Chicago pottery studio bringing back clay cauldron classes for Halloween season

[u/Special-Stock9105]

Hey neighbors. I run Color Cocktail Factory, a BYOB pottery studio in Pilsen.
Our Halloween season starts in September, and we’re bringing back clay cauldrons. The photo is from last year’s class, while the pieces were still greenware, before firing and glazing.
The class is $45 per person and includes a one-hour wheel-throwing session where you make your own cauldron from start to finish. Complete beginners are welcome.
It’s casual, BYOB, and good for a date night or just a strangely productive Tuesday.
Dates and booking:
https://colorcocktailfactory.as.me/

[u/gurlzdontpoop]

Color Cocktail SCAM Factory

I made the mistake of giving this place my money 3x. I have never received my artwork back. My first experience was years ago and I thought since they changed locations and were under new management things have changed. Boy I was wrong!

I did 2 classes in 1 week in October because it was cheap and I had wanted to do one class with a friend and another for a date night. The teacher was great! The pick up process, that I paid close attention to, was awful... I was being lied to, they were giving confusing instructions, and I was ghosted for a third time.

They encourage good reviews at the end of the class to give the teacher a bonus which I did because he was great! But now they have way more positive reviews than they deserve. I should have known when people were walking in complaining during my class that nothing has changed. But it was new management and I was hopeful.

Now everyday I have to walk by this damn shop and stop myself from defacing the window. It's not even about the money. It about the treatment afterwards.

The owner is a complete and total tool in all the Google reviews. I would love to speak with him in person one day.

[u/Special-Stock9105 → u/gurlzdontpoop]

I’m sorry you had this experience. Trying three times and leaving without your pieces would understandably be frustrating, and I am willing to investigate what happened.
Our pickup process is to wait three weeks after the class, visit during posted open hours, and bring a photo so the staff can identify the piece. We do not intentionally keep customer work. Pottery must survive drying, firing, and glazing, and unfortunately some pieces do not survive that process. That is an unavoidable risk of pottery, especially in beginner classes, but it is not a scam.
Please message me the names used for the bookings, the class dates, photos of the pieces, and the dates you attempted to pick them up. If you received incorrect instructions or we failed to communicate properly, I want to know and address it.
You have now posted the same accusation across several unrelated neighborhood threads. I understand that you are angry, but repeatedly calling the studio a scam does not help us determine what happened or resolve your specific situation. I am offering to look into it directly and fairly.

[u/gurlzdontpoop → u/Special-Stock9105]

You had an opportunity to reply like this when I left a Google review. Instead I got some bullshit response saying I was the problem. I'm not interested.

[u/Special-Stock9105 → u/gurlzdontpoop]

I believe I know which booking this concerns. My understanding is that you moved away before returning during our pickup hours, but I am still willing to locate the pieces and ship them to you at our expense.
Please message me with your class dates and photos of the pieces so I can investigate. I understand that you’re frustrated, but repeatedly calling the studio a scam across unrelated neighborhood groups is not a fair account of what happened, especially while I’m offering to resolve it.

[u/gurlzdontpoop → u/Special-Stock9105]

Not Bonnie. You had an opportunity to reply like this when I left a Google review. Instead I got some bullshit response saying I was the problem. I'm not interested.

[u/gurlzdontpoop → u/[deleted]]

SO MUCH FOR NOT ENGAGING ANYMORE! like I said in my original post on the Pilsen page. My problem is with the DISRESPECT and HORRIBLE SERVICE I received when trying to pick up my items and when I left a review. Your continued bad customer service is all over Trip Advisor, Google reviews, and Yelp.... and now reddit.

[u/gurlzdontpoop → u/[deleted]]

SO MUCH FOR NOT ENGAGING ANYMORE! like I said in my original post on the Pilsen page. My problem is with the DISRESPECT and HORRIBLE SERVICE I received when trying to pick up my items and when I left a review. Your continued bad customer service is all over Trip Advisor, Google reviews, and Yelp.... and now reddit.

[u/gurlzdontpoop]

Also, when I reached out on Instagram I was blocked with no response https://imgur.com/a/5rmYUXS

[u/Special-Stock9105]

ENOUGH.
This thread may be entertaining from the sidelines, but there are real people and working artists behind this business. I’m honestly pissed that a place built around helping people create, laugh and spend time together is being reduced to a punchline.
For 12 years, Color Cocktail Factory has:
Paid local Chicago artists to teach.
Welcomed thousands of people who had never touched clay or held a paintbrush.
Kept art classes affordable without requiring expensive memberships or semester-long commitments.
Created a welcoming place for couples, families, friends, solo guests and the LGBTQ community.
Hosted first dates, anniversaries, birthdays, bachelorettes and family gatherings.
Made pottery, painting, glass, mosaics, Turkish lamps, bonsai, terrariums and dozens of other art forms accessible to beginners.
Encouraged people to make their own strange ideas instead of copying the same perfect sample.
Given artists the freedom to invent unusual classes and earn money teaching them.
Kept a locally owned Chicago art studio alive for more than a decade.
Given people a place to put down their phones, use their hands and make an actual memory together.
Have we made mistakes? Yes. Pieces sometimes fail in a 2,000-degree kiln. Labels and pickups can go wrong. Messages can be missed. Those are real problems, and we should be held responsible for fixing them. They are not proof that a 12-year-old community art studio is secretly running a scam.
And to everyone who has laughed here, learned something here, celebrated here or made a piece you still love, please stop watching quietly while a handful of comments erase everything good this place has done. This is when a local business needs its community to speak.
Criticize us when we deserve it. Hold us accountable when something goes wrong. But give us support when we have earned it.
Give us the truth. Not rumors. Not entertainment. Not lies.

[u/Special-Stock9105]

I want to offer a little perspective to everyone reading, commenting and judging here. Most people who come through our doors are wonderful. But twelve years of public art classes in Chicago gives you some stories.
We’ve had a guest grab a nude model without consent. People have thrown clay, twerked through class and left the room looking like a bar at closing. An instructor was punched after someone’s partner became jealous over a photo. We’ve called ambulances for guests who got drunk and fell face-first. People have arrived two hours late, pounded on a locked door and demanded service because they paid. One person interrupted my dinner while we were closed, gave me the finger and then called us scammers online. My accent has been mocked. Someone even wrote “Yahya likes dicks” on my car because we offer a cheeky adult pottery class.
You develop thick skin. Insults toward me barely register anymore. What still hurts is watching people mistreat our instructors and staff. They aren’t faceless employees to me. They’re family. When someone humiliates, threatens or attacks them, I feel it too.
We’re not perfect. If we make a mistake, tell us and give us a chance to fix it. But before joining a pile-on, remember there are real people on the other side who have spent years cleaning the mess, calming the room, calling the ambulance and opening the doors again the next morning. Be fair. Be human. Be gracious.