I was in from out of town visiting my sister in Longmont and one of their favorite things to do is…read morepaint at Crackpots. I've painted pottery at studios like this before, but I was blown away by the amount of choices, creative freedom, and room that this business offered. Their selection of pieces to paint is huge, the glaze selection is also impressive. I chose a mug and we were able to sit outside at a picnic table on the sidewalk and paint. The girls were nice enough to bring our stuff out and get us set up and we had so much fun. We literally sat and talked and painted for hours! We definitely got our money's worth! The best part was our pieces were done within the week. Super fast turnaround for such a busy studio and they turned out perfect!

Just the cutest little place to host a birthday party. My niece had her birthday party here over…read morethe weekend and the staff was absolutely wonderful. Their selection is like nothing I have ever seen and any time of year you can opt to do a decoration for another holiday. I love the ambiance and that you can bring your own wine as well. Such a fun girls night, bday party, etc idea.

A close (and fun) friend suggested that we spend the Friday morning after Thanksgiving in a…read more"Scraptastic" class at this North Boulder location, and I am so glad that I went. The overall atmosphere within Erinn Diekman's glass art workshop was so terrific, and I had such a great time. Erinn was truly kind to this arts & crafts novice, the newbie of all newbies, but she made it such a fun experience as I learned about creating art work (making bowls, plates, wall hangings, ornaments, coasters, etc) from scrap glass in all sorts of colors, transparencies, shapes, and sizes. Whether you're an amateur like me, or a serious artist, this is a really fun way to spend a couple of hours, either by yourself or with friends & family. Erinn is patient, friendly, helpful, and brilliant, making the whole experience pleasant. Strong recommendation.

We had an amazing small group class with Leslie. She guided us through making a textured silver…read morering that reflected our own individuality. Leslie was so generous with her expertise, time, and assistance as we tried our hands at jewelry making. Highly recommend!!

We spent a wonderful morning with Lesley on our annual girlfriends trip making silver rings. She…read morewas so kind to all of us and got our inner 'making' juices going. I highly recommend spending a morning with her jewelry making!

A great group of artists at this gallery that get together to paint on Thursdays. Visitors are…read morewelcome to come watch and chat with the artists.

This is a new local artist shop and studio space. It seemed less local and unique than I had hoped…read more It is nothing like the finest local arts shop we lost during the pandemic. It seemed very commercial to me rather than unique art and jewelry pieces. The staff was friendly and the shop was busy on its grand opening evening. There was a sameness to many of the personal wear pieces, similar to styles common here in the 70s and 80s and appealing to the heavy "silver and turquoise" themes . If you are interested in that again, you might enjoy some of the pieces which I felt were fairly pricey. And very shiny to me as I had collected mostly authentic Navajo and other indigenous pieces in that era which had a more matte silver finish. There was wall art of various styles from modernist, "western" and also various techniques and subjects. There were clothing pieces and general room decor and a few sculptures too. There is a back area which is clearly studio work space and not in use today but for use as food prep. As we were heading elsewhere for a meal anyway we did not stay to try as it was not part of their mission anyway. The other customers who were looking through the merchandise were generally not my demographic so maybe they will provide higher rated reviews. There's clearly a need for this shop as so many (mostly middle aged women) showed up and were browsing the collections. I wish the ownership well as we need more than CU student shops or mountaineering shops on Pearl.

Nancy is a bright light of JOY, bringing immense CREATIVITY, deep COMPASSION plus a giving HEART &…read moreSPIRIT to our community!! Nancy & her team genuinely care about their craft offering unique, exquisite creations. We are so lucky that you are part of Boulder. Sign up for Sweet Birds newsletter, I look forward to reading everyone! Know that we will follow you wherever you go ~ with or without a physical space

Framing is an art, craft and a sense of design. Mercury framing does all of this better than anyone…read moreelse. They know what they are doing and glad to leave my name. Nancy Eastman

Have to give a shout out to Lisa and her staff for the stellar job of reframing a piece of art I…read morebrought them. I've been using Mercury for my framing needs for over two decades and they never disappoint. Appreciate the time they take to assist in choosing a frame and never feel rushed. Just amazing all around. Thank you!

