery without a wheel, explained simply
Hand-building means shaping a piece directly with your hands, no pottery wheel involved: pinching a ball of clay, rolling coils to build up the walls, joining slabs or sculpting a form. It is the technique children discover in the Wednesday workshops — and a complete approach for adults too: some use it to make vessels, others to sculpt faces and figures.
As with wheel throwing, your pieces need to dry, be fired and glazed at the studio before you collect them at 23 rue Augereau, Paris 7th. Nothing to take home the same day, except the memories of the session.
Three existing formats
Where you can hand-build at the studio
Hand-building is part of L'Oiseau Bleu's classes: there is no separate package to book, but three existing ways to practise it.
Kids and teen workshops
A joyful first contact with clay, guided step by step: hand-building, coiling, slab work and decoration, designed for ages 6 to 17.
€45 per child · 1h30
View details and bookPrivate class
The studio for your own group of up to four, with a programme built with Nadine: pure hand-building or a mix of hand-building and wheel throwing.
From €100 per person · 2h
View details and bookFor companies
A creative workshop that comes to you
Nadine also runs on-site ceramic painting in your offices: ceramic mugs she brings to your workplace, painting on site, then firing back at the studio. Teams collect their pieces afterwards.
Discover the on-site workshopAnd the wheel?
Hand-building and wheel throwing, two complementary paths
The wheel makes round vessels; hand-building sets your shapes free. Many weekly-course students practise both. If you hesitate, start with a beginner wheel-throwing class — the weekly course then covers both techniques.
Wheel throwing in ParisBook your hand-building session
Available time slots and seats for each format are shown in the booking calendar.