The Clay Cafe

My boyfriend surprised me with this late date night spot. I was happily surprised but became anxious. I am a perfectionist, so the mug i picked was a little tricky and i started to notice that the design I wanted for it would not be done correctly. Thank goodness for the friendly worker who calmed my nerves down and made me realized I was there to have fun. She got us in a little small group in the beginning and explained how the placed worked. You pick out your item, the colors you want, the brushed per each color and sit and start working. She explained better, but this is a small version because I forgot some parts. Pros: you can bring in your own wine to enjoy and paint. Do make an appointment the place was packed.

Update: while we still love the shop, we now realize that we have to keep in mind that this place is just for fun. My 12 year old spent more than 20+ hours creating this design and painting each intricate line over and over again. When we picked it up, we were shocked to see the damage done when the glaze was applied and smudged the center of the piece. No apologies or explanations other than "yeah, it happens". Just keep in mind, simple=success. We will gladly paint here (especially since we pre-bought a smaller plate for $10 more than the first), but will never trust with any special design work.

Super friendly service helped us have a great time painting pottery! It's a little confusing to know where everything is located but overall very cozy and fun!

It was awesome, y'all.Let me be clear -- my artistic talents in this vein stopped developing around 2nd grade, but I still had a hell of a good time with my peoples here creating some fun things!I wanna say a few words about Grace, who was working. She was exceedingly kind, very knowledgeable, and just pretty much amazing while we we there. She deftly managed a precocious 4 year old who had just found in her a new best friend for the hour, while still keeping tabs on everything else that was going on (they were fairly busy too!).As others have mentioned, $8 flat fee per adult and $4 per child. They have an abundance of items with a wide range in price so I would definitely say it's open to all budgets. Honestly, it was so much fun, and so relaxing. I would definitely recommend stopping in and giving it a shot. I can't wait to pick up my items, and we'll certainly be back!Thanks, Clay Cafe! You all rock!

Speaking with Nancy Kanter, one of the two owners of Clay Café, she relayed to me that many people who stop in say they've lived in Grandview their whole lives and never knew this establishment existed. Twelve years ago Nancy Kanter and Julie Byrn started up the Clay Café after seeing an inspiration in California. Clay Café is, as their flyers read, "An open studio where you can design and create your own pottery and personalized ceramic giftware." How it works is you, first, choose one of the vast array of bisque fired ceramics sitting on the shelves waiting to be decorated by glazing. Next, come up with an idea for what you want it to look like and draw it on the ceramic piece. Then, decorate it how you like. You can be plain or go as wild as you want. Don't be shy; there's possibly as many different colors to choose from as there are ceramics! And of course, you do the work sitting at one of the many tables in the studio. Lastly, they will fire it for you. Give a few days for them to finish firing (there are many others before yours) and return to pick it up. The ceramic pieces that you create can be for your own pleasure, but they also make great gifts, including for bridal showers. I would say the place itself could stir up ideas for your design; although, you may not think it when you first see the building. Tucked away behind Gibby's restaurant on 3rd Avenue in Grandview, Clay Café is located in a dull, grayish brick building. Yet, inside the walls are painted in bright, cheery colors like Caribbean teal and spring yellow. Throughout the studio are eclectic pieces of furniture and wall décor, colorful examples of finished pieces, as well as vibrant floral arrangements.Clay Café is open to people of all ages and even groups. You are allowed to bring food into the studio, so it is possible to have your child's next birthday party there, or perhaps a girls' night out. Walk-ins are permitted, but if you have a group or even a party in mind, reserve ahead of time. Stay as long as you want in the studio. Even if you think you're staying there really long, fear not, there others who arrive when the studio opens and are still there when it closes. However, do understand there is a cost. The cost is $6.00 an hour for working in their studio as well as the bisque fired piece (before you glaze it) and the prices are marked on the piece itself at varying costs.All in all, the whole point of Clay Café is summed up on their front window: enjoy, create, relax. I would also attach "have fun" to that list!

I came here tonight with my Young Jewish Professionals Group. So it was mostly all women and that always makes for a fun time when a bunch of women come together to do something they love. I actually came here a bit earlier than them and got a good presentation of all the clay pieces and what designs and patterns you can do with them.I got to pick out what I thought my group would love to paint so I chose the mid-sized plates. They also had some spare Jewish passover plates for us to use which was great. Those were taken immediately by our group of 20 women. We painted some fun/unique designs tonight.I hope next time I come here I actually use the cloth to paint over because that pattern looked awesome on the passover plates. I know those girls will love taking that unique piece home. It looks like something you would see at an arts festival for over $100.I actually designed my passover plate in Hebrew which is my native language, so it's unique to me because it's been years since I've been able to write in Hebrew. Even though I think the pattern would have brought out the piece more and been more appealing to take home. The clay bowls, plates and other dishes are fairly priced. My plate itself was $22. The worker's here are so nice and helpful. I actually heard the owner came out tonight just to make sure our group was doing fine the entire night. That speaks measures to the type of place this is and how they care about the products here. Just as Tamra said, they allowed us to work at our own pace tonight as well and even past the stores closing time. Just an FYI, I did see a sign saying they are no longer accepting Groupons, so if you purchased one you may want to ask them if it can be honored. I know I will definitely be returning back to this store soon to make more things for my home.:)

Not a great variety of basic, plain pottery pieces. Most pieces were little Knick knacks with patterns. The place also can't hold that many people so definitely make a reservation over the phone.

Just tried this place last week. They were booked but were able to find a spot for us if we rushed. However, we didn't even need to rush! We had plenty of time to finish our painting and still wash up and left before the next people arrived. They had many different things to choose from to paint and the workers were really easy to work with.

Shame on them for terrible customer service. Refuse to take responsibility for a serious booking mistake on their part. Avoid!!

My son (2 y.o.) and I had the best time today. This was the first time we ever went somewhere like this and it was a great experience! The lady was super kind and very helpful! Right when we walked in it was just positive vibes. It definitely a place where you can be yourself 100% and not be judged by anyone! They also have so many pieces to choose from that are all different prices, so anyone can do it! Overall this was a great way to spend quality time and relax.