I've made a number of pieces at the clayground and I find it a fun way to kill some time. People should be aware that it takes a LONG time to complete a piece so it takes a bit of commitment. If you're like me and like to try new techniques all the time you might just end up going back several times over to complete the items particularly when you have to make sure it's all dry before continuing on. The good news is at clayground it's free to come back another day (not so at competitors)
I find the staff very helpful - there are lots of examples of things to try from mixing soap in with the paints and browing bubbles and having them pop on the surface of your item to create a cool pattern. I also painted string into the paint one time and then covered it in black. When you slowly remove the string after it's all dry you see the color under the black in cool patterns. For new techniques, clayground seems to be the best teachers of the 3 calgary places i've been. The downside is I find the bisque to be on the expensive side.