Kristin Hanson

Let me preface this by saying that if I could leave zero stars, I would.
Super disappointed in this class, if it can even be called that. I arrived at 11am, no one said hi or asked me who I was, I was just told to sit at a workstation. The «class» consisted of just me and another woman. The instructor came over and gave us a piece of scrap metal to work on. He told us to make lines on the metal 2 mm apart. Seeing as how he gave us no instruction, we both did a terrible job and he told us so. I ended up working on my lines until 1:30pm. That’s right, two hours of making lines in metal. My instructor, who I came to find out is named Max, kept saying my lines were bad and getting extremely frustrated with me. «What’s the problem? You know you can ask questions.» I don’t know what the problem is, Max. You are not watching me make the lines.
Anyways, I would have been making lines all day except a woman came over (I later learned was Kristin, the owner), and asked me why I was making lines. Then she yelled at Max saying he was giving us the wrong lesson and we were supposed to be making pendants. Awesome. Glad I just wasted two and a half hours drawing terrible lines on metal. He then spent 5 minutes showing us how to trace circles, ovals, and triangles for our pendants. It was very clear that all he wanted to do was get back to working on his own project. It took me 30 seconds to finish tracing my «design.» I went to the bathroom and when I came back out the other woman in my «class» was gone. I sat around for 15 minutes waiting for some direction. Finally, Kristen came over and said the studio was closing for a lunch break at 2:30. I continued to sit idly at my station for another 15 minutes. The woman did not come back and Max did not leave his station to check on his lone student. I ended up walking out of this «class.» When Max saw me grab my bag he asked where I was going. I told him I was going to have a cigarette and for some reason this made him laugh. I suspect he realized that I would not be back.
Once I got home, I immediately contacted my mom who had bought me the groupon as a Christmas present and told her to get a refund. Apparently, I am not the only one who has had a terrible experience there as evidenced on their now closed Unilocal page for Fine Jewelry Studios (read the filtered reviews) and Groupon’s understanding and willingness to give me a refund.
I will say this, Kristin did seem very nice and her jewelry was beautiful. If I had had a good experience there I was more than ready to sign-​up for other classes. It’s a shame that Max treated the class as a punishment he was enduring rather than an opportunity to gain new students.

I was given a gift to take a class at the Kristen Hansen school and was really excited to learn a new skill. The studio is nice, however, the instruction and general organization is seriously lacking.
When I arrived at the class I was told, along with the other 5 students that it would be a 6 hour long pendant making class. I thought I was supposed to be there for a 3 hour ring making class but since it was a gift, and scheduled for me by someone else, I thought nothing of it. It was not until someone else in the class pointed out this issue that I realized it was their mistake. In order to fix the issue the instructor said she could offer us a deal and only charge us an additional $ 25 for the longer more expensive class. We both agreed but I later realized that the other student had bought a discounted Groupon whereas my gift had been purchased at full value.
The entire class was very poorly instructed, with two different teachers giving entirely different directions. Not only were there instructions all over the place but their complete disinterest was shocking! They had six beginner students with hand saws working and would leave us for long periods of time all alone. There lack of attention got so bad at one point that I had to walk across the studio to let them know we needed direction. They seemed to be more interested in their own projects and social time than they were in the class. I was shocked to later find out that the one instructor is the owner.
At the end of the class I was really annoyed and had no interest in paying the additional fee that I had agreed to at the start. Not only was I paying an unfair additional cost but they had done nothing to convince me it was worth it. I paid the fee and the person who have me the gift called to get a refund. The overall experience here was pretty awful and I would not recommend it.

Don’t take the jewelry class! It’s in a cold basement and a 4 hour class consists mostly of drawing a sketch, the instructors walking around telling most he students «you can’t do that, you would need to take more classes ». Don’t waste your time and money. No matter how talented you are, there is not much you can do with a tiny piece of brass, which is cheap and ugly.

kristin made my engagement ring, and we had a TERRIBLE experience with her. my husband has very little knowledge about jewelry and she totally took advantage of him. she gave us a topaz while allowing us to think it was a sapphire. her original design, while beautiful, was completely structurally unsound. We had to have it basically remade so that the halo would stop losing diamonds with the lightest touch. luckily, she didn’t really want to help so she sent us to her setter, gary dieli.
he has been such a blessing! he remade my ring, reset it with a much nicer stone and has been loving and warm.
if you are looking for custom made jewelry, DO NOT purchase anything from kristin. i hate to write such a bad review, but it was really sad to have such a happy thing be ruined by her dishonesty and bad attitude.

