Made by Me

Great selection and really nice place to stop by on a bad weather day. However I agree with the other reviewer that the studio time is pricey — if it was cheaper I would come more frequently.

Great selection of inexpensive pottery to paint. However, the studio time which is $ 8/​hour is pretty pricy, especially if you want to take your time. Other than that, it’s great, especially the short (1 week) time frame to pick up your finished products and selection of paints & stencils. Extremely well organized and wonderful for the whole family.

Really great, laid back atmosphere. The people working there were super nice and willing to explain how everything works. Additionally, I was impressed with the variety of pottery available to paint. There were played, bowls, serving dishes, mugs, animals, and a whole lot more! Everything was reasonably priced! They do charge $ 4 per half hour for studio time, but I was able to make a plate for less than$ 25. It’s a great personalized gift idea.
For those of us who have a little less artistic ability, they provide stencilsfor a wide range of things. I used a stencil for a bird, and it came out really well. After asking the person who works there, they also offer carbon paper to trace a design into the plate. That was very helpful for the lighthouse plate I made.
To conclude, I really enjoyed my experience here. Helpful staff, well made pottery, and great atmosphere! I would definitely come again.

This was the first stop on the bachelorette party I planned for my best friend. I rented the downstairs room and we all had a really fun time here! We painted and designed a platter and many of us chose individual pieces of pottery to paint as well. We were able to decorate and bring food and beverages for our time here. I ended up getting lost in Boston and encountered heavy traffic on the way to the pottery place and arrived 2.5 hrs late! They were still willing to extend our time when we asked for no extra charge, which I considered very lucky. Overall, a great experience and a fun time!

I’ve been to a lot of paint your own places all over the country and this is by far my favorite.
For one it’s not always filled with tons of kids. Yes there are often kids and it has a play area (for kids done painting) and is very kid/​parent friendly but there are also adults chatting with friends too so if you aren’t with a child you don’t feel like you shouldn’t be there as I have with similar places.
Second it’s friendly. The staff seem happy to work there. I found out it’s family owned so that might have something to do with it. There are lots of examples to look at and the staff were helpful in explaining how certain effects I liked can be done. I love the big windows that give lots of natural light and the music, at least when I’ve been in has been up beat but not so loud you can’t have a conversation or think. I also saw folks there with a snack to munch on and the girl behind the desk was clearly nibbling chocolate as she worked.
Lastly the prices seem about the same as other places I’ve gone. There’s the same variety, kitchen ware, boxes, little critters, piggy banks, clocks etc. Also check out the mini animals you can add on. I made a mug with snow man in it for when I drink hot chocolate! You can also leave work you don’t have time to finish and come back and later. Not a bad deal if you are busy.
Absolutely worth checking out if you need a place to get crafty or make a present.

My daughter had her birthday party here last weekend. The variety pottery items was great. My daughter and her friends had a great time and all in all it was a success.
The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because they were late to open the store, so my family and some of my daughter’s friends were waiting out in the cold. The party room is in the basement and the lighting is a little dark.
With all of that said, I would still go back and you should definitely check it out. They were very accommodating when I booked my party last minute.

Made by Me is an awesome social networking spot for group events. I planned an event here with my coworkers in the evening and the place was able to host all of us. We had the entire room to ourselves which was nice. I would say it could fit at least 25 people.
How it works: You pay a flat fee for just being able to use the studio then you pay for the piece of pottery which you would like to paint. If you want to come here with a group of less than 12 then you actually do not end up paying a flat fee. Instead you pay an hourly rate on $ 8 per hour PLUS the piece of pottery you choose. Pieces range from $ 5 to $ 35.
After selecting your piece, you spend time glazing it and then you leave it at the studio for them to fire it. The final products are usually done in a week or so. Our finals pottery pieces looked beautiful.
Value: For groups, I think this is a great value. If you decide to go in a small group and have to pay an hourly rate, I think it is expensive. I wish they did not charge hourly as it makes you feel pressured to finish up at a quicker rate. I wish they would just charge a flat fee for using the studio plus the price of the pottery for everyone.
Overall, I had an absolutely wonderful experience at Made by Me. The private room fostered communication and team building. I think this is an excellent team building activity for large groups!

Came here because of an incredible groupon deal and am considering buying at least another one.
It was a flashback to middle school art class. Once you enter, the process is all explained: from getting an item of choice to paint (They have bowls, banks, spoon holder, flower pot, and many other options) to the process involved in decorating your art piece (getting paint, using fun techniques, etc).
There’s nothing like this in the area, at least that I know of, and it’s the ideal place to get crafty. My three friends and I were there painting and chatting along side a family. It’s a fun activity for everyone.
Note, if you bring snacks, you’ll get distracted from painting and may take longer than expected. I experienced this problem today. Too many snacks, not enough time for the third coat!

