Hot Sand — Attraction in Asbury Park

TLDR - A little expensive but well worth the experience.

Longer Honest Review (LHR)- I took my family here for my wife's 31st birthday and it turned into something truly unexpected. Now hold onto that notion.

When you arrive you'll be greated by a group of super friendly hosts. The atmosphere is dystopian meets modern in an elegant fashion.

After perusing their front end merch you'll notice the craftsmanship follows through to the people you'll be working with. You have a large assortment of items to choose from. You can be more hands on and make a beautiful paperweights - trust me it's way more thrilling that it sounds - or you can utilize other skills and do some glass blowing and make a vase or an egg or any of the other items they have available.

During the process you'll work 1 on 1 with a skilled artist who will take the time to work with you and let you absorb some of the passion they have in their craft. You will likely be laughing because they're a fun bunch of people.

You'll take a smoldering hot ball of something. They'll roll it in some color. They'll flash it. You'll sculpt it, blow it, shape it, design it, and before you know it something beautiful will be presented before you and just like that... something truly amazing happened. You'll have the experience of taking something lacking expression and be the one responsible for creating a masterpiece. Through the guides of the artisans...

So many beautiful pieces being sold there and if you take a walk in class, you end up with a beautiful piece that you made yourself.

I never ever write reviews but:

Despite all that, I'm giving it 2 stars because my husband and my friend and I think the prices were a little much. Every little thing added up. I made a bubble which was shaped into a vase. I had to pay extra for each color (kind of understandable but not for $7.50 per color), pay for each twist of color (another $7.50), and then I had to pay for the flattening of the vase bottom ($10! For just taking a wood paddle and putting up against the hot glass).

The bubble sizes are small, large, and XL. My friend chose a small and I chose a large upon the suggestion of the glass blower so my design would show better.

HERE'S WHAT IRKED ME ENOUGH TO WANT TO GIVE A ONE STAR REVIEW: my large bubble turned out to be $68 PLUS tax. My friend's small bubble was $48 plus tax. When picking up the pieces, my friend's small vase and my large vase were the same size. So I just paid like $30 (if you include the tax) extra for the same size piece.

Very very upset about the prices. Although the pieces did turn out beautifully....not...

This review is just for the Hot Paws Glass Paw Print Imprint Kit. I got one shipped from here and am SO glad that I did.

The kit comes with: instructions metal tin with soft dough kit to mail your pet’s paw print back

The instructions are incredibly easy to follow and the dough that they use is soft enough that my dog wasn’t too mad about us touching his paws to make a print! The nice part is that the dough doesn’t dry TOO quickly, so it’s forgiving if you need to try a few different times.

I let the dough paw print impression dry, stuck it back in the metal tin, and mailed it back in the prepaid package. A month later (WAY faster than I expected), I received a beautiful glass imprint of my pet’s paw (along with my original dough back so I could see that they were an exact match).

This is such an easy, fun, and safe process that I feel so lucky to have gotten to do with my dog. I am thrilled to have such a...