Clay Cafe

I went with my boyfriend and his 6 yr old daughter, and I have to say this place was UTTERLY UNPROFESSIONAL, especially when I compare it to «All Fired Up» in Cleveland Park, which is where I’ve gone in the past. Go there instead, get a professional, courteous experience you deserve for your $$.
1. Place is cramped, and everything is WAY over priced, especially considering the «studio fees.» Other businesses are much cheaper with better service.
2. Paint swatches displaying how each paint turns out once fired are usually displayed on the wall above the paints. Here they are stacked in a box in a corner, you have to dig through them to find your color. Plus, everyone has to look through the same box and hand the employee that swatch before she can find the corresponding paint. Basically it’s a totally inefficient system, leads to A LOT of wasted time.
3. If I hadn’t gone to these places before, our pieces would have be ruined. The employee we talked to has NO IDEA what was going on, and I was the one who had the explain to our 6 yr old the important technique of layering paint so it shows up, how the puffy paint works, where the stencils were, etc. At «All Fired Up» the employees are actually HELPFUL AND KNOWLEDGEABLE about where they work.
4. The employee grabbed our pieces right off the table WHILE THEY WERE STILL WET and completely smudged my 6 yr old’s puffy paint writing and got fingerprints in the other pieces. HELLO??? We got a weak apology, and that was all.
Next time, I will make the trip to DC or someplace else nearby. This place is an overpriced dump in comparison.

We took our daughter to Clay Café for spring break camp and it was fantastic. I was sad to see the week come to an end. The employees in the store were very nice. Also, I found the camp’s coordinator to be as good as it gets with running a camp for kids. She knows what she’s doing in running a camp because she understands kids and is excellent at teaching art. She keeps the kids busy and helps them enjoy the camp’s experience. Clay Café itself pretty cool too. I see people in there painting their chosen clay pieces and enjoying it. After their painted pieces are put in a kiln, those people then get to come back and collect some nice looking finished pieces. And it appears those pieces usually turn out looking pretty nice. That’s fun and rewarding if you ask me. All of the pieces my daughter painted in their camp turned out nice for sure. I couldn’t be happier and am looking forward to bringing her back for summer camp. Clay Café gets an A+++ for doing something unique and fun and providing a great camp for kids.

I had yet another awful experience here. I thought I would give it one more chance– I will never return.
I went in because I wanted to buy some platters that I could then bring with me for my child’s class to decorate for their teacher, then bring back to get glazed. I called in advance was told this would be fine.
When I got to the store, the lady who was there was clueless– she couldn’t help me. She didn’t know the price of the item I wanted to buy, she didn’t know what to give me to take, she couldn’t answer any of my questions.
She called another coworker who was on his lunch break. He made up prices for the platters, which were insane. He finally said, why don’t I come back in an hour and he could help me then. Needless to say, with toddler in tow, I walked out and will NEVER return. This is not how you do business. If your store is open, you need to staff it at all times with knowledgeable people. Clay Café lost $ 100 of business in a matter of minutes.

The owner responded to my post about the crapy attitude of the employee. Super impressed by this. Updating to 5 stars for this attention from the owner.

My friend and I went here recently and had a terrible and bizarre experience. I needed to paint a gift for a friend, and we decided to go after 6 p.m. on a Saturday night in order to get half off our studio fees (as advertised on Clay Café’s website). Upon arrival, the store was empty of patrons, and the woman working did not seem happy we were there. We selected our pottery pieces and asked the employee for sponges, but she told us that they rarely use sponges anymore because the pottery pieces don’t stay on the shelves long enough to get dusty. My friend and I looked at our dust-​covered pottery pieces and had to blow the dust off and wipe the dust off as best as we could. Then we went to select our paint colors, but the paint bottles were all mixed up, and many were not clearly labeled. Typically, a small glazed square of each color is displayed to show how the paint will look once the piece has gone through the kiln. However, most of the colors did not have that, so we had to guess how the color would turn out.
Once we sat down, an unusual situation occurred. A man came in with his small daughter (she was probably about six years old) and selected a piece of pottery for his daughter to paint. While his daughter was painting, the man said to the employee, «I’ll be right back» and DROVE AWAY leaving his young child completely unattended in the store. My friend and I stared incredulously at the employee, and she just smiled absently back at us. The child continued to paint by herself for about 15 minutes, and then her father came back. During that time, there was nothing stopping the child from leaving the store. My friend and I considered calling the police, but we didn’t know what to do since the employee was clearly aware of the situation.
Once we finished painting our pieces, we asked the employee if we should fill out anything to label our pieces, but she said no. She then proceeded to ring my friend up and neglected to add the late-​night studio fee discount, which I quickly pointed out to her. She corrected the price, took our pieces, and we left.
About 10 days later, my friend went back to pick up the finished pieces. Mine was ready, but they had LOST my friend’s piece! When my friend asked for a refund, they said that maybe the piece was still in the kiln, but they couldn’t check because the kiln was on. They told her to call back, and so she left with just my piece. Even if they find it, my friend will still have to be inconvenienced to return to the store a second time. We are both confused and frustrated by the obvious lack of customer service at the Clay Café, and I do not plan on returning.