Used a groupon here and had a great time. There is a wide selection of items to choose from and an even wider variety of paint colors to use as well. Good music playing, quiet, and relaxing. The girl working at the front desk was friendly and helpful. There were also some already painted pieces for sale that were very beautiful and well done (by the owner). There is also a Starbucks right across the street which was a plus. :o)

The owner Bessie and the others who work there are great. It’s a nice relaxing environment. I love that they are so close to where I live. Miss my girl friends! Or we could go hang there on weekdays after work. Great place for kid-​parent bonding too… me being a kid of 29 I can totally see me spending hours there with my Mom :)
Hubby and I had a date there last week and he loved it!

This is such an adorable place and concept. I’ve been here several times with my daughters over the years and also without children (my girlfriends like coming here, too). You don’t need to be artistic or crafty to have fun here, although if you are, I’m sure your results will be spectacular.
There’s a large variety of things to paint – the last time we were here, my daughters did a sock monkey and a piggy bank. All the supplies are here, and it’s actually not that messy. The people who work here are very nice, and they don’t bother you, although they are very receptive to any questions you have about how to do things. The color selection seems a little small to me, but that’s probably because I’ve been here too many times (plus, you can mix custom colors yourself). I guess I would like some neons or glitter options, but I don’t know if such things are even possible since I’m not an expert.
You pay for the cost of the item you chose to paint, plus $ 4 for every half hour of painting time you use. After you pay, you go home and think about what your piece might look like. In a week, you can pick up your finished product!

I used a Groupon which gave me $ 35 towards a piece and painting fees. Between the piece and the time sketching my design and getting base coats on, I used $ 34 of my of my credit. Another $ 20 later (it was a complicated piece) I had my completed piece. So ultimately I saved $ 15 and it would have been $ 55 without a voucher. Pricey!
They did not call me as they were supposed to, which wasn’t terrible as there was no time crunch, but I was sort of annoyed to stop in after 10 days and ask «Do you have my piece ready?» Considering I was told I would get a call and the cost, a phone call would have been nice. As you can tell, I’m not a big fan of the $ 4 per half hour painting charge – I simply had a detailed piece (a birthday plate for my daughter with the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland) and didn’t just want to slop glaze everywhere. I visited on weekday afternoons and it wasn’t crowded (many times I was the only person there). Some of those people were kids, but they were definitely pros and always well behave. I feel this place doesn’t cater to kids one way or another.
I have some Buy With Me vouchers for the Clayroom in Brookline, which charges a flat studio fee, which is better IMO. I can’t imagine though that any of these places have people who come in to buy pottery and *not* paint it – so why not stop with the nickle and diming and just charge a higher price for the piece, period? The Clayroom is also closer to my home and I’ve had good experiences there doing some Christmas gifts a few years back. I wouldn’t return to MBM unless they offer a really good voucher. I could tell though they were getting annoyed with the customers who were coming in towards the voucher deadline so I don’t imagine they’ll offer another one soon.

I’ve passed this place a million times and always thought it looked cute, but never had the time to go… so on a gray/​rainy day, my friend and I went, and were surprised!
This place is great. I walked in there with a ‘deer in headlights’ look since I had absolutely no idea what I should do first. The employee there (perhaps the owner) was very helpful in offering suggestions (i.e. which layer to paint first, tricks for using stencils – a crazy idea since I had never thought of stencils before!, etc.). We both picked mugs and got to work.
People complain about having to pay per ½ hour of painting, but I found this a good thing. There is an earlier review about it keeping parents from dumping their kids off as a pseudo-​daycare, which I agree with. The time limits are also not as bad as everyone makes it out to be– $ 4 for 30 minutes… I was in there just short of 2 hours, so $ 16, but for the amount of paint/​glaze I used, it was definitely worth it.
When we went, there was one group of 3 kids, but were soon finished. It ended up being all 20-​somethings, ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ for guys/​girls! There was also a young couple that brought in their own wine. Awesome.
I will definitely come here again.
Oh, and side note – normal sized tables and chairs = definite plus.

Cute little pottery place on a Mass Ave. corner. This place is calm and inviting, providing a little break from the hustle bustle of the world. There are plenty of options to paint including mugs, plates, and little figurines. Prices are very reasonable.
I went into the store mid-​day, mid week and found the lady working there (I think the owner) to be very helpful. I didn’t know anything about it but figured it would be something fun to do on a day off. She explained everything and within minutes I was painting.
I found the ease and comfort of the painting experience to be welcoming and inviting to come back.
Definitely a place to check out if you have a spare couple of hours.

This was a great place for me to spend time with my little sister. We found it by accident after walking way too far searching for a restaurant near Porter Square. It was snowing and windy and the bright windows and colorful pottery beckoned to us.
I loved that the pottery is hand thrown and you use real glaze. The atmosphere was calming with Sinatra swing music in the background. It was easy to do and you pay for the pottery plus an hourly rate for the amount of time you are painting. (I especially loved this hourly rate because it discourages parents from using this place as a pseudo day care center. I used to work at a paint-​your-​own-​plaster-​crafts store and some parents were chronic abusers of the fact that they could drop their kids off and come back in a few hours for the cost of acrylic on plaster. All the kids here had a guardian that was involved with them.)
This place is great for all ages ranging from couples on dates to families spending time together. I will definitely go back.

