Creative Hands Studio

I have been attending adult pottery 10week program for two quarters now.

The instructors, peers and staffs are super friendly, patient and extremely knowledgeable. People here take pride in their craft and it has always been a very encouraging and supportive environment.

I started off to explore this as an hobby and now it has become a serious passion.

I have signed up for next quarter and will pursue basic to intermediate courses.

Creative Hands Studio is incredible!
I have taken multiple 10 week pottery wheel courses, as well as attended many open hours sessions. The staff is always kind and knowledgable, the atmosphere is warm and relaxed, and the prices for what you get to do? incredible. 10/10, They've got a life long patron in me.

Three of my friends and I were enticed to try our hand at wheel throwing after seeing that this studio offered a 50% discount on one 90-minute class, which came to $36 per person. The class has a capacity of about 10 people and each person gets a single pound of clay. After creating your first pot, you can purchase a second pound of clay for $5 if you want to throw again.

VISIT #1 - 90-MINUTE WHEEL-THROWING CLASS
The instructor first showed us how to manipulate our clay by making it taller, shorter and opening it up into a bowl. Wheel throwing is WAY more challenging than it looks! You need to put your whole body into it and lean down, engaging your core. How you shape your hands around the clay makes a huge difference and you need to drip some water on it every few minutes to keep it moist. This is something one needs to practice a couple times to get the hang of it. Thankfully, the instructor was very patient, knowing that everyone in the class was at a beginner level. She walked around while we were forming our pots and kindly helped us get back on track if our piece was becoming misshapen. In the last few minutes of the class, we cleaned up our work station and wheel apparatus.

Tip: Be sure to take a photo of your clay creation and/or mark your initials so that you can easily identify it during pickup.

VISIT #2 - GLAZING OUR POTS
After two weeks, you can come back to pick up your fired piece, although I believe they will hold it for up to three months after the date of your class. Anyone who wishes to glaze (paint) their piece can do so for an additional cost of $20. You would think this should be included with the price of the class since a non-glazed piece is pretty much unusable.

We shaved off the sharp edges around the bottoms of our pots and then one employee provided an introduction to the various types of glazes they offer. The basic glazes are included in the $20 price, but they also have premium glazes that come at an extra cost. Before beginning to paint, we waxed the bottom of our pieces to prevent them from sticking to the kiln. Then, we got our creativity flowing by brushing on the glaze.

Note: The studio also offers ceramic pieces (like animal figures, vases, mugs, etc.) that you can purchase and paint. If you're not into ceramics, there are other classes such as resin design, paint & sip, and more.

As much as I enjoyed my first wheel-throwing experience, I consider the pricing very steep if someone is not applying the discount. At the discounted cost of $36 for the class and $20 to paint my piece, it came to a total of $56. Without the discount, I would have paid $92 for the creation of just one small pot.

A very fun addition to Bothell. Love the painting studio with an option to reserve a spot or walk in. Super kid friendly and price includes all fees. My daughter loves it here. Big spot with a decent amount of parking. We will be back!

Creative Hands is in a beautiful new building with lots of natural light and space. There's several rooms, including a painting room, a pottery room, and party room, and it appeared that there was also something upstairs.

They had the better part of two walls of ceramic items to choose from. We had a bit of sticker shock, as some items were priced much higher than we expected, like a 6" tall elephant for $49. We choose a small turtle, and that was $32. I realize that customers get "free" use of the paints and brushes, and it takes time and effort for the business to fire it and finish it up. Just know that this isn't a place to come if you are looking for something "cheap" to do for fun. Many of the items did not have prices on them at all.

We found the staff to be polite, kind, and helpful when asked. It was a fairly chaotic and active space, though, and I would have really liked someone to explain to us how things were done. We were shown to a table and then left on our own. As novices, we had no idea we were supposed to do three layers of paint and let them dry in between, or that we were able to help ourselves to the paints. It would have been nice to have someone tell us that upon our arrival so we didn't wait for so long, only to have to flag someone down to help us after all.

Also of note, all paints in the ceramic area are water soluble. No aprons are provided.

There's a small snack and beverage assortment available for purchase.

Turn around time for ceramics is about one week.

