Earth & Fire

It hurts to write this, as I worked here a decade ago (gasp) while in high school. The original owners gave me my first job and for a few years I lived earth and fire… I think they’d be a little disappointed to see what it became.
A few aspects are the same, the paint tiles, the blue glazing box, the stamp tower, even the display plates are still the original owner’s beautiful handwriting, and a few of the tiles made it over from the original location. We arrived on a busier Sunday and grabbed the last two top (well, they seemed to have downsized the table amount, so that’s not saying too much). The frazzled woman working asked if we knew the drill, I told her it had been almost a decade, my sister said it had been a few years, but she took this as a «great, not first timers» and kind of tried to brush us off. I asked if we still had to wipe down the pieces, she initially said no, then that it wouldn’t hurt, and then yes, we should… okay. From then on I just had to channel everything that was drilled through my head years ago, light before dark, multiple coats, not too thick or it’ll burst while firing, utilize the hair dryer if needed… There were a good amount of children running around and first timers, and I didn’t hear either employee go through the paint «spiel» once. The brushes looked like they were the same ones from ten years ago, incredibly hard to paint anything of detail with!
I did notice although a lot of the pieces looked similar, they were not of the same quality. They also changed how they priced things, instead of giving us our clipboard to fill out towards the beginning and marking a start time there was a flat fee and the woman working came over halfway through and was trying to guess about how much our pieces may have cost since we’d already painted over or wiped off the original price.
I tried to make small talk but the women working said she had only been there three months or so and couldn’t answer much about the business… She then became completely confused when I asked her to ring the purchase up slightly differently so I could give the pink tag to someone without them knowing the full price, needless to say she didn’t get it so we moved on.
Maybe it was a bad day, but two teenagers could run this place better than the two employees on staff!
I think it could still be a fun place to have girls night, or showers, but make them go through the whole process with you so you actually get a functional piece at the end!!!

I really enjoy coming with friends or my children. Love the new location it is cozy. We always have a good time. Thursday it is free for children under 6 and half off for those older and they have refreshments.

I am very sad that this place has declined in the past few years.
Earth & Fire is a paint-​your-​own-​pottery studio that can be a lot of fun for group outings and kids, but the place just ain’t what it used to be!
First of all, paying a flat rate paint fee is simply unrealistic and too expensive when you’re painting with small children who will likely lose interest after about fifteen minutes. The only way that can be worth it is if an adult is working for several hours on one piece.
Second, the bisque that the store now uses is cheap! Every piece I turned over had «Made In China» stamped on the bottom. I knew the original owners of this company very well and know they used to shop around for high-​quality «heavy» bisque that was made in the USA, and that is certainly no longer what is happening.
Third, the glaze that they put on the pieces before firing them is super-​cheap. How do I know? Because after one washing of my pieces, the glaze «crazed» on the mugs. (Tiny spider-​web like cracks all over the surface.) This only happens when the glaze is low-​quality or über-​thin. Combine that with the cheap bisque, and I’m just downright angry that I payed $ 30 for two small coffee mugs that my kid spent 10 minutes painting.
The employees are polite and attentive, and to be fair they aren’t the ones setting the prices and buying the bisque and glaze.
Sad to say, I won’t be back. :o (