“No wheel, on principle: Berlin's first hand-building-only studio teaches the slowest chapter of ceramics — and explains the why behind every move.”
Kleistone decided against the wheel — not for lack of space, but as a position. Founded in 2021 by Elisabetta Lombardo and Kate Smallshaw, the studio understands itself as Berlin’s first hand-building-only ceramics studio: pinch, coil, slab, at a deliberately slow pace. The teaching is built on explaining the »why« behind every technique, not just the »how« — from the taster workshop via the two-week course with glazing to the four-week Signature Intensive.
The women-led trio behind it brings unusual angles: Lombardo came to ceramics from tech and keeps a soft spot for planetary science and mineralogy alive in class; Smallshaw runs her own label »Pinch & Coil« with roots in painting and drawing; Natascha Bohnert combines stoneware and porcelain with resin, wax and silk. The studio’s labels are listed on the Deutsche Manufakturenstraße.
The studio is explicitly an adult space (18+), and the »Summer Pinch Pot Club« opens the workshop in summer as an open format for the neighbourhood — no course prerequisite. Course reports praise a distinctive atmosphere and bottomless patience; whether that becomes a second lens is for the visit to decide.
Workshops
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Hand-Building & Glazing (2 weeks)
Course · 2 sessions · 6 hrs total · €150 · Materials included · For beginners
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Signature Intensive (4 weeks)
Intensive · 4 sessions · 12 hrs total · €320 · Materials included · Open to all levels
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Hand-Building Taster Workshop
Taster · 1 session · 3 hrs total · €90 · Materials included · For beginners
Inside the studio
