We're hiring!
Studio Manager
At a glance
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Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm, 32 hours per week
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Pay: £18 per hour, around £29,950 a year gross, plus paid holiday and workplace pension
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Teaching: Optional, at £25 per hour
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Contract: Permanent, with a probationary review at four months
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Start: Monday 28 September 2026, beginning with three paid induction days, then Wednesday to Saturday from 7 October
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Reports to: Barnaby Hosking, Creative Director
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Apply by: Sunday 23 August 2026. Applications close on Sunday 23 August 2026, but we will read them as they arrive and may interview before then, so please apply early rather than waiting. First conversations will be by video, and interviews at the studio will include a short practical scenario and time in the space.
Please read on for Job description
Please send applications to barnaby@barnabyhosking.com
Deadline 16th August 2026
About Dalston Clay
Dalston Clay is a creative wellbeing studio in the heart of Dalston, and the trading name of Flow Space Wellness CIC. Ceramics sits at the centre of what we do, with yoga and meditation woven around it. As far as we know we are the only studio in London combining the three, and that combination is the whole idea rather than an add-on: making things with your hands, alongside other people, in conditions that let you drop into flow.
As a Community Interest Company we reinvest what we make back into the studio and the community, rather than paying it out. That shapes everything: our pricing, our work exchange programme, and the roughly 156 subsidised places we deliver each year.
We run six-week courses, wheel throwing and handbuilding classes, tasters, kids' sessions and summer school, corporate and group bookings, and open studio access seven days a week. Alongside these we run our Sunday wellbeing sessions, Clay Day and Yoga Throwdown, which bring ceramics together with yoga, meditation and deep relaxation across a whole day or half day. It is unusual, and it is why people describe the studio the way they do in our 400+ five-star Google reviews.
We are small. There is no head office, no HR department and no layer of management. That means the person in this role has genuine responsibility from the first week, and their judgement matters.
There is also something on the horizon. We are shortlisted for space at the former Colvestone Primary School, a ground-floor site nearby, with a council decision expected in the autumn. It may well not happen. If it does, whoever takes this role will be involved in setting it up, which would make the job bigger and more interesting than it currently looks on paper.
About Dalston Clay
We are looking for someone properly organised to run the studio Wednesday to Saturday.
This is not primarily a making job, although you will need to know ceramics well enough to be trusted with kilns, glazes and students' work. It is a coordination job. The studio has a lot of moving parts: freelance teachers, work exchange volunteers, technicians, drop-in members, firing schedules and a booking system that everything flows through. The job is holding all of that together so that sessions run, work gets fired, and nobody is left waiting.
Our Creative Director is on site Monday and Tuesday and away for the rest of the week. From Wednesday to Saturday, you are the studio.
Your week
Your first fortnight looks different. You will start on Monday 28 September with three paid induction days working one to one with Barnaby our founder and director: Monday 28 September, then Monday 5 and Tuesday 6 October. These cover the kilns, the glazes, the booking system and how the studio runs, with a week in between to work through the handbooks. Your regular Wednesday to Saturday pattern begins on 7 October.
From then on:
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Wednesday starts with a handover meeting with Barnaby from 10 to 11am
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Every night except Sunday night there will be a teaching session 6 - 9pm
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Saturdays Tasters session will be 3 - 5.30 followed by the Clay social at 6.30 - 9pm
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Saturday is our busiest day for members collecting work, plus evening teaching.
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Throughout, drop-in members are using the studio from 9am to 9pm 7 days a week
You will work alongside a technician most days and a work exchange volunteer on the studio floor. Much of the routine maintenance is theirs to do. Your job is to make sure it happens.
Core Responsibilities
1. Teachers and sessions
This is the most important part of the role and the part we most need to get right.
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Confirm every taught session with the assigned teacher ahead of time, using our scheduling system.
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Arrange cover promptly when a teacher cannot make a session, and update the booking calendar the same day.
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Make sure no session is ever left without a teacher, and escalate early if cover cannot be found.
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Prepare the studio for each session: wheels, tools, clay, glazes and materials.
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Brief teachers, monitor punctuality and attendance, and flag concerns.
We are putting a proper scheduling system in place before you start, so this is about running a system rather than inventing one.
2. Kilns and firing
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Manage the firing schedule across our two Nabertherm kilns, bisque at 1000°C and glaze at 1220°C.
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Load and unload safely, date stamp bisqueware, and organise fired work so members can find it.
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Keep firing logs and maintenance records.
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Glaze students' work from taught sessions, ready for firing.
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Make up and maintain our house dipping glazes, keep the sample walls in order, and monitor raw material stock.
3. Studio floor and team
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Direct and support technicians and work exchange volunteers, assigning tasks and checking standards.
