A couple of years ago, I started pottery classes in Athens. By the time the studio closed for summer, I was so taken with the pleasure of working with clay, and the easy conversation around the table, that I bought 10 kilos online and carried on at home. Making things had become a small but absorbing part of my week, calming my mind and giving space to a creative impulse that work, chores and rushing about tended to crowd out.

Athens offers plenty of ways to begin. In Pangrati, Keramikos and Kypseli, pottery studios introduce newcomers to wheel throwing, hand-building and painting ceramics. Beyond clay, an iconographer near Plaka teaches painting with egg tempera, a studio on Ermou opens up the patient craft of mosaic-making, and a small museum in Pangrati puts marble-carving tools into visitors’ hands. You can also build a miniature garden inside glass in Ampelokipoi or learn to weave on a loom near the Acropolis.

The 13 studios and workshops below range from short sessions that fit into a day of sightseeing to regular courses worth making room for in your week. Several offer instruction in English; check the language when booking, along with collection arrangements for ceramics that need firing. You can arrive as a complete beginner. A little curiosity is a good place to start.

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