COVID-19 Update on Closure and Pickup of Finished Items

In the past few days and weeks, across the country, we have been asked to practice social distancing, which we rather think of as physical distancing. However, in our determination to create an outlet for creativity for our customers, as that is what we do best, during this time of high anxiety and insecurity, we created an online Pottery-To-Go program with curbside pickup/drop-off that was in keeping with Social/Physical Distancing and keeps everyone safe – customers and employees alike.

We were ready to launch this program just before the Governor announced his Stay-At-Home mandate on March 23rd, which directs all nonessential businesses to close. As a small business, these are trying times for everyone in our immediate reach – our employees, customers, vendors and suppliers, as well as our landlord. We are seeking guidance from the Sate of WA as to whether our curbside program would be consistent with the latest guidelines. Until we obtain such guidance, our pottery-to-go program is on hold.

The store remains closed as we have been since March 19th. We regret that we cannot open for customers to pick-up their finished items or their work-in-progress at this time. We are sorry for the inconvenience. We are anxious to open as soon as we’re able and allowed. We love our customers and we so much appreciate your support during these trying and economically uncertain times.

Thank you for your patience. We hope you and your family are staying safe & healthy.

Love, Peace, and Paint Away!

COVID-19 Impact Update

As we monitor the daily updates on COVID-19 and the recent emergency proclamation by the Governor, we have made the difficult decision to close by Thursday, March 19th until the end of March to do our part in slowing down the virus. The safety of our customers and employees is the utmost importance to us. We hope to be back open in April, but we will reassess the situation at that time.

In the meantime, as an alternative option, we are offering painting at home with Pottery-To-Go. This is a fun way to keep the kids busy and have an outlet for creativity. We will be open til Wednesday, so please come by to pick up some pottery to keep you occupied during this unprecedented time before we close on Thursday.

Thank you to all our customers for your understanding. Our hearts go out to all those impacted by COVID-19.

Peace, Love, and Paint Away!

COVID-19 Impact

We are seeing the impact of coronavirus on our economy and on Paint Away. For us, specifically, parties and private events are cancelling their reservations. Information and guidance regarding COVID-19 are rapidly changing day to day and we are struggling to keep up. We will continue to monitor the situation, but for now, we have made the following changes (updated 3/16/2020 based on new and current recommendations from the Governor and King County Officials):

· Extra Cleaning: To keep everyone safe, we are cleaning diligently and frequently all high-touch point areas such as doorknobs (for all entry and exit points, as well as bathroom and office doors), sink faucets, paint centers, counters, tables, and chairs. We are also encouraging everyone to wash their hands prior to painting and before leaving the store. Update: In addition, we will be making some tables unavailable for painting to ensure that there is 6 feet of distance from each group of customers. We will also be limiting our staff capacity, as well as customer capacity at any given time. We are trying to determine where our business falls within the King County guidelines. We are licensed as retail, but we also are a social establishment that is not a restaurant, bar, and/or recreational/entertainment facility. At this time, we ask for your patience.

· Pottery-To-Go: In addition, we have created a Pottery-To-Go program for individual painting projects. Typically, we have offered this program for at-home parties, as well as School Auction Projects. We are extending this program without a purchase minimum to individuals at this point to accommodate social distancing guidelines from Public Health officials. Update: We are highly encouraging everyone to take advantage of our Pottery-To-Go Program to be in keeping with social distancing.

· New: Art Kits: Carey and Katie are both working hard to create project ideas for our customers to work-on from home. We are working on both painting projects and glass project ideas. Please let us know if you have ideas you’d like us to consider by going to this link.

· Hours: Update: We will be open Monday - Friday from 10am - 5pm; Saturday 10am-6pm; Sunday 11am-6pm through March 31st, subject to change depending on recommendations from our government.

· Cancellation Policy: For parties and reservations who are cancelling, please consider taking a store credit to use for future events instead of a refund. This will help our business, employees, and hopefully our vendors during these very insecure times. Update: All parties scheduled through March 31st are cancelled effective immediately. Those parties should receive an email from us.

We are so grateful to this community and we are extremely thankful for being part of it since 2004. We have always prided ourselves for supporting our community in many ways without having to market all our charitable giving which included: free summer camps to those who are economically challenged; party donations to non profit organizations; sponsorship to local schools, sport organizations, and nonprofits; participating in Lake Washington School District work training for special needs students; and accommodating special requests by our customers.

Today, we ask you to please continue to support independently-owned local businesses in our community during these trying and uncertain times.

With much gratitude,

Hazel Roos

Owner

Summer Camp Inspirations

It can be a challenge to come up with new projects year after year, especially when we have to develop our Summer Camp Program shortly after Christmas.  Parent Map’s Camp Fair is always held in February at St. Thomas School in Medina – and we must have our program or at least our camp schedule done by then, preferably with some inspiring samples to showcase too.  This year, just as we were winding down from our busy holiday season and turning to a quickly growing backlog of auction projects, we weren’t able to finish a single camp project by the time the camp fair came around. But luckily, our ideas and inspirations never stop percolating!  And somehow, we always manage to come up with a new slate of projects to delight kids of all ages.  

This year, we found encouragement in abstract designs.  Take a look at our painted canvas bag and one of our painted canvas frames for 6 to 8 year olds.  We also found inspiration from the movie “Up” with our darling canvas painting/mixed media project for kids 9 years old and up.  We enjoyed creating the “Square Box Totted-up” because our campers get to pick their own “tots” to create a habitat for them.  Our robot paper-mache was inspired by Star Wars droid (though ours look better, IMHO).   We hope to bedazzle our campers with the glass picture frame – something that will hopefully sit on their dresser with pictures of them with friends for many years to come (and serve as a reminder of the camp they attended here).  We created so many projects – some simple, and some more complex for the older campers.  We will teach painting techniques along the way, and teach other types of medium such as clay, paper mache, glass fusing, and tye dying. But most of all, we hope this year is as enjoyable as all the other years that have inspired some kids to enroll for art camp twice in the same summer, because they had such a blast that they can’t fathom seeing it end!  

Enjoy the photos from our different camp offerings.