Vallejo Clay provides enjoyable lessons and a neighborhood hub

VALLEJO — Thriving as a fulltime, unbiased artist isn’t a simple feat, however skilled potter Whitney Smith has pulled it off for over twenty years. 

Smith had her personal studio in Oakland for 23 years and offered her wares nationally and internationally, first in high quality artwork exhibits, and later on-line, by way of Etsy and her personal website. At one level she began working with a producer to provide and promote her pottery at scale.

Her work was featured in prestigious house and design magazines, together with Martha Stewart, Sunset Magazine, Bon Appétit, and lots of extra. 

In 2019, Smith and her husband moved to Vallejo and he or she opened a studio on Marin Street. “People started coming in and asking for classes all the time, so I started teaching one class on the side while I was doing my regular work,” Smith mentioned. “Over the course of a couple of years the demand grew to the point that I had to rent a separate space to teach next door.”

That’s how Vallejo Clay Workshop was born in 2023. In August 2025, Smith moved her enterprise to a much bigger house at 306 Georgia St., which it presently occupies.

Vallejo Clay provides quite a lot of lessons and workshops for all ability ranges. The one-time lessons vary from $50 to $90 and embrace a wheel throwing class, the very talked-about mug-making class and a Sip and Make Pottery Night. There are additionally private lessons for two accessible.

For individuals who need a deep dive, the six-week sessions for both hand constructing or wheel throwing will scratch that itch. There are additionally workshops accessible some weekends to study a particular method. On April 25 and 26, for instance, Berkeley ceramic artist Josie Jurczenia will teach find out how to remodel a primary cylinder form into a singular sculptural vessel.

“The workshops offer well known instructors who come in and teach techniques,” Smith mentioned. “It’s a way to boost people’s skills and learn something new, and not have to go to San Francisco or Oakland to work with people like that.”

Smith additionally provides a Kids Clay Camp for 5 weeks in the course of the summer season and plans to launch programming for teenagers and youths in the course of the college 12 months as effectively. “I’m always trying to come up with new classes and fun things to do, to keep it interesting,” she mentioned. 

Transitioning from being a fulltime artist to a fulltime trainer wasn’t simple. “I had to learn how to teach and how to do a lot of stuff with pottery that I’d never done before,” Smith mentioned. 

She had been throwing on the wheel for 30 years, however to show a wheel throwing class you want lots of wheels and every wheel prices $1,500, so when Smith launched Vallejo Clay she centered most of her lessons available constructing. 

“I knew the technical part of it, but I wasn’t practiced, so I had to learn how to do that,” Smith mentioned. “And now I’m completely obsessed with hand building. I don’t even want to throw on the wheel anymore.”

Focusing on instructing additionally meant that she couldn’t have a versatile schedule or journey three months out of the 12 months, as she used to. She additionally went from being alone all day, engaged on her personal tasks, to being continually surrounded by folks and centered on their tasks. 

“If you told me five or six years ago that I was going to be doing this, I would have been like, ‘No way,’ but I feel it’s worth it,” Smith mentioned. “I made pottery and sold it for 25 years, and, as it turns out, it’s okay to change career paths and do something different.” 

It helps that she loves working a enterprise. “To me, it’s like a puzzle that you’re putting together all the time,” she mentioned. “You’re trying to figure out how to make it work.”

She had assist throughout this transition. Her operations supervisor, Sarah Kagan-Real, is an environment friendly planner who helps execute Smith’s concepts and in addition teaches some lessons. Smith additionally has a longtime mentor, ceramic artist Roger Yee, founding father of Red Ox Clay Studio in Concord. 

“He downloaded information to me, like forms you need to have students sign before a six-week class, community standards, things like that,” Smith mentioned.

A problem she has encountered is recruiting lecturers. “Most of the talent is in the East Bay, Oakland and further south, so getting people to come up this way is hard,” she mentioned. Once she has stuffed up her roster of lecturers, Smith envisions instructing solely specialty lessons and workshops, so she will be able to recuperate the versatile schedule she used to have.

The higher flooring of Vallejo Clay is open for personal group constructing occasions or events and might maintain as much as 18 folks. Smith additionally has a studio house for herself on the higher flooring and, when she has time, she makes her personal items. But in any other case she’s absolutely centered on instructing and making Vallejo Clay Workshop thrive.

In a short while, Smith has created a heat setting and a neighborhood hub. Students who’re within the six-week session do all their firing and glazing within the studio and have entry to the ability in the course of the studio’s open hours. 

They may also decide to turn into members. There are three membership tiers, some offering not solely entry to the house and a shelf for his or her work, however even a key to the studio to return and go as they please. 

Members or not, you’ll all the time discover some folks engaged on their tasks at Vallejo Clay, even when there isn’t a category working.

“I’m really proud of the people who come here,” Smith mentioned. “Sometimes studios can be a little clicky, but I feel like we have a great community, and people really like each other. They’re always interested to see what other people are doing. They support each other. ”

On April 10, Vallejo Clay may have its first ever exhibition referred to as Unearthed Offerings. It will characteristic the work of two college students, Erin Fitgerald and Selena Wells, who, in response to Smith, do unbelievable work. The opening reception can be April 10 from 5 to eight p.m. and the exhibit can be open just for per week.