Glass Monkey Art Studio

Bought the LivingSocial coupon to take this class with my wife. As indicated by many others, it was impossible to schedule a class because these scammers don’t return calls or emails. Despite trying several times a week until the coupon expired was unable to book.
We have since taken classes at GlassBlowingAustin on Shirley Ave. who was professional, fun and always available.

Yep, we had fun at the class, but they didn’t mail us our stirrers that we paid $ 7 to ship. They are not responsive to emails and it is not worth the effort to pursue further. So, take the class but don’t expect to walk away with any glass objects that are worthwhile because they need to cooled down very slowly or they become brittle. Also, don’t pay for them to ship it to you because they probably won’t.

I bought a Groupon for a 2 person Intro to Glassworking class. The week before our class, I read the reviews here and was a little skeptical of how it would go. I gave my husband the heads up that it might suck, but we went anyway. I’m glad we did!
This place has promise, but it is a little sketchy — in the south Austin hippie sort of way, not the crack smoking and muggings sort of way. Well, maybe crack smoking, given the number of pipes on display…
There were about 8 people total in our class (including us), with 3 instructors. One guy did the main demonstration (about half an hour), but all three walked around during our hands-​on portion to give pointers. The instruction was friendly and thorough. They made it clear that we had paid for 90 minutes of torch time, so if we got done early we could get another stick of glass to work on. I did, so I ended up with three drink stirrers.
We live in North Austin, but didn’t want to pay $ 7 each for shipping, so we just drove down the following weekend to pick up our annealed stirrers. It did take a couple of calls to schedule a time to pick them up, but no biggie.
We had a blast at the class and if it weren’t so far out of our way, we’d definitely take more classes. As is, we’ve been looking at taking glass-​working classes at studios more north/​central. It really was that much fun!

I bought the class for my sister for her birthday. It was pretty basic but you would be surprised at how much skill is needed to do the basics. :) I enjoyed the experience! The guys were very helpful.

Incredibly disappointed! I really wish I would have Google Earthed this place before I bought the Living Social deal for an Intro to Glass Blowing class. It is literally someones house. I drove by and was astonished that Living Social said this place is safe to go to! I am a single female and there is no way I am walking up to someones house that looks like a trailer park with trash everywhere. There was no sign indicating that it was even the correct place. That’s because they are zoned residentialand can’t post a sign because they would be shut down and fined for running a business out of their house!
I probably would have felt much better about this had they actually answered their phone the day before the class but surprise! It said the number had been disconnected.
Also, after asking around, I learned from people who had actually gone to this place that most of the glass blowing they do is «paraphernalia». No thank you.
I was really looking forward to this class but I’m incredibly disappointed in the place and also in Living Social for continuing to let people buy deals that will take them to literally trailer trash.

This review is a bit late, but after being asked about my experience from my cousin, I thought it was worth the time. As Laryssa N. said, my drink stirrers did not arrive either. I emailed to see where they were and was told that since there were so many stirrers they would not know which would be mine and I would have to come look. Well I live about an hour and half away and did not want to make the drive. I simply asked for a return of my $ 5 I gave for the shipping of the stirrers, but did not receive that either.

I took their ‘intro class’ 3 weeks ago. The class was fun! The people WERE fine. There is a thing on the form that says if you want your stirrers mailed to you, pay $ 7. Well my friend and i did as we do not live in South Austin. I have since left 2 voice mails and no one will call me back. I also have not received my stirrers which probably means they destroyed them.
I would watch out for this place. SCAMMY. I wont be back. I feel as though i was duped. Thanks for NOT calling me back and NOT sending me my things.
EDIT: after writting this i seemed to have received my stirrers… funny how it was dated 10/19/2012…Days after this post.

Me and my guy took a glass blowing class a couple weeks ago with a deal I purchased on Google.
The scheduling system they use was easy to use and I had no issues with it. It could have been slightly easier to find just because they don’t have a sign but as long as your not complete idiot I can’t imagine passing it up more than once. The guy explained it had something to do with not being registered with the city as a business or something and that it was illegal to place a sign near the road.
Everyone there was really knowledgeable and the teacher to student ratio was great. I really felt like I got a lot of one on one attention while creating my piece.
This place is definitely not for snooty people. It’s very laid back and the classroom portion takes place in a trailer that smells like cigarettes but the studio was set up pretty well I thought. The class was small, probably only about 6 people. One woman who was really rude and a total sour puss left because of the cigarette smell. Me and my guy were both thankful because we were sure she would have ruined the class for everyone with her attitude. Neither of us smoke and he has asthma and we were able to sit through the class just fine.
Our glass stirrers were ready to pick up the next day. Overall we had a great time and will probably take another class in the future.

I had an appointment today (Sunday) at 12pm for Glass Monkey Art Studio with a Living Social deal which I decided not to use. Let me explain why.
After much driving around looking for the studio, we finally called and asked for directions. Once we found the location, we noticed that it was a trailer in a junkyard with no business sign or sign of any «studio» for glass making. My husband and I stood outside for a few minutes, looking around, trying to find any sign of life, not wanting to knock on the door to the trailer because of how run down and sketchy it looked. There was no sign of a business here, or designated parking for guests. If there was a business here, I will bet it is not up to safety code. I also saw garbage and junk in the backyard. We then decided to leave because my husband saw something disturbing. He saw what looked to be human arms, (fake or real, we are not sure) hanging from the side mirror of a van on the property. The van was located at the end of the driveway just behind a sign that said «No Trespassing» and in magic marker «you are on private property.»
This place scared the living heck out of me, I am glad I never went inside.
First impressions are everything when trying something new, especially a business. This property had no sign of a running business and was very trashy and sketchy. We were under the impression that we were attending a class, when we arrived on time there were no other cars in the parking lot, not even that of the teacher. Fearing our health and safety, we decided not to enter the premises to redeem our living social deal. I would strongly advise in the future, not to go here.
I will also be calling the Austin Better Business Bureau to have them investigate the property for any more possible violations.
I will also be getting a full refund from Living Social.

After posting my original comment, the studio manager contacted me in hopes to make up for my bad experience. Although I declined any attempts to schedule something new (I’m still upset by the whole thing) and I stand behind my original post, I think their customer service efforts are worth a follow-​up post.

If I could give 3 ½ stars I would. I did the Intro to Glassblowing workshop today, and I enjoyed it, but there are a couple areas where they could improve, in my opinion. First, they need a sign outside. There is absolutely NOTHING about the property visible from the road that indicates it is any place of business, much less Glass Monkey Art Studio. Second, the ‘office’ is being ‘remodeled’. It is a mess, and wreaks of cigarette smoke (everyone working there seemed to be heavy smokers). For me, those things are a pretty big turn off.
As far as the actual training, they seemed to know their stuff. There was some ‘classroom’ training, held in the office, covering the basics of glassblowing and safety. After that we proceeded to the studio, where all the real action takes place. The head tutor had to run an errand, so the demonstration of how to make our drink stirrers was done by one of the apprentices, but he was back in time for us to start our projects. It was pretty intimidating for me, having never done anything even remotely like it, but they were really good about helping out and walking us through the process. Afterward there was another short demonstration if we wanted to stick around. It was nice that they weren’t rushing us or pushing us out the door at the end of the two hours (we went a little over).
Overall, it was a positive experience. I did enjoy myself, and I’m excited to get my stirrers (they have to go in the kiln, so you have to go back and get them later).