On West Northern Lights, a Kiln Sets the Holiday Gift Deadline

When does a handmade ornament have to be made if you want it on the tree this December? At Devils Club Pottery on West Northern Lights Boulevard, the answer is Saturday, November 21. Of the five ornament classes on the studio's holiday calendar, that's the only one with a pickup date that should land before Christmas.

That makes the gift season on this stretch of Spenard more of a scheduling problem than a shopping trip. Devils Club and its new neighbor down the road, Sofra Turkish Cuisine, both run on unhurried clocks. One is set by firing and glazing, and the other by a breakfast built to last. If you plan around those clocks, you get a full weekend. If you ignore them, your ornaments show up in January.

Devils Club Pottery hands the clay back about four weeks later

Carla Fox opened Devils Club Pottery in June. Before that, she spent years selling her work online. The Anchorage Daily News reported that she opened the shop because Anchorage pottery classes were getting "full to the brim." The studio sits in the Northern Lights Center near Hearth Artisan Pizza. Class listings give the address as 1200 W. Northern Lights Blvd., Ste E.

The listing for the Winter Wonderland ornament class says your pieces stay at the studio after class so staff can fire and glaze them. You get a text or email when they're ready, "about 4 weeks after your class occurred." That four-week gap is what drives the rest of this plan.

The ornament class costs $60 per person, runs one hour, is beginner friendly, and is open to ages 8 and up. The listing even suggests making a pickle to hide on your tree. Here's what happens when you count four weeks forward from each session Carla Fox is teaching:

The December sessions are still good afternoons out, and an ornament that comes home in January is ready for next year's tree. If the goal is a gift under the tree this year, though, the Nov. 21 class is the one to book.

The gift workshop has the same lead time

The same timing affects Devils Club's bigger holiday offering. The Gift of Giving workshop is a four-week course for ages 16 and up. It costs $250 per person, and the listing pitches it as a way to "make all of your winter holiday gifts in one course." It runs twice:

• Tuesdays, 6:00–8:30 p.m., Nov. 3 through Nov. 24
• Mondays, 6:00–8:30 p.m., Nov. 30 through Dec. 21

The workshop listing doesn't give a pickup window, so ask about timing when you register. If it follows the same four-week cycle as the ornament class, work from the Tuesday group's last session on Nov. 24 would come back around Dec. 22. That's tight but workable. The Monday group's final session is Dec. 21, so a four-week firing would push those gifts into mid-January.

The Tuesday group starts Nov. 3, less than two weeks after this post goes up. If you want handmade gifts finished by the holidays, this is the one decision that can't wait.

Second Saturdays cost nothing to try

If committing to a class feels like too much, the studio offers a free wheel session on the second Saturday of each month, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Each turn on the wheel lasts 20 minutes. If you want to keep what you make, the studio will fire and finish it for $25. The rest of 2026 has two second Saturdays, Nov. 14 and Dec. 12. Assuming the four-week cycle holds, a pot thrown on Nov. 14 would be ready around Dec. 12, right as the next free night comes around.

There are paid ways in too. The two-hour "SMASH IT" wheel parties and handbuilding classes like Booty Mugs each cost $75, and a six-week Intro to Wheel course costs $350. At a smash party, beginners destroy what they throw and the shop reuses the clay. Fox explained the idea to the Anchorage Daily News: "With pottery, you have to smash it to get good at it."

You can also skip the wheel and still buy local work. The shop has a small gallery where members sell their crafts and keep 90% of each sale. As of the ADN's July report, the shop was open weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and weekends from 3 to 9 p.m. Check with the studio before stopping by, since those hours date from July.

Sofra's breakfast is built to take a while

A few blocks west, Sofra Turkish Cuisine opened in NL Village at 1443 W. Northern Lights Blvd., Unit P. It's run by siblings Zeynep and Engin Kilic, along with Zeynep's husband, Wayne Gould. The same family owns Turkish Delight in the Rogers Park area.

The dish Sofra is known for is serpme kahvaltı, a spread of small breakfast plates. Zeynep Kilic, a former food studies professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, told the Anchorage Daily News that it can take well over an hour to eat.

"It's meant to be shared and it's something you do with friends and family."

The ADN listed what comes on the spread: fresh and dried fruit, nuts, cheeses, vegetables, bread, Turkish jam, and acuka, a roasted red pepper dip. Warm dishes come after, like menemen, which is eggs scrambled with tomatoes and green peppers, or kavurmali yumurta, eggs with fat-braised beef. The front counter holds supangle and sütlaç, made from recipes from the siblings' mother's home in the Black Sea mountains.

In July, dinner was still "in the coming weeks." It has since launched. Sofra's menu page now lists dinner Tuesday through Sunday, 5 to 9 p.m. The rest of the day works like this:

• Breakfast and brunch: Tuesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays, brunch is the only menu.
• Café menu: Tuesday through Friday, until 2 p.m.
• 2 to 5 p.m.: The kitchen closes to prep for dinner. Only soups, tost, and whatever is in the display case are available.
• Dinner drinks: No barista works at dinner, so drip coffee, sütlü kahve, and salep aren't served. Çay, ayran, Turkish coffee, menengiç, şalgam, local sodas, and lavender house lemonade are.
• Alcohol: The beer and wine license is still pending. Until it comes through, Sofra serves three non-alcoholic options.

Sofra is closed on Mondays, which matters for the Monday gift workshop group. On Tuesdays, dinner opens at 5 and the workshop starts at 6, so that hour works for a quick bowl of soup but not a long meal.

One Saturday that fits both schedules

The ornament class on Saturday, Nov. 21, starts at 2:00 p.m. That's exactly when Sofra's brunch service ends, so the two fit into one afternoon.

1. Get to Sofra around noon, while brunch is still being served, so you have time for serpme kahvaltı without rushing.
2. Leave by about 1:45 p.m. and head a few blocks east to 1200 W. Northern Lights Blvd., Ste E.
3. Make ornaments with Carla Fox from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.
4. Wait for the studio's message, which should come around Dec. 19, about a week before Christmas.

Spots in the Nov. 21 class and the Tuesday gift workshop starting Nov. 3 are booked through the Devils Club Pottery class calendar.

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