I was searching for resin art classes in Seattle and came across creative hands studio. I found out they offer a resin workshop at least once a month so I signed up through their website.

On arrival, the parking lot was completely full and I thought I was going to have to find parking gas station or something because they're not exactly in an area with street parking. That was a little frustrating because I thought I would end up being late to the workshop - so I parked in a spot next to a parking spot in the dirt/gravel area which was probably not a real spot.

The resin workshop was being held upstairs. They started off the workshop by having everyone introduce themselves and say whether or not they had worked with resin before.

We each have our own station with a canvas, an apron, and plastic wrap on the floor.

While the class was guided by staff, some parts were not exactly clear, and we had to explicitly ask clarifying questions to make sure we were at the right step in the process.

Everyone in the class had totally unique pieces of art by the end. It was really cool to see how different colors and pouring styles created different effects on the canvases. Every piece is truly one of a kind!

The pieces needed to dry, so you had to wait at least a day to come back and pick it up. This was a bummer because I traveled quite a ways, but I ended up making a trip out of it when I went to pick up my art.

This is truly a unique experience, and I would definitely recommend a resin workshop to anyone who's curious and wants to try something new.

Such a fun date place!
Definitely recommend to friends/couples/family to come check out. :)
Inside is very spacious too with plenty of parking.

I have taken a couple of classes with Creative Hands and have loved every second of it! The instructors and staff are very helpful. I highly recommend the 10 week course if you're a beginner or the 90 minute one time session to just try something new! I have am leaving my 10 week class with many pieces that I'm proud of and will be returning for another 10 weeks this Spring!

I booked a class for two using a discount promo code offered on Creative Hands Studio's website. When we arrived, the receptionist stated that we booked for four, and that "oh, because you booked on the website and not the Groupon" that duplicate reservation occurred. I asked for a refund because my order confirmation showed only two tickets with a total of $156.00 or so (I still had the screen open on my phone). If I had booked for four, it would show four tickets on my confirmation screen with that SAME total - clearly system error, right? The front desk staff called the instructor and said they could offer us a $5 ball of clay in return. I was confused because how could $5 even make up the cost of two tickets for a pottery class? The instructor said she'll speak to the owner when he gets there. Then the beginning of the class began, and this instructor explained that the there is an additional cost for glazing, etc., etc., and so I was like, OH, maybe they meant the comp would include the glazing, because that could be closer to the amount Creative Hands should have refunded us. We took the $5 ball of clay and at that point the owner arrived. He rushed us and was somewhat aggressive in his teaching style (e.g. yelling into a general space/area ordering people to stop doing something, making it confusing who he was speaking to, and since said person wasn't listening because they didn't know he was speaking to them, owner start getting irritated). Anyway, we rushed our $5 balls of clay due to this atmosphere and were just like, OK, cleaned up our stations and went to checkout. Owner rings us up for an additional $80 for the glazing! We explained again what occurred with the system showing two for the price of four, and he explained that they already gave us those $5 free clay balls as a comp.

I reported to the Attorney General and Creative Hands responded with conflicting information, stating that they had basically given us the time of what would be considered a whole separate class. As I described re: our experience above, it wasn't a whole separate class experience.

What is sad is that when we first arrived, we were so excited and were thinking of bringing our kid and family for their summer camp activities. What could have been lots of money spent by us over the years is gone due to Creative Hands' shady business practices.

Creative Hands states that we could have double checked our receipts. I've attached my order confirmation in Google (which allows attachments) to show how Creative Hands refuses to take accountability for its online ordering system error (which is not the consumer's responsibility). Here, see how the order confirmation page somehow shows two separate booking numbers on the same order confirmation page, while also showing only two person reservation. https://maps.app.goo.gl/Dwhv26D6jiKLmtPe8

My boyfriend and I took the 90 Min Pottery Wheel Throw Class as a date activity and we both had lots of fun!

The instructor was super knowledgeable and patiently took us through all the steps for making our bowls. When we messed up, she was kind enough to help us 1:1 to get us back on track!

Firing and glazing our pieces were an additional cost, but I felt like it was still a good deal compared to other studios I've been to since they let you paint your pieces after they've been fired about 2 weeks later.

Overall it was a super fun date activity and I would come back with my friends!