Creative Hands — Local services in Pantego

If you enjoy casual pottery painting, you should definitely check out Creative Hands. The atmosphere inside is really endearing, and kids will LOVE the colorful walls, castle party area, jungle themed ceiling, and kid's corner replete with a TV and toys. The music is always family friendly as well. Staff are helpful, attentive, and friendly - as is the owner who seems to be around often. And she's willing to strike up a conversation if you're so inclined, which is one of my favorite things about small business owners who clearly love their jobs and communities.

Selection of plasters and ceramics is very good, especially the plasters. A word of advice - do know the difference! It had been an incredibly long time since I'd done any pottery painting by the time I made my first visit to Creative Hands. I had forgotten there was a difference between plaster and ceramic. If you choose a plaster piece, do not expect it to be fired! After you're done painting it, they will apply a "glaze" that gives the piece a seal and a glossy finish. But it is not a glassy finish like a true fired piece of ceramic. The advantage to this, however, is that you can take your piece home the same day. For the plaster pieces, you use acrylic paints and can use as many colors as they have available (it's a lot, and if you ask for a mixing pallette you basically have every color imaginable available to you).

The only reason this review is a 4 rather than 5 star rating is the ceramic (as opposed to plaster) paint policy. You might find that at some other pottery painting places you can choose an unlimited number of colors to use. However, you are limited to 5 ceramic glaze colors per piece here, at the standard price for any given item. You may choose more than 5 colors at an additional price. To be completely honest, this is a bit of a disappointing pricing structure, especially if you are used to an all inclusive pricing model for colors.

However, it's still a fantastic place to spend an afternoon, date night, or birthday party! And if you're looking for something like this in the Arlington area, you can't beat it.

I'll be returning to Creative Hands for sure, probably...

Unwelcome Experience -

Had a TERRIBLE experience this past weekend. Me & my group worked with Maddi mainly & Maddox. My friends were not greeted as all others were greeted & welcomed in. They were looked past as everyone else was acknowledged, everyone but them. When I arrived I received the same experience had it not been for my friends welcoming me and explaining everything to me while nothing was offered as this had not been my experience in the past as I’ve come here many times (no offering of aprons, explaining of options to paint, glitter, using water with the glaze, etc.). In fact we had to over hear the other tables being offered and explained full instructions and options. in addition, our items were picked up and taken away with no explanation. Furthermore we felt UNWELCOME as we were the only ones I noticed being treated this way and I’ll let you fill in the blanks. I did find out that the owner was out of town. We were also not informed that there was an additional wait on the items that didn’t need to be fired in the kiln. When I went to inquire as one thing was told to my group that was different from what Maddox said, I did ask about this and Maddi proceeded to tell me that Maddox was a little bit wrong (with a bit of an unkind condescending tone and pointed look at her) directly to her face and in front of me as the customer which was very unprofessional. There was more but I feel this is quite long enough. Overall, this was a TERRIBLE experience which again hasn’t been my past experiences as there were with other staff/employees....

We went in here recently to paint a plate for Father's Day, as a gift. It wasn't very busy, and there were two people wearing aprons who appeared to work there. It was our first time, I wasn't sure where to start, so I walked to the back. I later realized the girl who smiled at me from the small room, who was painting things, actually works there. No-one greeted me or said hello or asked if they could help us, and when I moved to approach the girl near the tables, I said "excuse me" and she walked right past me after looking at me. I was surprised and figured we'd just leave, since they obviously could care less if someone wanted to spend money there. She turned around and finally said "we just had 40 toddlers, we're trying to recover" but there were two employees in the back, one of which was painting plaster pieces. She even asked "should I be doing something else right now?" to the other employee. After spending $50 on a plate and a plaster train, they told us the plate wouldn't be ready for two weeks. Overall, just needs more professional and friendly staff to actually pay attention to customers instead of one employee running around while two waste time chatting and painting example pieces. I should've realized the place wasn't the most professional when I called to ask if there were any groups that day and the girl who picked up the phone felt like finishing her conversation before speaking into the phone...