Very creatively fabulous environments and teaching by owner artist Tracy. Lots of ideas for gifts…read moreto be shown

highly recommend Oksana's School of Art as a great place for anyone who is looking for high quality…read moreart instruction and a beautiful studio with inspiring works of art from other students. I have taken art lessons from Oksana for years, so can speak directly to how much she has helped me grow in my own abilities. I also saw how well she worked with children of various levels and the beautiful works her students presented. I love the way she brings her years of professional experience and training to her lessons, adapting them to each student's needs. I have now started taking lessons in her new studio, and it is beautiful, with all the capabilities of her previous studio and more. All new easels and a beautifully lit room show she has really made this space into what she cares about for her students. A beautiful spot for learning and working on building skills and making great art!

This is a brand-new art school in Vancouver, WA, run by Oksana, a highly trained and exceptional…read moreartist. The facility is modern and fully equipped, providing not only training but also selling the necessary supplies for any student to get started. Classes are conveniently timed, all ages and skill levels are welcomed, and there is plenty of parking available. The facility: Upon entering, students are greeted with a welcome area that is inviting, warm, and confidence-inspiring. The classroom area has plenty of seating, while encouraging support and instruction. In addition to art supplies being available for sale, there are snacks, bathrooms, and sinks for cleaning. The instructor: Oksana is an accomplished art instructor, who has been teaching for well over a decade. I was a student of hers at a prior art school. Under her instruction, I went from barely being able to use a pencil to now doing realistic oil paintings. And if she can teach an unskilled clod like me, she has to be really something! The location: Conveniently located near Mill Plain and Macarthur (enter via the driveway on Mill Plain due to construction on Macarthur), the facility is between downtown and East Vancouver and only a few minutes from I-5, I-205, or WA-14. The classes: Students learn at their own pace, and once the basics are down, they can progress on their own projects. All ages and skill levels are welcome. Highly recommended!

My son's had a great experience at Isabel's over the last year and a half. We sadly moved away from…read morehis first daycare, but he warmed up quickly to Isabel and the new space. We are so grateful for Isabel's kindness, flexibility, and open communication with us. Our son has a great time there, and gets to play with other kids, go on walks every day to the local park, and do all the fun and messy crafts that we avoid attempting at home. And also a super added bonus that he's learning Spanish!

Izzy had worked with my 9 year old son during the pandemic. My son struggled in math and Izzy was…read morevery understanding. She created a great learning space where my son could ask questions and learn at his pace.

Glass artist extraordinaire. Go feast your eyes on beautiful glass. Buy yourself a gift that will…read morespend a lifetime making you happy.

I started with glass fusing at one of those places where you come in, you pick a pre-defined…read moreproject and then hand it over to the facilitator - you come back later to pick up the final piece. I enjoyed that and did it a couple of times. I wanted to do more however I didn't have all of the equipment you need to finish a piece of glass (kiln, grinder, sandblaster, diamond saw). The equipment is both massive and expensive. Some of it is very dusty (sandblaster) and other pieces require water supply (grinder, saw). Some requires special ventilation (kiln, sandblaster) and a lot of knowledge to use these pieces safely. My next step was to take a couple of classes with Bullseye, again, somewhat pre-defined projects with limited opportunity to go in your own direction. The good news is that they offer "studio time" which allows you to use their equipment, for a fee. Finally I met Nathan. While he didn't invent the vitrigraph kiln, he did a lot of original innovation in what can be done with it and has taught classes far and wide to others who want to learn his process. He is also very experienced and talented with kiln glass - creating your design in a piece of glass, perhaps dropping it through a mold to create a vase or a bowl and then all of the "cold work" that I alluded to above. Nathan is a great teacher and after taking a couple of on-line classes from him, I've taken a class from him in his studio. I've made a couple of projects there and I am continuing to go back to work on other projects, expanding on the knowledge I've accumulated. When I started my most recent class I was not very successful with cutting circles of glass. Nathan identified part of the problem was that I had a similar but not the right tool. The other part was to get out of my head and just do it until I was comfortable. Now I'm feeling very comfortable cutting circles, loading terracotta pots with glass, pulling cane (rods of glass) out of the bottom of the vitrigraph kiln and chopping those up into murrini and moving them on through other processes. Nathan is available to answer questions as I am assembling my work, his studio has all of the equipment I need to create my own projects and it's more affordable than Bullseye. I am eager to see what he still has to teach me as I keep moving forward in my own learning. He is also an artist that creates a variety of pieces that you can purchase for your home or a gift. Additionally, he makes very high quality molds that will likely outlast you unless you drop them. Finally, if the finished piece of glass or the molds he has on offer aren't exactly what you are looking for, he might consider taking on a commission to make exactly what you want. I highly recommend Nathan to people who want to get into kiln glass. He knows his stuff, has a well equipped studio that will take you as far as you like and his rates are very reasonable.

I'm privileged to be one of Lori's first students, hence where the name "Let's Play School" came…read morefrom. Back before we even started official school... she had a gift for making learning fun. I like to say she was so good at teaching that over fifty years later I still love learning. Lori was a great student as we went through grade school, high school, community college, university, and grad school. We traveled different career pathways that took us to different schools after high school however we studied together and I was honored to see Lori bloom into a skilled and passionate teacher. Teacher Lori is professional, creative, and focused. She can take your child on a journey to teach learning as being fun. Opening their young lives to the rewards of education. Honestly I wish I could visit the days of yesteryear and just play school with my life long friend...

wonderful crafts for the kids and Jen is very engaging with the kids, we had a great time and can't…read morewait for the next one.

I am a little crazy when it comes to Halloween. It takes a week to decorate the house and we have a…read morehalloween buffet every year. So, when my husband, told me the West Coast Haunters were having a convention at the Double Tree Hilton in Portland, I was amped to put it mildly. The convention included a friday night bus tour of Scream haunted house. Which had sold out by the time I got to the website, but I emailed them, and they could not have been nicer about helping me secure tickets for the friday night tour, which included 3 full size tour buses. The tour was supposed to be lights off haunted tour and then lights on. The Scream tour was really the warehouse, due to the change of location. It was a learning experience, so I was okay with it, but there were other haunters not impressed with the fact that it was just looking at their storage facility when the description was two full haunted house tours. We went to Vancouver, Washington for the next haunted house and they put on a dinner catered by Q'doba. Then they let us go through the haunted house lights off and then lights on. This was a really good haunted house, it took awhile to get through it. Since these conventions are usually focused on professional haunted house owners, serious home haunters and FX makeup people, it is really informative. It is hard to be afraid going through the houses anymore, since I am now a halloween junkie looking for the next best scare but I can appreciate when it is done well. We are looking to open a haunted house in the next couple of years and made some great connections with owners willing to share tips and have us come and check their stuff out. So the networking aspect of this convention is priceless. This convention is still coming together, so looking past the growing pains, as they put it to us at the ticket booth, I think they have done a great job. The school for the Deaf, has done a great job, as well, with the entire thing. If you go to the website you can read the history of haunt and the School for the Deaf, it is a really cool. We did win $100 raffle draw for a year of the Haunt Cast, so that was a great way to end the weekend. The vendors there were all pretty nice for the most part. They told us they are going to try to be in the same spot next year, so if you have any interest in haunting, then mark the calendar for 2013. Check out the website for more details. www.westcoasthauntersconvention.com/