I bought two Groupon two hour jewelry classes at what was the Kristin Hanson School of Jewelery Design so that I could take a friend there on a Saturday morning for her birthday present. Booking the class was no problem, I was pretty sure I was speaking to Kristin herself, she talked about «my» designs and «my» instruction. We arrived and everyone there was really nice, looked fun, cute little dog in the workroom. Soon found out we were there for the two-​hour gem-​wrapping class but we were signed up for the three-​hour brass-​cutting class.
They moved us over to a new table and Kristin herself came over to teach it with a nice young guy who watched the class (which took much less than 30 minutes — we had the option to pay for additional materials and stones if we wanted to make something else in our time.) She was clearly upset that we were scheduled for the wrong class and kept asking if we’d gotten a phone call to change the time, and she couldn’t believe someone set that up. No one called me, ever, and I’m almost certain she spoke to me on the phone.
We opted for one necklace each and were charged for our materials. Necklaces were Swarovski crystals and I paid extra for sterling for my chain. Very limited choice of stones. Like three to four colors and two shapes. We basically learned to run wire through a stone and twirl the end of the wire. Add a stone, twirl that end and then watch as they soldered the pendant on a chain. I have actually learned more at local bead shops.
Kristin Hanson was annoyed that we were signed up for the wrong class, she told us gem-​wrapping was basically a «beading class» and worked with us as quickly as possible then told us she’d see us on the tour of her shop and work. ?? Can’t remember the name of the guy who showed us how to complete the chains and clean the jewelry but he was AMAZING and very nice. Would have been a totally different experience if we’d had two hours with him instead of 10 minutes. Kristin then gave the other class a break and took all of us on a tour of her loft and shop. (Okay, not sure how to say she is a little, snobbish?) We were just turned off by the artist’s attitude. She disparaged one large department store she’s designing for saying that she’s so versatile and successful that she’s designing stuff for this store that she’s never shopped in though some of us might actually like it. ?? It’s a nice store that holds a really big Thanksgiving Day parade every year. How ANYONE could live in NYC and NEVER set foot in it is a little strange.
The rest of the tour was looking at jewelry that she had for sale. Then, thanks very much good-​bye pay in the shop next door. I should say my friend is a collector of unusual gemstone artisan jewelry and travels pretty far to discover new designs. She really didn’t enjoy the rushed and indifferent attitude of the class instruction at all. We felt a little like they did us a huge favor by allowing us inside. And we’re actually quiet, nice, easy going people who get along with most everyone. We’re also not complete klutzes. We were game for some fun, but now I look at my necklace and try to think only of the amazing lunch we had afterward (fun area for restaurants).
The «school» was not the creative adventure I’d sought. Would not return if Ms. Hanson is teaching the class.

I completely agree with the last reviewer, Rachel! BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU WANT TO GO TO THIS SCHOOL.
I bought a Living Social deal, and have been trying to book a class on a weekend, but once they hear that it’s a Living Social voucher, they tell you they’re booked up (probably to save space for the students paying full price). Now my voucher is about to expire, and the woman who answered the phone pretty much said «Too bad, you can use the amount you paid towards a class in the future and pay the difference.» When I explained that I could never redeem it on a weekend before, she suggested that I could have taken a day off from work to redeem it on a weekday.
I asked if I could use the promotional value towards a class, and she said that they would only let me use the paid value towards a class, so this was basically a way for them to force people to pay full price for classes. They’ve done everything they could to keep people from using the Living Social vouchers, as my friends had similar issues. My advice is DO NOT BUY A DEAL FOR THIS SCHOOL if it ever comes up again, and if you want to take a class, think twice because I would not want to deal with these shady people with my money.
Thankfully Living Social was helpful and refunded the price I paid in Living Social credits.
I would give them 0 stars if I could.