Elizabeth B.
Yelp
Went here with a small group to celebrate my husband's birthday. We signed up for a 2.5 hr session for $75/person. The class provided two clumps of clay, mixed white and red, and enough time to throw two things. Once thrown, we set the pieces aside and picked out a glaze (a choice of 5 colors- three blues, a red, and a black). And that was that.
Pros:
1) Teacher was very nice and was able to help three of us who had a lot of previous throwing experience refresh our skills while also teacher one of our friends who was completely new to throwing.
2) oh wait, there aren't any more.
Cons:
1) there was no choice in clay. While this means nothing to a newbie, it seemed ridiculous to experienced throwers. We were given a cool combo of red and white clay BUT we couldn't trim it (unless we wanted to pay for another $75 session) so there was literally NO POINT to have the mixed clay.
2) there was no follow up post throwing (unless you wanted to pay for another session). So we had a chance to get our hands dirty and throw a pot or two, BUT we didn't get to trim the clay, add a handle, or creatively glaze. To a veteran thrower, this is all part of the experience. I akin it to taking a cooking class for baking holiday cookies. If you pay for the class, you should get to measure and mix the ingredients, shape the cookies on a baking sheet, cook them, then decorate when they're done. We were allowed to mix the ingredients, and tell them what icing color we wanted, then we were left to come back in three weeks to pick up the finished product. It felt weird, and all of us felt quite shafted.
3) glaze choices were mediocre. As mentioned before there were only 5 choices and not one of them was in the white/off white family. In the store they have a TON of color choices (including the oatmeal that I wanted), but those are saved for people that pay for other types of memberships or class sessions.
4) when I finally got to pick up my glazed-by-someone-else bowls, one of them had a crack in the bottom. And so did my husband's. I was really disappointed to see this large crack down the middle of one bowl and the explanation for the teacher was, "there was probably too much water in the bottom or it wasn't compact enough." Okay, while I accept that as a proper scientific explanation, I was LIVID at the fact that it should be the teacher's job to help us avoid that from happening! I mention at all during the class and no apologies on behalf of the teacher for this unfortunate outcome. Also, my other bowl had a drip of glaze down the side, which demonstrated that someone was pretty careless when doing these for me.
After walking away from the class, the three of us who had experience throwing were utterly disappointed and felt like it was a waste of money and a complete let down. On of us actually refuses to pick up his glazed stuff because the class did not deliver and he feels the products he made are useless. The one newbie with us had a nice time. I understand why she did, plus neither of her tiny bowls were cracked.
If you've never taken ceramics before and you have very low expectations, then this is a fine place. If you have previous skills and want a complete experience, start saving for the 4 week class option or the really expensive monthly membership.