Pottery Summer Camp
Welcome potters!
Summer Pottery Camp 2026 Information is available below, and registration opens on February 14th at 9am. Scholarships are open on January 1, 2026 and close on Feb 1. Please contact Ona at onaarmstrong@gmail to be added to our mailing list so you can get all the information delivered to your inbox.
**New Camp Location for 2026**
Rainbow Community School
574 Haywood Rd
Asheville, NC 28806
By popular demand, the final three weeks of August camps will be at our original location at Firefly Valley Pottery in West Asheville-
25 Central Ave. West, 28806.
Dates and Themes for 2026:
June 8-12 - Pottery & Pollinators with Ona
June 15-19 - Spanish Language Week with Megan and Ona
June 22-26 - BIPOC Week with Shawn and Catina*
and Pottery Around the World with Ona (all campers welcome)
June 29-July 3- Cats Week with Megan and Ona
July 6-10 - LGBTQIA+ Week with Shawn, Pottery Around the World Week with Ona
July 13-17 - Mexico Week with Ona
July 20-24 - Australia Pottery Week with Megan and Ona
July 27-31 - Cherokee Pottery Week with Ona
Aug 3-7 and Aug 10-14th- Pottery Intensive Weeks
(Two week camp held at Firefly Valley Pottery** that includes a parents' night out, "Parent Camp" tickets and more with Megan and Ona.)
Aug. 17-21st - Oceans Week with Ms. Jesse at Firefly Valley**
*Black, Indigenous, People of Color (including Asian Pacific Islander) youth invited only but everyone (all ethnic backgrounds) are welcome to Pottery Around the World with Ona.
** Firefly Valley Pottery address: 25 Central Ave West, Asheville, NC 28806
Please see below for camp details and information about
scholarships, helper program and more. See Frequently Asked Questions here.

Does your child crave a calm, well-structured creative environment? Do they love creating for hours on end and want to learn new creative techniques in pottery and other natural crafts? Then you're found the right place!
Summer Pottery Camp is a creative and fun week where potters discover new techniques through a spiraling hand-building curriculum in the morning (pinch, slab, coil techniques) in morning hand-building class and wheel throwing techniques in an afternoon one-on-one throwing tutorial. Potters will enjoy the outdoor environment with additional guided activities on the property like rope swings, wooden sculpture, baking, fruit carving, painting, fiber arts and more in a relaxed, quiet outdoor environment.
Firefly Valley Daily Camp Schedule:
10am- Campers arrive, helpers help them complete AOK's (Acts of Kindness- gardening, drawings and love notes for Bounty and Soul, mulching, etc. )
10:30- 11:30- Hand building pottery demonstration, class and students are called for individual wheel throwing lessons (Mon-Wednesday)
11:30-12- Free play when finished
12:00-1:00 Lunch and siesta (quiet reading, drawing, etc.)
1:00-2:30- Chocolate Cake- a name for our afternoon art activities (ex. glazing projects from the morning, sculpture, felting) water play, baking and more individual pottery wheel throwing lessons
2:30- snack and hydration ("cheers") time
3:00-3:45- Cherry Pie- a name for our second art and play time-
3:45- Camp clean-up and closing gratitude circle (parents and families invited!)
4:15- Prompt pick-up (Please remember that Haywood/Patton/I 40 are quite congested during this time, so plan accordingly)
Who is invited?
Camp is open to beginners and experienced potters. Camp is open to ages 5-16. The average age of campers is 5-10, and most campers aged 11 and up are helpers, but campers that age are welcomed, often with a friend is nice for them. There are usually a few campers who are older who are not helpers, and they can be in community with older helpers during the day as well.
BIPOC Week is only open to Black, Indigenous, People of Color (which includes Asian and Pacific Islanders-API) children.
All students are welcomed to Spanish Language Week and all other weeks.

TUITION
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Full week, full day tickets costs $550/week.
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Helper tickets (full day) are $300. Sibling discounts and/or scholarship codes are not applicable to helper tickets during Early Bird.
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Early Bird Pricing is 5% off all tickets from Feb 14-28. Full week tickets are $522.50 and Helper tickets are $285. There is no code needed for this discount.
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During the Early Bird pricing, we are offering an additional 5% off for 2+ full week tickets for siblings using the codes: summersibling2 for a second child and summersibling3 for three kids. Use one code at checkout after you have added your additional tickets to your cart. It will not work unless you have 2+ full week tickets in your shopping cart. We are not able to add this additional discount to helper tickets.
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You can only use one code per order. They cannot be stacked. If you have a scholarship code, the sibling code will not be able to be used. Sibling codes can't be combined with Helper tickets.
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Once Early bird pricing concludes on Feb 28, we will provide a 10% sibling discount code for the second, third, etc. tickets for each family.
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There will be no half day or single day tickets this summer. If you'd like to pick your child up early, you're welcome to pick up at 1pm.
ENROLLMENT
On February 14th at 9AM, the summer camp tickets will be available for purchase on this page (scroll down). Here are the steps to sign up:
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Carefully select the ticket type (regular camper or helper) and the correct week that you are wanting to register for. There is a $75 change fee and you can e-mail onaarmstrong @ gmail to change your week (subject to availability).
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Press "Book Now" (blue button)
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Add your child's or children's info and press "Add to Cart" (blue button). Please note that if you are signing up multiple campers, our system is less than ideal and it won’t let you add a second child's name. Add BOTH children's names, ages, pertinent info, etc onto the FIRST ticket and press "Add to Cart" (blue button)
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If applicable, enter your coupon code into the box that says "Enter promo code" in your cart.
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Click “Place Order” once you have the correct items/codes in your shopping card.
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On your confirmation page, you will be instructed to fill out the online waiver. One waiver per family, per year!
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You're done!
Hours and Before/After Care:
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Camp is held from 10am - 4:15pm Monday-Friday with additional care available from 9am - 5pm for $10/ hour per child. (You can sign up for this when you receive your welcome letter about a week before camp begins.)
REFUND POLICY
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50% refund available up to one week before camp begins.
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No refunds closer than 1 week to camp start date.
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If you need to switch weeks, there is a $75 fee.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Scholarship applications will open on January 1, 2026. Scholarships will be awarded before camp registration begins on February 14th, 2025. Scholarships are only for full day campers.
WAITLIST
If a camp is sold out on the website, we will have a waitlist for you to join. Add your name here. If you don't get the week you need, please sign up because we might add programming and you'd be the first to hear.
CAMP HELPERS
Pottery Camp also offers an opportunity for those age 11-16 to be a Camp Helper. Helpers will support camp staff in activities. Helpers will get time to hand-build, enjoy time on the wheel, and lead fun afternoon activities. If you've been a helper before, don't fill out this form- go ahead and register for the week that works best for you beginning on Feb. 14th- plan ahead with your helper friends and have someone ready to purchase tickets.
Interested in becoming a new helper? Please apply using the form below.
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