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Uphold health and safety, particularly silica dust control, which we take seriously.
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Keep the studio clean, safe and welcoming, and step in yourself when it needs doing.
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Report maintenance issues and coordinate repairs.
4. Members and front of house
The studio's atmosphere is the thing people come back for, and Wednesday to Saturday you are it. That's less about being naturally outgoing than about a few habits we hold to:
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Greet every person who comes through the door within a minute of arrival.
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Learn and use members' names.
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Acknowledge someone waiting even when you're mid-task, rather than finishing first.
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Reply to member emails within one working day.
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When someone's work is lost or broken, go and look before replying, and tell them what you found.
Alongside that:
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Manage bookings, plans and memberships through our website, and resolve booking problems.
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Answer enquiries about collections, glazing and studio policies.
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Handle group and corporate booking enquiries, and hand over the details for invoicing.
5. Administration
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Keep our systems current: bookings, work tracking, firing records and studio documentation.
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Order consumables and materials within agreed budgets.
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Support our social media manager with photographs and content from the studio floor.
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Contribute to the studio handbooks and keep them up to date as things change.
What we are looking for
Essential
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Demonstrably organised. You track commitments, you follow through, and things do not fall between the cracks when you are busy.
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Clear, prompt communicator, in writing and in person.
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Comfortable taking responsibility and making decisions without checking in first.
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Solid practical ceramics knowledge: wheel throwing, handbuilding, glazing and firing, with a real understanding of kiln operation and studio safety.
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Confident with digital systems: booking platforms, spreadsheets, shared drives, email.
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Warm with people, and able to hold a calm, welcoming atmosphere.
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Able to work Saturdays.
Desirable
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Experience coordinating teams, volunteers or freelancers.
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Experience in a studio, workshop, gallery or similar creative environment.
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Glaze mixing and testing experience.
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A feeling for the wellbeing side of what we do, whether that is a yoga or meditation practice of your own or simply an interest in why this combination works.
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A yoga or meditation teaching qualification. This is not expected, but if you have one there is real scope here, and we would like to hear about it.
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We would rather hire someone brilliantly organised with good ceramics knowledge than an outstanding maker who is disorganised. If that first description is you, please apply even if you do not tick everything else.
PAY AND TERMS
£18 per hour for 32 hours per week, which is around £29,950 a year gross. This is well above the London Living Wage of £14.80.
Optional teaching at £25 per hour, the same rate as our teaching team, if you would like to teach and are suited to it.
Sunday wellbeing sessions:
we run Clay Day and Yoga Throwdown on Sundays, combining ceramics with yoga, meditation and deep relaxation. There is an opportunity for the right person to host these, paid at teaching rates and agreed session by session rather than forming part of your contracted hours. The yoga itself can be delivered by one of our teachers, so this is about holding the day rather than needing to teach yoga yourself.
Holiday:
5.6 weeks statutory, which is 22.4 days a year on a four-day week, plus paid bank holidays where they fall on your working days.
Pension:
workplace pension with employer contributions, through auto-enrolment.
Sick pay:
Statutory Sick Pay from day one.
Contract:
permanent, with a probationary review at four months.
Induction:
three paid induction days working one to one with our Creative Director, with the studio handbooks sent to you beforehand.
Studio access:
12 hours a week for your own practice, the same as our technicians receive. Bookable 9am to 6pm, seven days a week, and used within the week rather than carried over. Evening access can sometimes be arranged when sessions are not running. Clay and firing on the same terms as the rest of the team.
Other:
Everything is provided including work laptop, except appropriate studio clothing.
This role involves working with children and young people, so the appointment is subject to an enhanced DBS check, satisfactory references and completion of our safeguarding induction.
HOW TO APPLY
Send the following to barnaby@barnabyhosking.com, subject line "Studio Manager application":
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Your CV.
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A short covering note, no more than one page, telling us about a time you were responsible for making sure something ran on schedule, and what you did to keep it on track.
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Names of two referees, at least one of whom has managed you.
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When you could start, and any notice you would need to give.
Applications close on Sunday 16 August 2026. First conversations will be by video during the week of 17 August, and interviews at the studio will be on Monday 24 August. Interviews will include a short practical scenario and time in the studio.
We would like the right person to start on 28 September, but we can be flexible for someone who needs to work a notice period.
Dalston Clay welcomes applications from everyone. As a CIC serving a diverse part of London, we are particularly keen to hear from people whose backgrounds are underrepresented in ceramics. If you need any adjustment to the application or interview process, tell us and we will make it work.
Dalston Clay · Flow Space Wellness CIC · Company no. 14334863
Unit 308, 10B Bradbury Street, London N16 8JN
Please send applications to barnaby@barnabyhosking.com. Deadline 16th August 2026