Paint your own pottery places like Made by Me are a favorite hangout spot for me when the weather’s crappy or I just need a little creative therapy. I’ve been to Made by Me twice now and will likely be heading back soon!
The shop is small but cosy and I appreciate their sturdy tables. nothing is more annoying than trying to paint something on a rickety, wobbly table. There’s a great paint selection and a pretty good selection of pottery to pick from, from the functional, like platters and tea pots, to the whimsical, like a statuette of an elephant.
This place can get expensive depending on what you pick. You pay for the price of the pottery and then are charged $ 4 per half hour that you spend in the studio painting. When you’re done they take down your information and a week later you can return and picked up your fired and finished pottery.
This place is great to bring your kids, great to go on a date, and would even be fun for a chill night out with your friends. I’ve always found the employees to be really helpful. Just a tip, too: they don’t sell any food or drinks to sip or snack on, but you can bring your own snacks and wine if you’d like!

This place is VERY EXPENSIVE! They charge not only for the piece you paint but also hourly for each person. I had never heard of such a thing. I have been to my fair share of «Paint Your Own Pottery» places and this place was the most expensive. I made a chip and dip dish or a really low standing cake plate not sure but I use it as a chip and dip dish and my boyfriend made a coffee cup for the 2 pieces, painting and whatever they do with it after I paint it came to almost $ 70! The experience is well worth as my boyfriend and I had a nice day together painting pottery. I would go somewhere else especially if you had a lot of kids. I think I would have looked more into other places if I had know how pricey this place was. I most likely will never go back to that place.
One little annoying thing I just remembered while we were there (we were 2 of 4 customers the whole time we were there) the owner sang the whole time we were there and was seriously rushing to finish painting so I didnt have to listen to her for one more minute.

Headed here after a birthday lunch in Harvard Sq with a group of 5 friends. It was lots of fun to paint and chat.
We were promised everything would be ready in 6 days. So 2 people painted birthday gifts to give people on day 7.
BUT picking up the pottery was a huge disappointment. I showed up on day 6 to pick up everything. At first I was told it was all still in the kiln. Then after 45 minutes– they found all but 2 pieces (one being a birthday gift.) Things happen– so I wrote down my name, number and a description of the pieces and waited for a call.
Five days later I still hadn’t heard a peep from MBM so I went on over. The pieces were ready and my note was in my mug. I told the staff member I was glad they were ready since I hadn’t received a call yet. She told me she called 4 days ago. It never happened. She repeated herself multiple times. Had she just said «oops– very sorry» or the like I would have given 3 or 4 stars. But things not being ready, not getting a phone call and then her lying definitely made for a negative experience.

We decided to go here as part of our date day. How it works is you pick the piece you want to paint, the price varies depending on what item you pick. Then you pay a small studio fee for the amount of time you spend painting it. It took a while for us to decide on what we wanted to paint, I opted for a plate and she chose a chalice (total diva). They have a wide range of colors if you feel like being vibrant or you can stick to darker colors because they have a lot to chose from.
It’s like art class when you were a kid, minus the art teacher. Which means you can do what you want without getting detention. They have sponges and stencils if you want to go there. They had a token Irish stencil with a pot gold, and a person doing the jig, and a leprechaun. While it was amusing (and probably good for little kids) we did not end up using it.
It made for a good date. We spent about an hour there, before going to lunch. This place is perfect for a day when you have few things to do and just want to have a little fun.

I kind of ended up at Made by Me by accident. I had planned on going to the Clayroom in Brookline, which I had been to before and liked. But they didn’t have their hours posted on their website, and they weren’t answering the phone (and didn’t have the hours on the voice mail), and I was not interested in driving over to Brookline to find a locked door. So I did a little Unilocal search for paint your own pottery, and it led me to Made by Me, which I must have driven by one thousand times, but which I totally forgot existed on the outskirts of Porter Square. Their website was clear and had the hours, and when I called for confirmation of those hours, I reached a very helpful person.
I needed to paint something for my sister, because her wedding was almost 6 months ago, and I had failed in getting her a wedding present. I knew that I wanted to paint something for her all along, but finding the time to do it was difficult. But I finally found the time, and Made for Me was ready for me.
I found a really nice big platter to paint, and it was a fairly reasonable $ 45. They had a nice selection of paints to choose from, and the work space was very clean and conducive to creating lovely works of art. After two hours of painting, I ended up with a piece I was pretty happy with, and in 6 days, I’ll have a completed, fired platter to give to my sister. I think I’ll stick with Made by Me from now on.