This used to be a good school but the owner has unfortunately become completely deranged and…read moredelusional, and possibly dangerous because of the degree of his irrationality and wrath. I attended the first part of the graduate jeweler program last year (which got disrupted because of Covid) and planned to finish it this year. I paid an additional deposit for this session and signed the new enrollment agreement six months ago.
I had a couple of urgent last minute work issues to wrap up before starting so said I'd be a few days late. Since I had already done the entire first month of the program last year I assumed that wouldn't be a problem. But Blaine, the owner, got angry that I even considered missing the first few days, so I cancelled my work obligations and said I'd be in class and not miss a single day. But Blaine said no, I was not allowed to come anymore. He said he decided that if I showed up to class he would have me arrested for trespassing. He even texted me a photo of his no trespassing sign to enforce the threat. (I'll post images from the text conversation so you can see I'm not making this stuff up). This is even though I paid the deposit and had a contract saying I was entitled to be in the session. The session hadn't even started yet, I hadn't missed any classes or done anything to warrant this expulsion. I had been a good student there. I was in shock. I apologized for not understanding how strict he was. I tried to reason with him but he refused to speak with me further. I tried texting Drew, the teaching assistant, who I had a friendly relationship with before and he now refused to reply to me either. Which to me means there is a totalizing iron fist rule going on here now where even other staff are scared of Blaine's wrath. This is extremely dark, signs of a really unhealthy and abusive atmosphere underneath the shiny veneer.
I know it sounds like there must be more to the story but there's not. It is indeed crazy behavior Blaine is exhibiting now. I don't know if he had a mental breakdown or what happened this past year. I had taken two other intro classes here a few years ago and those went well, they were good classes, as other reviewers noted back then too. Now interacting with people here is like entering crazytown, or going to a jewelry school in North Korea or something. I never did anything wrong or missed any class, I just mistakenly thought it would be ok to, given the circumstances of repeating classes due to Covid chaos. I said I wouldn't miss any when I realized it was not ok, but too late, I had the offending thoughts so that was it, I was out.
Even though the enrollment agreement states that payment of the deposit makes it a "legally binding" agreement, Blaine, the owner, refuses to honor his company's own contract. It's his whim or get arrested. It's completely unhinged and utterly deranged, someone who's lost touch with reality to such an extent that they're possibly dangerous because it fits the classic pattern of controlling, irrational, hurtful behavior of an abusive personality type.
This is three months of my life that I planned for, paid for, and that's relevant to my career, and he just decided to shove that down the toilet for literally no good reason. I'm a serious, hard working, professional person who's a graduate of GIA. Doing this to me is unreasonable and deeply unfair and unjust.
So if you're considering coming here, keep in mind you can be expelled and threatened with arrest for no reason at any moment, even for having thoughts that the owner dislikes. Also be prepared to never, ever, for any reason whatsoever, miss a day, or else you're kicked out. Even if you think about missing a day, you can get kicked out and threatened with arrest because you were thinking about it. Your mother died? Too bad, you're missing the funeral. Contracted a deadly virus? Come to class anyway or else you're expelled. Got in a car accident and spent a day in the emergency room? Don't bother coming back, you'll be arrested if you do. I'm not making this up. He said anyone who misses class even for something like a car accident is not welcome back.
I recommend going someplace professional like GIA where people are not psychotic and don't have abusive personality disorders. This small school is run by one man who has inexplicably become an egomaniac with an irrational control disorder. Find someplace that honors contracts and doesn't burn people.
