The Makery — Attraction in Wake Forest

Typically, this kind of painting class involves instruction - use this brush, try this technique, etc.

I am not a great painter so that guidance really helps me improve my skills so I can take home something to be proud of!

The class my 8 year old and I took, however, was much less structured and informative. Essentially, we were given supplies and told that anything we made would be perfect! The focus was on expressing creativity because there is no wrong way to do art.

I get that! But I have all the supplies I need to do that at home. In going to a class, I was hoping for guidance and to learn a bit more about things like shading, technique, etc.

Many people seemed to enjoy the class, and if I wanted someone to tell me how lovely my painting was (even if it wasn't), this would have been fine. But if you're looking for any kind of guidance or instruction, this is not the place for you.

We left class early because despite asking for help and more instruction, my 8 year old said "We might as well leave. Everything we do makes our paintings look worse." He said we could hang them up as reminders of how bad we are at painting. This broke my heart a little!

We were unhappy with the outcome of our paintings but when we asked for strategies on how we might fix it (like how to make the paint look less streaky or how to keep the colors from blending or how to emphasize an outline) the instructor basically said "don't worry about it! It looks great!"

This would have been fine for my four year year old, but my older son is no fool. It clearly did not look great. That's why we wanted guidance and expertise.

So if you are looking for the supplies and to avoid making a mess at your own home and lots of positive encouragement, this would be a great place for you.

If you're looking for instruction or something like a paint and sip experience where everyone paints together under the guidance of an agreement instructor, you might want to...

The Makery is an amazing place for all kinds of artists!! I'm SO grateful we found them! It's a great place for artists to hone their craft and also learn from other professionals who are super supportive. Allie is so awesome and easy to work with and helped us navigate different options that worked with our schedule for classes. She was super flexible and also very supportive of our daughter as a new artist. They even hung her art in their gallery! We enrolled in their membership program and it worked out so well for our daughter. She was able to take classes and do drop-in art days to work on personal art projects or further implement what she was learning in class. Steffen is an incredible art teacher!! We love him! He is so patient, explains things really clearly, and is talented in so many different mediums that he is able to explain tons of various techniques. Our daughter has thrived with his teaching style. She has learned soooo much! Also, you can't beat the location! It's in downtown Wake Forest. Thank you, Allie and Steffen, for everything you've done to help our daughter grow as an artist!! We're so very grateful...

I took a beginners ceramic class at the end of September creating a ghost. The instructor was friendly and knowledgeable. However, his instruction was lacking. We got some basic instruction at the very beginning of the class and that was about it. He appeared to be more interested in making his ceramic project than helping the students create theirs. There was adequate tools and clay, along with an inviting workspace. The posted registration stated that our projects would be ready to pick up in a week. The instructor mentioned it might take longer but we would be contacted when they were ready. We called about 3.5 weeks later and was told, oh, they are ready to be glazed. Then a week later we called again to find out they were ready to be picked up. We never heard back about our projects unless we contacted the studio. It took 5 weeks from the date of the class to be able to pick up our projects. I was very disappointed and...