We have being coming here for several years and we love it BUT it seems that the place just change owners and now the place is a mess. Tables are dirty, brushes dry, the selection is very poor. I think we are done with this place. I am sorry because it used to be nice.

Great place. We go there at least three times a year for our kids birthday hand prints. And even had a birthday party here.
Try it out and u will love it.

I have been to almost every clay studio in the area and Clay Café is consistently my favorite. Very reasonably priced. Staff is kind and knowledgable without being pushy.

Great selection of items but just wished they had more variety of brushes and materials to paint with. My piece came out great and love the environment. Nice and big space and chill attitude. The prices for the items are a little bit cheaper than most but then they have a sitting fee so it comes out to be almost on par with other places. Also the shopping center area has some great snack and coffee places if you need a pick me up from painting.

Extremely helpful staff who sat with us and helped us pick colors, textures, and designs.
Loved the experience! Easy, relatively clean/​neat, and fun!
Went a second time and had a relatively unhelpful employee, but he left and the helpful employee we had in our previous visit arrived. I guess it is hit or miss.

We’ve really enjoyed this place, both for camps and for individual visits. It’s not that hard to figure out what’s going on, and if you tell them it’s your first time, they will show you precisely what to do (and there are instructions on the table, too, if you’re shy). They’ve always got an interesting assortment of pottery, though some of it can get expensive. Staff has always been friendly and welcoming to us — they greet my son by name now.
The camps keep even my hyperactive little guy busy and focused, and he comes home with such interesting artwork — not just randomly painted stuff, but works that show that they’ve been teaching him decorative technique as well. And they aren’t limited to pottery painting — he’s come home with fused glass, foam-​piece-​decorated visors, painted tote bags, picture frames (made with smashed-​up pottery that people never bothered to pick up — so pick up your pottery!), beaded lanyards, you name it. It’s a great creative outlet (and they found space for him on short notice when he was injured and couldn’t participate in another, more active camp, too). He’s gone back three times, and would be glad to go back again.

Once again, Clay Café doesn’t disappoint. Great prices — we had three painters, and each painted a different item — plate, bowl and toy and our total bill was around $ 50! The service was great — the staff is very friendly and very helpful, with as much help need. You can have as much paint and as many colors as you like, you can take as much time as you need. It’s a very low key, friendly studio and we always are happy with the results!

We’ve been here a few times, the first time for a birthday party (four years ago), then again with our Girl Scout troop (earlier this year to earn the Ceramics & Clay Junior badge) and just recently, for fun. Not sure why the reviews are so negative as we’ve been pleased each time we came. Just walk in and find a place to sit, pick out what you want to paint (additional cost, ranging from $ 8-​$ 40), gather your colors and get to paintin’! In a week your items will be ready for pickup.
Sign up for their newsletter to get coupons and specials. Tuesdays and Saturdays (after 6pm) everyone paints for $ 3 (regularly $ 6) and Sundays a family of four paints paints for $ 15. They also offer glass fusion.

The service here is terrible. If you have painted pottery before and want zero assistance, this would work for you. You just have to figure it out yourself, figure out where the paints are, etc., while staff watch you from behind the counter. If you have never painted before, don’t come here.

While the service is horrible the prices are reasonable. If you haven’t painted pottery before don’t start here. Luckily I had some idea of what to do. While I was in there a family came in to make a legit complaint that the owners rudely dismissed. Overall, if you’re looking to be left alone to paint its a great place. Of you need help try somewhere else. One more thing, when we went to pick up our pieces a week later only half of our order had been baked. They told us to come back again later. I dont have time to keep bouncing back and forth for that :(