Cass Art

Not being particularly arty Cass Art probably isn’t a shop I would have gone into. But I’d booked a place on the Tatty Devine Bunting necklace workshop and so off to Cass Art I trotted. Being a little excited I arrived mega early so had plenty of time to wander round the shop and kick myself for not having been in before.
This place is amazing, and whilst I have no need for a sketch book, water colours or charcoals. They do amazing notebooks, a great selection of pens, all the glitter, a huge selection of colouring books and lovely craft kits that are now on my radar for smudge’s Christmas. It’s spacious, light and airy. Things are tidy and organised methodically so even without the friendly staff it isn’t hard to find what you are looking for or what you didn’t know you were looking for but now need.
The workshop was held in a great space at the back of the store, decorated in a really fabulous graffiti style and making me feel über cool and artistic — which is quite an accomplishment really!
I adored making my own piece of Tatty Devine and getting to chat to the amazing Harriet Vine and Rosie Wolfenden and their equally awesome staff. It was also lovely getting all fangirl with the other workshop participants, it also made me feel like my addiction is much less of a problem than my husband claims and that it could be so so much worse — challenge accepted.
I won’t wait for the next Tatty Devine visit to head back to Cass Art, like I said I can see some serious Christmas shopping happening in here and obviously I’ll have to sneak in a few utterly selfish purchases into the basket.

Oh Cass, you are good to us. I always find something interesting every time I visit (danger to my purse…). I often find things in here which I have not seen elsewhere, and at a reasonable price.
There is a play station of a different kind– loads of products to try out (today it was lino cut and printing), as well as an events space which has things to try out (or events which you can book).
I like that they have tablets which you can use to browse the Cass website, sometimes looking something up is helpful when you can’t find exactly what you need (although the layout of Cass is such that I generally find it easy to navigate and find «stuff»). Cass is a clean and bright store, and the staff are really helpful too.
Today I bought a Cass Art own brand A3 pad of bleed-​proof marker paper, and an A2 portfolio carrier, I was a little hesitant of getting paper which was speciality, as I wondered if I did actually need it and also wondered if it would work (I tend to use heavy cartridge paper for everything, as a rule) but it was smooooooooooooooth and lovely to use, with no ink coming through onto the surface below and no fuzzy lines which one often gets when using marker pens. Great buy.

I’ve visited this shop twice and bought two online orders. It is a perfect art shop with a great selection! Highlights are individual sennelier pastel selection (there are also various sized boxes), ‘ebony’ sketchpads, and the huge range of paint. Staff are chatty and helpful and there is something for everyone in here.

My first visit here today was to buy a pen and nib for the Unilocal’s Mad Skillz Calligraphy lesson.
I’m normally a bit intimidated by art shops, mostly because I’m not exactly arty, and never really have a clue what I’m looking for, so tend to clatter about never finding anything and having to ask a haughty arty assistant a stupidly vague question such as:
Me: ‘do you have glue?‘
Them: ‘what sort of glue specifically?‘
Me: ‘ummm, for sticking things with…‘
You get the picture. But this place is different. From the outside, I’d thought it was some posh art shop selling actual art rather than art supplies, as it’s nicely airy and spacious, so I’d never been in. Once in, I was given such a friendly welcome, and then a lovely assistant helped me find what I was looking for, without making me feel stupid for asking. Result!
And they have so much other cool stuff! I wandered about for a bit but not nearly long enough, so I will be back for another look. Because it’s so spacious and clearly laid out, it’s very easy to browse and notice lots of things that catch your eye. I clocked that they sell a big range of Montana spray paint, which is very cool, and some beautiful looking papers — patterned and plain. And when I asked a vague question about what I might be able to use to découpage some material to some furniture, I was given a very sensible and helpful answer.
An art shop that I like!

At first I wasn’t sure what to make of this place. I was a bit sceptical to start and Mr H hit it on the head when he said it was all too spaced out and tidy to be an art shop. Artists are used to rummaging about looking for prices, searching for stuff high and low, and shelves overrun with stock. Not here. It’s a bit like an art gallery, really quite a utilitarian layout and at first glance I thought maybe not as big a selection as other art places (particularly the other Art shop in Queen Street which I feel some loyalty with).
Anyway, that aside having a quick glance around, the products and prices are rather good. We noticed some good buys on standard stuff like sketchbooks and colour pencils and the store has a 15% student discount card which you get when presenting your student card. This did seem a bit odd — not sure why you can’t just show your student card each time you go, but either way its still good to get a discount.
The store has a pretty good stock of papers, pens, inks, spray paints and some arts and craft materials. I was looking for some calligraphy materials and wasn’t expecting them to have much, but they had a decent selection of nibs and pens which did the trick. I was approached by the assistants a few times who were genuinely really helpful without being overbearing, and appreciated the fact that in this sort of purchase most people like time to browse/​consider what they’re buying without the hard sell.
I picked some nibs and pens, and again great service from the cheery guy at the till who was happily colouring in between customers (eh wonder if they have any jobs going. I want to colour in :)). Anyway, I was grateful he noticed I’d picked up 2 nibs the same and swapped it for the one I meant to lift.
I did a bit of searching and apparently this is a chain of art shops started in London. I do love art stores and although this one appeared a little stark to start with, the friendly staff and great product choice will mean I’ll need to make a tough call on where to try first for my supplies.

I’m not artist but that doesn’t mean I can’t pretend, and after visiting this shop I kind of want to be one. It’s slick, it’s new and there’s lots of shiny things to stare at in disbelief. Like a Posca fridge. YES, it’s a fridge and it has Posca pens in it. Oh my days.
So, what kinds of things do they stock? Spray paint (behind the counter so they can check you’re legit), artist paints and paper, calligraphy pens and ink, gifts, kids ranges, craft supplies, drawing stuff, Posca pens in a fridge (did I mention that already?!) and they’re also going to start doing events and workshops soon.
This is definitely a shop worth visiting, even if you don’t consider yourself the arty type. There’s super friendly staff scattered all through the shop to make sure you can find what you’re looking for, and even if there is a queue at the checkout it’s because the staff are interested in what you’re buying and why. I left with new gold calligraphy ink and my name on the mailing list for upcoming events, and was just £3.50 lighter.