Color Me Mine

This place has a no return policy which makes total sense. However, I hope what happened to me doesn’t happen to anyone else. Spent four hours there painting a nice big plate for my grandma’s birthday. When I went to pick up a week later, took it to the car and noticed that there was a huge crack in the middle of the plate. They didn’t even tell me that when they gave it to me.
Ok, I go in and ask what I should do. First response is pointing to the no refund sign and a shrug. My plea follows that this can’t be my fault. How did this happen? I’m told, this happens sometimes when plates are in the kiln. What now? Sorry. Nothing we can do. It’s not our fault the plate cracked. If we give you your money back, we will be out the cost of the plate. I ask for the manager’s name and number. They refuse to give me the name. Just shove a number in my hand. I call the number and in their defense, she was at least sympathetic. Still though refused to give me my money back. Their solution: we will have one of our own painters paint another plate again and you can give that to your grandma. I’m not one who lies and pretends that someone else’s painting is my own. They never refunded my money. They have crappy products and when they break, oh well! After all, their the business, they shouldn’t lose out on money for the plate! Horrible place. Will never go back.

Spring Break is here, but it’s still –10 outside and snowy in Calgary. The kids are antsy to get out of the house so off to Color Me Mine we go for an afternoon of pottery painting fun!
I’ve painted at other pottery places before, but this is my first time at Color Me Mine. I was impressed by the great selection of pottery pieces available and there was so much to choose from that the kids were picking a piece, changing their mind, and then changing it again! They even had licensed character pottery pieces like Snoopy, Peanuts, Hello Kitty, and Monsters Inc! We finally settled on a fairy riding a unicorn piece (Can it get any more girly than that?) and my daughter had so much fun picking out paint colours.
The staff working at the Color Me Mine Kensington location was a huge help explaining how to get the most vibrant colour from the paint, how long the whole process takes, and she was came around to change the water frequently. She even showed my daughter the kiln and explained how the whole process worked to fire the pottery.
We had a great afternoon and I can’t wait to see the finished result!

That was fun! Let’s go again! I painted up the cutest little dragon (which reminds me, I haven’t been over to pick him up yet!) and it was easy as pie…
Step 1: Go pick your pottery item. They’re all different prices.
Step 2: Get your instructions from the folks up front and pick out your colours. You’ve got unlimited paint with your purchase!
Step 3: Paint your piece.
Step 4: Let the Colour Me Mine folks take care of the rest.
Come back in 7 days and it’ll be all ready for you to bring home!
The best part? You can just walk in off the street and start painting away… or if there’s a group of you, you can reserve the private room too.
Happy painting!

Oh my gosh, this was so much fun. I had never been pottery painting but I’ve been meaning to try it for ages — so when a friend & I were looking for something to do on a rainy Saturday, we decided to give it a shot!
I wasn’t sure how it all worked, but the lady working explained everything to us right off the bat. It was fairly quiet, only one other table painting away, and the shelves upon shelves of dishes, figurines, and other ornaments were calling our name! As soon as we set our things down we got to choosing. I ultimately picked a mug and my girlfriend picked a small jewellery box for her daughter.
After explaining how everything worked, we picked out our paint colours. So many to choose from! The possibilities are honestly endless. I also liked that there was no limit on anything, you could use whatever you wanted! They also have a wide assortment of stamps, stencils, brushes… pretty much everything you could ever need. I actually forgot how hard it is to be creative and artsy… so it took me a while to decide what I was going to do. There is something soothing about working on an art project, I don’t know what it is but we were so relaxed! They had some music going too and it was a pleasant atmosphere. Unfortunately we were on a bit of a time limit, so we didn’t finish our pieces, but we were told that we could bring them back anytime to finish, we just needed to take them home. So that is what we did — and we are planning to return next week!
Once you finish your piece, you leave it for them to glaze and dry. It can be pretty pricey (my mug was $ 35) but that includes all of the supplies, studio fees, and everything from start to finish. It was so much fun, I think this is going to be my new favourite afternoon activity!

It is not very often that I feel artistically creative. But when ever I do, I get this weird urge to paint pottery. Maybe it is because I’ve always loved ‘Ghost’ or maybe it is because it is something that anyone can do at anytime.
I decided to go to Colour Me Mine because it is right down the street from my house. The prices were a little higher than I remember paying at other places, but they had a great selection and as always, I decided on a bowl.
The owner/​working was okay, not super helpful. He seem more distracted in making sure Globefish customers don’t in his parking spots. (It is prime real estate don’t you know?) When you are painting it would be helpful to get some tips, tricks or some cleaver ideas and we didn’t end up getting much of anything.
In the end, we were pretty happy with our products. We went back three days later and picked up our bowls. There wasn’t anything particularly special about this place, chances are I’ll try another pottery place before I return to Colour Me Mine.

Colour Me Mine has a lot in common with most other paint-​your-​own-​pottery places. Unless you’re quite artistically inclined, you can expect to leave having spent a fair bit of cash on a pretty amateur-​looking piece of dishware. But you come for the fun, and the relaxing experience of spending a few hours doing something creative in a pleasant environment, while the staff takes care of the hard part.
Like most places of this genre, there’s a wide range of items to paint and the pottery pieces are on the expensive side. You’ll probably be spending in the range of $ 35-​$ 40 for your own hand-​painted mug after the service fee. Go with a larger item like a tray or teapot or vase, and you could easily shell out $ 70. If you want to make a date evening of it, expect it to run about the cost of dinner for two at an upscale restaurant. But, like I said, unless you’re a real talent, it’s about the activity, not the product– if that’s what you’re looking for, you can find nicer and cheaper plates at Ikea.
What I really like about Colour Me Mine in comparison to other similar businesses is their fair and predictable pricing scheme. Unlike many places, Colour Me Mine has a flat service fee instead of an hourly studio fee. This way you don’t feel rushed to finish your piece in two hours to avoid having to pay another charge. You can sit the whole afternoon and evening working on your masterpiece. You can even come back to finish if you’re not done by the time they close. And they don’t limit you to a certain number of colors and then charge you if you want to use more than that, unlike other PYOP places. So overall, I would have to say this makes for the most enjoyable pottery painting experience I’ve had, as you’re free to relax and be creative.
It does take a little while to get your piece back (they glaze and fire it for you) — longer than most places I’ve been to. We were able to pick up our pieces about nine days after painting them. But unless you really need your hokey butter dish in a rush, this isn’t really much of an inconvenience.
The staff is friendly, cheerful and helpful. There’s free coffee and a party room for big groups, and special party packages as well. Fun!