The Potters' Studio — Attraction in Berkeley

Didn’t think I’d post about this but the amount of attitude and discrimination I get from the employees here is a bit ridiculous.

I’ll start with the good: it’s a big place and they have a lot of tools (griffin grips, bats, slab roller, extruder, etc) to use. Lots of wheels, I didn’t count but there’s a few dozen. Lots of tables as well, but sometimes those can get quite full during busy times. Their glaze selection is good and the recipes are similar from batch to batch.

Now for the bad: Don’t come here if you’re not a member. Day-use users are an afterthought to them, regardless of how expensive it is. Don’t bother going on the waitlist, you’ll need to take a class to ever get accepted (I’ve been on the waitlist for almost 5 years now, pretty sure I got deleted). Firing sucks, multiple pieces broken and many times, fired completely separately (even as a set!). This hasn’t happened this much at other studios.

They don’t really give you an orientation, yet expect you to know the ins and outs and unspoken rules of the studio. When I’ve asked questions about how to clean/operate/etc certain things, I’m met with attitude and blank stares of why I’m asking in the first place. Even turning in a day slip has sometimes taken me 15-20 minutes as no one really cares to make time for you. Sid, a regular employee there, is especially rude. There have been many instances where I’m given attitude and talked down to, but not to studio members. There are a few other employees that begrudgingly help. Advice is given with condescension. Simply put, the exorbitant price of the day pass ($12 per hour), is not worth it.

Evelyn, is the only employee there that has really been welcoming and kind to me where I feel like the respect I give is returned. Recently, other members of the studio have agreed with me amount the attitude of some of the employees here and the chaos of management, so I feel a little vindicated in that. One woman in particular mentioned that the attitude, from Sid, she witnessed towards me is not very common.

I’ll never know if I was being discriminated against for a specific reason as they didn’t care to communicate it, or on the basis of simply who I am. That doesn’t matter though as I won’t be coming back after spending/using ~$800 on day use passes. I hope this review will give others a little better of an idea of the place before joining. One star, since I simply cannot recommend a business that can’t respect those...

They threw away the bowl my little son made for his mother for Mother's Day. Apparently when they moved locations they threw away all of the contract firing peices.

It really is representative of a larger trend in my interactions with Potters Studio. They masquerade as some public service when in fact they are really a club for their members, and anyone new or not a regular is totally deprioritized. You can feel it when you walk in, nobody who works there cares or greets you. You can hardly even find your way around.

Even for a 501c their service is bad. They really just don't care. Taking 12 days to reply to an email, not answering the phone. Could you imagine any real company who lived/died not by donations but by business thinking it was ok to just throw everyone's pieces away? How could they do that? Knowing that each of those pieces means something to people. After 12 days they told me that the associate "would have mentioned" that pieces were going away, when in fact the opposite was true and I was told that the new location would have my piece. It just shows that there is a systemic lack of training and professionalism here, which again stems from them not caring, which again stems from the funding being present whether they do a good job or a bad job (old people give money to them so they don't have to pay taxes).

More than anything, I am just sad I will have to explain this to my son. But you know, this is a good teaching moment. If you get a bad vibe on the first interaction, just...

I signed up for a 3-month class with this pottery studio. It’s been more than a disappointing and frustrating experience.

A week into class, the studio lost my pieces. I had thrown 6 pieces, gifts for friends, and left it on the shelf to dry for trimming, came in the next morning, and the pieces were nowhere to be found. No one offered compensation, but just said sorry it happens sometimes. Later in the week, we got a studio email that people were losing their bisque fire pieces.

This is the first studio where something like that has happened. Studio losing students and members pieces.

Second, and the cherry on top - this is not a welcoming place. The studio almost has no diversity. And as one of the few students of color, it felt hostile and unfriendly.

Unfortunately with my experience there, I haven’t been able to return to class or use the students hours. I love pottery but I can’t even bring myself to go work there. Not to mention what a waste of a large...