Two Tails Pottery Studio is now split between two buildings on West Main Street in Northborough. The studio's website says that starting October 27, painting and pickup happen at 243 West Main Street. Clay classes stay at 290 West Main Street. For anyone planning to paint a mug, a platter or a set of ornaments as a holiday gift, the new address matters less than the kiln. Every painted piece stays at the studio for a week. You have to go back for it yourself, and the studio doesn't call when it's ready. That makes the day you paint your real deadline.
Patch reported on October 12 that the move gives painters more room as the holidays approach. It also reported that buildout had already started at the new painting space.
Which Door Is for What Now
The studio has been part of West Main Street for a while. Hannah Sharron bought it in 2019. In 2025 she renamed it from Paint Your Own Pottery, or PYOP Studio, to Two Tails Pottery Studio. The new name is a nod to her two yellow labs, Henry and George, who sometimes wander the studio and are now its mascots. The rename was meant to leave room to grow. Splitting the painting tables from the wheels is what that growth looks like.
| What you're doing | Where it happens from October 27 |
|---|---|
| Painting a piece | 243 West Main Street |
| Picking up fired pottery | 243 West Main Street |
| Wheel classes and handbuilding courses | 290 West Main Street |
| Members-only open studio | 290 West Main Street |
The website lists painting and pickup together at the new address. So a piece you painted before the move gets picked up at 243 if you collect it on or after October 27. The 290 storefront is now for clay work only.
The Week in the Kiln Sets the Whole Schedule
The studio's FAQ page explains how the painting side works, and every holiday plan builds on it:
- Pick a piece and choose your colors. Staff pour the paint and ask you to brush on three coats for full coverage.
- Pay when you finish. Most pieces cost $25 to $40, and that price covers the pottery, the paint, your table time and the firing.
- Leave the piece behind. It goes into the kiln and is ready a week from the day you painted.
- Come back and pick it up. The studio doesn't call or text when pieces are ready. If you're unsure, you can call and ask them to check.
Three more rules matter once gifts are involved. The studio doesn't ship fired pottery, so you collect it in person. It has no same-day projects, because the kiln takes time to run. And it holds finished pieces for 60 days only. Anything not picked up by then is not kept, because shelf space is limited and new work is always being fired.
You get more time for painting itself. If you don't finish in one visit, you pay for the piece, fill out a "Work In Progress" sheet and take it home. You can bring it back within 90 days to finish. That 90-day window is for painting. Firing still takes a week from the day you hand in the finished piece.
Working Backward From the Date You Give the Gift
The studio hasn't posted a holiday paint-by date. Its booking calendar for November and December lists clay classes, not a holiday painting deadline. So the one-week rule is the only timeline to plan around, and you count backward from the day the gift leaves your hands.
Here's how that works on the 2026 calendar:
- Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 26. A piece painted on or before Thursday, November 19 should be ready a week later. A serving plate painted that day gets you to the holiday with no extra margin. Painting a few days earlier leaves room for a busy pickup counter.
- Christmas, Friday, December 25. A piece painted on Friday, December 18 would, by the one-week rule, be ready on Christmas Day itself. That's too late to be useful. Painting earlier in December gives you a real buffer.
- Gifts for people out of town. The studio doesn't ship, so you pick the piece up at 243 West Main Street and mail it yourself. That adds your carrier's delivery time on top of the kiln week.
The 60-day hold works the other way. A piece painted in early November can't sit on the studio's shelf until spring. If you paint ahead, plan to pick up well within that window.
Walk-ins are welcome, but the studio can't always guarantee space. Groups larger than four are asked to reserve. If you book, your table is held for 15 minutes after your reserved time. Painters of all ages are welcome. Children 13 and under must have an adult or older teen with them the whole time, so this works as a family outing but not as a drop-off.
What 290 West Main Street Offers Now That It's All Clay
The painting tables are leaving 290 West Main Street. It now holds wheel classes, hand-building courses and workspace for studio members. The timing lines up for anyone who wants to make a gift from raw clay instead of painting one.
The schedule on the studio's booking page for the rest of 2026:
- Beginner wheel, six-week course. Fridays, 9 to 11:30 a.m., starting October 30, the day after this post goes up, and running through December 11. There's no class on November 27, the day after Thanksgiving. The price is $300 plus a $7.50 ticket fee, and it includes instruction, firing, glazing and 25 pounds of clay.
- Wheel "Try It" and Sip and Spin classes. One-hour sessions on November 7, November 21 and December 5. The November 7 listings are $50 plus a $1.25 ticket fee, with the Try It at 2 p.m. and Sip and Spin at 5 p.m.
- Beginner handbuilding, six-week course. For ages 16 and up, Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The current session started October 14 and ends November 18. It covers pinch pots, coils, slab building, independent projects and glazing.
The six-week course works out to $50 per session, the same base price as a single one-hour Try It. Each course session runs two and a half hours, and the clay, glazing and firing are included. The Try It is a one-hour sample. The course is where you actually build the skill.
Gift timing works differently on the clay side. A course that ends December 11 means anything thrown in the early weeks has time to be fired and glazed within the class schedule. A one-hour Try It on December 5 is a fine way to spend an evening, but don't count on it for a finished gift by Christmas.
The Membership Math, for People Who Get Hooked
Wheel and handbuilding memberships cost the same, and the monthly price drops the longer you commit.
| Membership term | Monthly price |
|---|---|
| One month | $200 |
| Three months | $150 |
| Six months | $125 |
| Annual | $100 |
An annual membership costs half as much per month as a single month. A one-month membership costs four times a single $50 Try It class. Extensions are billed at $150 a month.
Members book three-hour open-studio slots at 290 West Main Street. Guests aren't allowed during those slots, and a late cancellation or no-show costs $10. Once the painting tables move to 243, that clay space belongs to people working with clay.
Christina Liberty-Grimm spent nearly twenty years in restaurants and bars before real estate, and the local spots that keep Northborough's calendar full are part of how she knows the town. If a West Main Street errand has you thinking about how your own home fits your plans for the coming year, Christina Liberty-Grimm is glad to talk it through. Schedule Your Free Consultation.
