I’ve talked with a lot of business owners over the years and I am always struck by the ones who didn’t plan to become business owners at all. These situations often involve a great idea and concept, followed by suddenly learning how to balance the financial burdens, operational tasks, and customer relationships needed to make it work. It’s a huge undertaking, but when the drive to build something special is there, it’s worth pursuing. 

For Reclaim Clay Collective, started by Siera Matsuo and Lew Wilson, the driving force behind the studio was community. Between sliding-scale offerings that make room for everyone, hosted events, and a mutualist team that’s invested in one another’s success, it’s safe to say Reclaim Clay Collective has built a business model that puts community first. 

To learn more about their story, I spoke with the owners about their approach to running a pottery and art studio in Seattle. Here’s what was said:

SSB: Can you tell me the abridged version of your origin story? How did Reclaim Clay Collective come to be? 

RCC: We first met at a pottery studio where Siera worked and Lew was a member. When Covid shut everything down, Lew offered up their garage to set up a home studio where we both started working together. Siera started teaching small private classes that took off, though we both missed community and connecting with other artists. That's when Siera realized she wanted to open her own studio and Lew offered to help make it happen. We started brainstorming our idealized space that was built off our community values and that we would both be excited to go to ourselves. We didn't have the finances for a commercial space, though, so we taught out of Lew's garage for a year and crowd-funded the capitol to open in our current location. That's how RECC came to be. 

SSB: How big is your business (employee-wise) and how would you describe the space you operate out of? 

RCC: We have three part-time employees and around ten instructors that work with us. Our studio is on the second floor of the old Tsue Chong factory in the Seattle, Chinatown-International District where they made fortune cookies and noodles. It’s a large cement industrial building with big windows, great natural light, and an open floor plan. Funnily enough, Siera’s grandpa owned a noodle factory in Hawaiʻi, so finding our location and setting up shop here felt serendipitous. We share the building with the Asian Counseling and Referral Service food bank and Bold Reuse. 

SSB: What are the biggest challenges of operating a community-focused space? How does it differ from a typical pottery studio? 

RCC: If I (Siera) didn't have RECC, I wouldn't be able to afford to do pottery, it's such an expensive hobby. Having a creative outlet does so much for your mental health and being part of a community does even more. That's why we offer sliding-scale pricing on all our offerings. It's self-determined. You don't need to ask permission or share your finances, you just pick a price point that feels right. That's the biggest difference from a typical studio: most run on fixed rates. We don't have that cushion. Sliding scale means our revenue is less predictable, so we're often stretching further to cover rent, materials, and payroll. It's a real challenge. But it was never about the money. 

SSB: What’s been the most effective marketing strategy for the business, and why?

RCC: We’re still such a young company - we turned 3 years old this past May - and we’re still not sure what’s working or not. We primarily use Instagram. That so far seems to be keeping us afloat. Honestly, our members are probably our biggest marketers. Whenever they're selling at markets or events, they give us a shoutout and send their friends our way. It's not a strategy we engineered so much as one that grew naturally out of having people who genuinely love this place. 

SSB: Your reviews are overwhelmingly positive about your welcoming atmosphere. How would you describe your environment, and how does your team cultivate it? 

RCC: We really love what we do and we love our community even more. It's corny, but we're family. Everyone here, the staff, members, folks who come in for firing services, students, we're all really invested in each other, both inside and outside the studio. Every year we do an annual summer camping trip together. We also host events like clothing swaps and open our space to outside groups to host their own events like QTMahjong Club and other community organizations. 

SSB: What's been the biggest learning curve you’ve had on the business operations side? Have you had to make any notable pivots about how you run the business? 

RCC: Oh man, Lew and I (Siera) aren’t business majors… I never dreamed of owning my own business and we both come from science backgrounds so all of this is so new to us. Being a small business owner means putting on many hats and even just opening had a steep learning curve: permitting, accounting, all of it. Each day is something new, and often there is struggle. We have to stay aware of what's not working and be willing to adjust. One pivot: pottery on its own felt limiting, and we always wanted to be inclusive to so much more, so we recently opened our print memberships to bring in the Risograph side of our community even more. 

SSB: How much traffic do you get from people discovering your business while wandering around vs. intentionally visiting your space? What do you attribute this to? 

RCC: Since we’re located on the second floor, we don’t really have street-presence so most of our traffic comes from people intentionally visiting our studio who have seen our marketing elsewhere. There are a few people who stumble upon our space and we’re always surprised, like how did you even find us? We’ve recently commissioned a mural to make our presence more obvious from street level that will be completed in the Fall. Our hope is that it will help us be more visible to the community. 

SSB: What does Lew bring to the table that Siera doesn’t? Conversely, what does Siera bring that Lew doesn’t? 

RCC: I'm (Siera) definitely more shy… Lew brings the extroverted Leo energy, so they handle a lot of the customer-facing side, teaching classes, and running our website. I'm more at home in spreadsheets and logistics, so I'm behind the scenes with programming, coordination, and payroll. I also run our social media. On the craft side, I oversee the pottery studio logistics, while Lew runs the Risograph print space. 

SSB: What have you learned about yourselves through operating this business? 

RCC: We've learned we're capable of a lot more than we ever gave ourselves credit for. Neither of us came from a business background, but we ended up teaching out of a garage for a year and crowd-funding our way into a real space. Along the way, we learned how to figure things out on the fly. It's given us a lot more confidence, not just in the business, but in ourselves for sure. 

SSB: Are there any favorite events, collaborations, or projects you’ve been able to carry out through Reclaim Clay Collective? Why? 

RCC: One of our favorite collaborations has been hosting first Fridays QTMahjong with the QTMahjong club. Every month they host about 30 people for rotating Mahjong games and it’s so fun to have the joy and energy of folks playing and having fun so authentically filling the room. We also host a bi-annual market for the holidays and our anniversary where we offer low-cost vending to our members and other community artists. It’s a really fun way to invite people into our studio and showcase and celebrate our community of artists. The markets always end up feeling like a big happy gathering of friends and people tend to stay and talk and connect in a way that we haven’t experienced as much at other vending spaces we’ve been a part of. 

SSB: Do you have any favorite responses or feedback from customers, and what about it is meaningful? 

RCC: A favorite comment we received was from one of our members who is a therapist. They shared that they use our story and their own experience at RECC regularly when speaking to clients as an example of a different way of imagining life in a time when things are feeling really scary for a lot of folks, especially our queer community. They described seeing us as proof that it’s possible to change your life path at any point, that you can find many ways to make a difference in your community, and that it’s possible to find other people who will want to work toward those dreams with you. We wouldn’t be here without the amazing people in our community and hearing that anecdote made us feel like we had made a big difference for them. 

SSB: What’s the best way for people to get in touch to work with you?

 Email us! [email protected] or DM us on Instagram at @reclaimclaycollective