Kilns, Studios and Workshops to Book

Singapore still has working kilns, studios and breweries that will let you in for an hour if you book a seat. If you book only one, make it TK Pottery Jungle in Jurong West, which keeps one of the last two dragon kilns in Singapore, a wood-fired kiln you can walk inside. The cost is the trip: a bus from Boon Lay, then a five-minute walk. Closer in, the studios and tea rooms below sit near MRT stations, and Pek Sin Choon on Mosque Street is a tea shop you can simply walk into.

The dragon kiln in Jurong West

TK Pottery Jungle is at 85 Lorong Tawas and open every day from 9am to 5pm. It says its wood kiln was built in 1940 and that the Tan family took over in 1965. Two dragon kilns remain in Singapore, this one and the former Guan Huat kiln at Jalan Bahar Clay Studios, and the type is named for its fiery, almost dragon-like look. Email ahead for the kiln tour, which explains how it works and lets you walk inside. Workshops start from S$65 for hand-building with a go on the wheel, and a potter's wheel trial is S$88.

Take bus 199 from Boon Lay Interchange and get off at the stop before Lor Danau. Parking is free but limited, so come early. Heartland Heritage Trails, Town by Town puts the kiln on the Jurong trail.

Clay, paper, stone and smoke

Three studios will teach a beginner something in one afternoon. Studio Asobi is a home studio near Kovan MRT, so it opens by appointment only. The 3-hour hand-building session costs S$95 and includes one vessel. Sessions run mostly on Saturday afternoons and generally hold up to seven people. The studio glazes and fires your piece, and it's ready two to three weeks later, so this one suits a longer stay. From Kovan MRT Exit B, take any bus and get off two stops on.

Based Book Arts, at 71 Lorong 23 Geylang, teaches a 3-hour long stitch bookbinding workshop for S$110. You choose the pages and the thread colours, no experience is needed and all materials and tools are provided. Cross the overhead bridge from Aljunied MRT Exit B, and tell the studio when you reach the lift lobby, since the lift needs an access card.

In Textile Centre on Jalan Sultan, Artify Studio runs a 2-hour workshop where you sketch a design, carve it into a stone seal and print it on paper. It's S$100, for ages 14 and up, and walk-ins aren't taken. Lavender and Nicoll Highway are the nearest stations.

Sifr Aromatics is a perfume shop at 42 Arab Street, and its workshop looks at how incense shaped Kampong Gelam (Kampong Glam), a port town and a departure point for Hajj pilgrims. You watch live demonstrations with myrrh, frankincense, oud and buhoor, try burning incense yourself and leave with a 10g blend that you mixed. Sessions start from S$100 for adults, with separate prices for children and seniors.

Tea, sauce and popiah

Tea is the easiest place to start. Yixing Xuan, a teahouse on Tanjong Pagar Road, runs a 1.5-hour workshop with free-flow of four teas for S$58 a person, or S$70 with dim sum. It's for two people or more, and a solo or same-day booking starts with a message to the shop. On East Coast Road, LimCha calls itself Singapore's first Teochew-focused teahouse and serves gongfu tea appreciation, built around Phoenix Mountain Dancong teas, from S$85.

For tea without a booking, Pek Sin Choon at 36 Mosque Street was founded in 1925 and is now run by the fourth generation. It blends and roasts its tea locally and hand-packs every pack in the shop, and it's open Monday to Saturday from 8.30am to 6.30pm.

The Nanyang Sauce Brewery at 18 Chin Bee Avenue gives a one-hour tour led by a third-generation family member, from the old terracotta vats to a private living museum. It's S$39 a person, and public sessions are sold on SISTIC. Groups of ten or more can book Kway Guan Huat in Joo Chiat, where the skin-makers work hot pans at 200°C and you wrap your own popiah, the thin rolled pancake with a filling. The outing is S$10.90 a person.

Gin and beer, for grown-ups

Brass Lion Distillery, which calls itself Singapore's first craft distillery, runs a tour every Saturday and Sunday at 3pm. For S$50 a person you get a welcome drink, a walk through the working distillery, an introduction to Nala, the hybrid copper still, and a tasting flight of signature gins. Slots are limited and often sell out, so book ahead. A tour runs for five to 25 guests, and everyone must be old enough to drink in Singapore. It's at 40 Alexandra Terrace, a 10-minute walk from Pasir Panjang or Labrador Park MRT.

Lion Brewery Co runs a grain-to-glass tour of its microbrewery at 36 Club Street: 45 minutes with the brewers, a 15-minute Q&A, a flight of four beers and some bites. It's S$60++ a person, which is plus service charge and GST, on Monday and Tuesday from 3pm to 5pm and on Friday and Saturday from 2pm to 5pm.

Sessions and dates change, so check each operator's page before you book.