Nice to meet you
I’m Lana Hobbs and I am the owner of Thrive Clay Studio. I am passionate about making quality work and building quality relationships. I love working in clay and introducing others to the medium and that is how Thrive Clay studio was born! To learn more about my story check out my bio.
What is Thrive Clay Studio?
What we do
Thrive Clay Studio is a teaching studio that also serves as the working studio for clay artist Lana Hobbs. Thrive offers workshops, team building, multi-week pottery wheel classes, multi-week hand building classes, private sessions, kids summer camps, and more.
Why we do it
We believe having spaces dedicated to creativity and play breathes life into communities and that is what we are all about. We want to be that kind of space for our city. We want to be marked by hospitality, excellence in our products and education, and a love for our city.
Dear Students and Friends,
I want to thank you for your overwhelming support over the past 5 years. It has been a pleasure to know and teach each of you. Thousands of you have come through our different doors over the years and you are the reason I love Birmingham!
With the expiration of our lease in September, I have decided to close the education portion of Thrive Clay Studio and move Thrive home to focus on the production of my work. With our lease expiring, we have come to a crossroads of moving forward with our growth in the education area or stepping back and slowing things down. I have decided to slow it down, and the decision has not come easily. There are so many things I have to say about why, but in an effort to be concise, I will sum it up as work life balance and the desire to create. Our teaching schedule mainly consists of nights and weekends and that is not what I want for me and my family long term. Yes, we can hire more teachers, but I have no desire to run a teaching business and not actually teach. As the education portion has grown I have also become more of a studio manager than a clay artist and I am itching to get back to my work. As many of you know, running a small business is intense, and I am doing my best to choose a direction that is sustainable and life giving for both me and my family.
So you may be wondering, what is the timeline here? We will be teaching through August, having a party at the end of August/early September, and then moving out late September. We will be offering our top 3 workshops one more time in August, so sign up now if there is one you want to take. We are anticipating that these will fill up quickly. Again, I can’t thank you enough for your support and friendship over the years! You have allowed me to make a dream a reality and I am so grateful!