This review is just for the Chili Bowl fundraiser at the Pottery Lab. This is the 10 th anniversary…read moreevent and it has evolved into a very enjoyable event. As a neighbor, the starting years were very problematic with trash, noise, and disorganization. The chili contestants ave improved their quality and serving ability. There are different contestants from the earlier years. There are many styles, red and green chili, meat, vegetarian and vegan.They really have Boulder covered. There are adequate tables and chairs and especially convenient trash bins. The number and size of the bowls has improved. Now that Groundwork's is in charge, there is more than just pottery to buy in the craft sales as they teach other arts at other locations. The staffing is plentiful and staff easily identified by quality shirts. I tried chili from several options though I could not use all five tickets that come with the bowl as I need to have yet another meal today. I chose from restaurants where I have eaten , a catering service I have used and The Academy Senior Living which happens to be in the same neighborhood with a really good chef who used to cook at a now closed by retirement, restaurant where we ate regularly. I didn't want to do more than that number and decided familiar places gave me a judge of general capability on a dish I rarely order out. My ranking first in overall flavor, appearance and ingredients goes to the Post which surprised me as I rarely chicken chili anywhere and I do not like beer at all. But the ingredients here really came together, chicken, beans, corn, topped with cotija, cilantro, lime . My second goes to The West End Tavern which was excellent with brisket and a bbq sauce style, cheese on top. Good, but more expected and brisket good quality and tender. Third ranked is the Academy for sheer inventiveness that really came together. Pineapple was a treat to find to sweeten and spark and the crunch of the toasted corn nuts added a lot. At a $25 price for a bowl to keep and support programs here, it's well worth another year to participate again.

Very bad experience at this place. I usually don't use a person's name in a review, but in this…read morecase will do so in order to provide the full story. I took a beginners' pottery class taught by Jinna Lincoln, and an assistant. These are the facts of the experience: At the start of the first session Jinna said that she didn't really want to be teaching the class, she would rather be using the time to create her own pottery, but management kept asking her to teach the class, so she agreed. At the beginning of each of these beginners' sessions, Jinna would provide a brief bit of instruction. Then she would go to a table and spend the rest of each class making her own pottery pieces. Every so often she would hold up one of these pieces, which were lumpy objects that she said were meant to hold things like taco fixings, and she would say to the class, look what I made. And all of the students were supposed to ooh and aah. Jinna never walked around during the sessions to provide assistance to the students. The assistant did walk around to provide assistance. However. She was angrily impatient, shockingly impatient, when a beginner didn't know how to do something perfectly on the very first try. The assistant seemed to seethe with fury, spewing angry words through clenched teeth. Even better, she would grab tools out of students' hands, in order to do a technique herself rather than explain and teach it to the student. In the space of five minutes, she grabbed tools out of my hand at least eight times, making very unwelcome and unwanted physical contact each and every time. This description might sound like an exaggeration, but it isn't. I've been to college, graduate school, and boot camp, and in all that time I've never had an instructor as angrily impatient as this assistant. Nowhere near. I am about the furthest thing from a snowflake that a person can get, yet I was still shocked by her behavior. And what did Jinna do about this abuse? She sat there in the small room making her lumpy objects, listening to the assistant being astonishingly inappropriate with students, but didn't say one single thing. This went on class after class after class. My terrible experience with the assistant happened the first class. After that I avoided any interaction with the assistant. And Jinna provided no instruction (after the bit at the beginning of each session) or assistance. So for the remaining sessions I received essentially no instruction. I kept my head down class after class, doing my best to learn something on my own. When the class was finally over, the last of the sessions completed, I was very glad. In all my years of education, never before had I had an experience like this one.

Strolling through Boulder casually walking into Art Galleries and window shopping down Pearl…read moreStreet. The Smith-Klein Gallery caught both our eyes and we decided to go in and take a look around. The layout really works here, the walls are covered with photographs, paintings, and water colors. Mixed throughout are unique sculptures that make you think, if I move money around in my accounts could I take this home today? I give it a little thought, I admit to it. Some of the landscape paintings really caught our eye with the uses of vibrant colors and textures. The bonus for me was the jewelry offerings. I truly fell in love with some gorgeous metal twisty earrings that should have a place in my collection. One day I'll wear those and rock them like no other. I hear the works here change often so I can keep coming back to a completely new experience. The owner of the shop was easy to talk to and was eager to share her love of the some of the artists she was showing. It's a pleasure to have an owner so in love with what she does, it makes the experience much better.

The highlight for me is Kevin Box's origami sculptures, but there are other winners, as well. The…read morestaff is friendly, not pushy at all, and it's an overall wonderful experience.