Into The Fire, A Paint Your Own Pottery Studio — Local services in Arvada

This used to be my favorite place to go to. I have been going since I was a junior in high school in 2004. Never again will I go! First off, I know how busy they can be and how long it takes me to paint. So I called and made an appointment. What was the ladies response, "are you sure you need all day?" I internally laughed a little bit and replied yes. I painted a beer mug that I had purchased in Longmont, so I even paid a bigger firing fee than normal. Which is fine. $8 firing fee vs a $20 tank of gas to drive back to Longmont. (I bought it a month ago in between my classes, mistake number one). Mistake number 2 was going to Into the Fire to paint it. Parking is horrid. It literally took me like 15 minutes to find a spot. That "free" parking garage? Yeah. It has a 4 hr max and then you have to leave it. You can't just move your car to a different floor. You have to leave. Have you tried to find parking in Olde Town recently? It's evil. But, I digress.

So I go to paint and am met with attitudes the second I open the door. I didn't even get a refresher on how to wipe the pottery down or anything. I had to eavesdrop on the lady, it might be Kathy's daughter not sure, explaining the process to a different customer.

Now. In the 13 years that I have been painting pottery I have never had to use a mechanical pencil. What was at my table? A mechanical pencil. The regular pencil wasn't sharpened (again... I had an appt and the table was NOT prepared, awesome). Didn't think anything of it, at the time, because they ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS say that the pencil burns off. This time? It interacted with the glaze and now I have a Beer mug that was supposed to be a Christmas present for my Husband and it has areas on it where the glaze did not cover. So, basically, if it gets wet, it will (eventually) rot from the inside out. Or so the individual running the shop told me. Their solution? Put clear nail polish on it. I'm sorry. But this thing cost me about $40. I DO NOT want to put clear nail polish on it! Rather toss it in the trash.

So I came home and caved. I put the nail polish on it. What did I discover? More unprotected, glaze free areas! Seriously? NO! This is supposed to be a cup! How can it be a cup if the liquids it carries/is washed with cause it to disintegrate because of THEIR mistakes?

So. Now I have a $40 piece of poop Christmas present that I rather just toss in the trash. I messaged them on Facebook and have not heard back from them. Even though they did READ my messages.

I am never going back. And this is the 10th item I have painted there and have NEVER had an issue with the pencil before....

This place is adorable, cozily located in historic old town Arvada. I have a lot of fond memories of visiting over the years. I will definitely be back to visit and would recommend it to anyone but I wanted to share I had a bit of a frustrating experience when picking up my finished pottery. I made sure to save my ticket and when I came in to pick up - the ticket really meant nothing as I was asked if I saw my finished pieces anywhere. There were tons of finished pieces everywhere so it was a bit overwhelming to essentially have to dig through to try to recognize which dinosaur my 4 year old painted among the 15 other dinosaurs that other kids painted. When we thought we couldn’t find the pieces, I was asked if I live nearby- assuming they would check the kilm or something. I do live nearby but it’s not easy for me to come back multiple times with young kids. Thankfully we ended up finding them, I was asked “are you sure these are yours” several times and I had to laugh to myself about the apparent system of tracking finished pieces here. Plus, every paint color changes a lot once fired so that adds to the confusion. I totally understand the current challenges with running a small business and give them every benefit of the doubt, I would just hope that for the prices of the pottery I wish I didn’t have to worry about whether or not I might be able to find my finished piece among the many completed pieces. I also wouldn’t want someone accidentally taking mine which I can see easily happening. Despite this, the staff was super friendly (except I think the owner guy often comes across is a little grumpy) I will for sure be back and am even hoping they have replenished inventory to choose...

Under new management and it was a wonderful experience!!! Had a pretty terrible experience with last owner, so I am ecstatic that I can paint pottery close to home again! I always reccomend a reservation (it's popular)!

But I have gone to A LOT of pottery places (see above bad experience) and Into The Fire remains the place with the best prices, BEST paint brushes (JUSSSST trust me on that), caring staff that checks in on you while painting, graphite pencils (mechanical/pens = ew) stencils, no extra $$ for using specific paints, now you can even buy a piece and they will keep it at the store for you so it won't break in transit (I always find one extra thing and used to rush my way through the painting), and they will (within reason) let you stay for as long as you want, unless they have a lot of reservations. I once took all day, but I was alone, so I definetely let anyone who was okay with it sit with me when it got busy. If you don't finish your piece the day you start it, you can go back to finish (just have to pay a second studio fee for using the paints and brushes again). Super relaxing atmosphere! If you make a mistake, no worries, you can scrape off the mistake and start fresh. After all, there are no mistakes in painting. Just happy accidents.

Turn around time is 7 days. So, it's not something for people who are "just passing through" or anyone on vacation unless you have someone here to pick up your piece and mail it home. :)

**Note: 10/2021 = Sasquatch ornament and large ceramic pumpkin were purchased elsewhere, but I called prior to purchasing them to make sure Into The Fire was okay with firing the...