Besides a pottery wheel, the easiest way to manipulate clay is to threaten to rebury it in the dark, sandy hole where you found it. Make sure clay turns to putty in your hands with today’s Groupon to The ClayGround Studio & Gallery in Savage. Choose from the following options:

• For $19, you get a single wheel-throwing lesson or a hand-building class (a $40 value).
• For $35, you get two wheel-throwing lessons or hand-building classes (an $80 value).
• For $69, you get four wheel-throwing lessons or hand-building classes (a $160 value).

The ClayGround’s ceramics classes provide novice potters with all the tools and materials needed to craft their own earthenware art. Wheel-throwing students can get elbow-deep in relaxing mud manipulation, spinning unshaped lumps into beautiful pots for housing plants or opaque fishbowls to obscure a homely Frankenfish. The hand-manipulation class imparts a variety of techniques to shape clay, such as extrusion, slabbing, coiling, pinching, and roundhouse kicking. After they have been fully glazed, a talented instructor will oversee the firing of ceramic donuts, bowls, and plates in an electric kiln. Since class sizes are limited, potters must call ahead to inquire about available dates and times and reserve a spot.