Clay Connection

I am a professional ceramic artist, and I come here when I need to restock my Clay Art Center clay supply. When I first started coming here, things were great. Over the past year, though, I have become disappointed with certain aspects of this place. One of those aspects is the person who answers the phone. As a professional calling a business who supplies me with the items I need to get my job done, I expect to be talking to someone on the other end who knows what I’m talking about. That woman is completely clueless. She is not the owner, and just seems to have been hired to answer the phone. I asked for certain items, items that to anyone who is worthy of being employed at a clay shop should be quite easily known, and she had no idea what I was talking about. EPK is one of the most common ingredients in glaze production, and she had no idea what it was. Secondly, when I asked about replacement kiln elements, her response was, «Uh…those are the coily things that are on the inside, right?» I couldn’t believe my ears. I was stunned. There was no way I would trust the fate of my beloved $ 2000 kiln to someone so incompetent, so I ordered elements online. The final straw was when she got a box of clay for me to pick up, and it was so hard that it took three days of soaking to make malleable again. Mind you, I was on a strict deadline to make a show date, and three days can be an eternity for a clay artist.
One time, I hired them to fire some of my pottery for me, and they didn’t scrape the shelves before putting my pieces on them. The result was glaze caked all over the bottom of several bowls that I had to file down with a sander grinder.
I am sad to be writing this review. I really am. However, I really hope they might read this and learn from it. I want to support a local business and be able to say good things about it. However, things have got to change there if they want to earn the respect of the professional art community.
The only reason I gave two stars instead of one is because they are here for whenever my clay supplies are low. That is all.

The staff was very friendly and helpful. Thank you Jessica! We took one of the two hour classes and got to make whatever we wanted with the help of Jessica. It was a lot of fun and our stuff turned out really nice. I will definitely be coming back. They have a lot of classes to do, pre made items you can just buy and glaze, and open studios you can rent. Wonderful place. I highly recommend going here with a significant other. Great play to make memories. Thank you Clay Connection!

I hadn’t touched clay in about 10 years. My husband and I came here on a whim. It was raining but he wanted to get out of the house. Rainy days and being lazy are a dangerous combination. We took an intro session, I’m not sure what it is called as my husband was on the phone making all the arrangements. It included about 5 lbs of clay, glazing, and about 2 hours of studio time to make our piece. We sat with an instructor, Jessica, in a small room and she explained the basics to us. My husband made a beer stein and I made a mushroom with a spider and ladybug on it. We used pinchpots and coil methods. Jessica was great giving us ideas and tips. Like I said, it had been quite a while since my last ceramics class and I usually stuck to the pots made on the wheel and plates. I was never good at freehand sculptures and I was very surprised (and happy!) with what my hands were able to make. My hubby’s stein came out huge and he signed me up for a 5-​week course. Our session was $ 45/​person, the 5-​week course is $ 125 I think and it includes 25lbs of clay, 5 classes which are pretty flexible, and unlimited studio time. So you can come in during business hours and work on your projects, no charge. There are lots of fantastic pieces for sale in the gallery and everyone there was pretty friendly. Oh and there were 4 – 5 dogs running around in the back. Any business that includes their furry counterparts gets beaucoup brownie points.