The Experience: This week I attended a small store called The Clay Place, in Sicklerville, NJ. My intentions were to give students a creative, and fun way of getting cheaper ideas for holiday gifts. And I think this store serves as just that.

The outside of the store may scare most college students away but I urge everyone reading this to push on. Covered in a loud, bright rainbow and other array of blazing colors it is hard for this store not to stick out like a sore thumb. The store itself is small on the outside, and is part of a small strip mall off of Cross Keys Road. Inside the store is much larger, and extends further back. We were greeted by an friendly older woman, who was helping out another kids in the store.

The walls are decorated with shelves of pre-made objects, that all come with different prices depending on their size. Prices are anywhere from $4 on smaller ornaments to $15 on larger pieces. There is also a section with previous seasonals that are sold at a discount price. They also offer different types of art as well as classes in mosaics, beaded jewelry, scrap-booking, and other clays.

For me, the pre-made ceramic ornaments were perfect. I decided to paint three of them, a snowman, two children holding a heart, and Santa (keep in mind this is probably for my mom). We chatted with the woman for a little, and then selected our paints. My girlfriend painted her stuff neon green and purple, I stuck with the traditional Christmas colors: red, green, and white.

Now let me reiterate something, and make this one thing clear, I have very little artistic talent. Besides writing it is mostly down hill from there. But, the good thing about this place, depending on how you see it, is that you are not making any of what you are painting, instead just selecting what you want, and how you want to paint it. My kind of art.

We sat down with all of our paints, and snacked on the popcorn that the employee offered us. We sat down next to seem teenagers painting some stuff as well. As we sat people circulated in and out. A lot were parents with their kids, some were couples. Others seemed to be younger kids from the area. Everyone was friendly, several times coming over to see what we were doing, and talking to us about what we were painting.

We made a friendly bet, I bet I can paint mine faster, and better than yours. I lost the first bet pretty easily. The second one I am pretty sure I nailed. But you can be the judge. The three on the immediate left are mine, the elephant above is my girlfriend’s. Leave me a comment if you like.

The Upsides: Fair prices, creative present perfect for the time of year, friendly people, popcorn, other things you can do, don’t have to make the molds (positive for me).

The Down Sides: A little childish looking, if you want to make the ceramics you can’t here, if you don’t like kids not a place for you.

The Verdict: Generally, not much surprises me about this place. What I got is pretty close to what I expected. Good service, friendly atmosphere, and a good place to explore your creativity (especially with some of the other things they offer here). Christmas shopping can be dry and exhausting, and if you want a creative and fun way to do it, I highly recommend the Clay Place.

If you want to read other reviews on the clay place check out this link, and this one.