With clean lines and neutral glazes, the functional art created by the potters of the Little Clay Studio is just imperfect enough so you know it's handmade, and it's certainly perfect enough to grace an elegant holiday table.

The artisans shaping and glazing this tableware (three of them, at present) aren't your typical working artists. The Little Clay Studio is part of ReFocus, a Providence-based non-profit community center for adults with differing physical and developmental needs. At ReFocus, the artists are also clients, and their creations are the result of the ceramics education program at ReFocus.

Though there has been a clay program, designed to develop clients' pre-vocational skills, at ReFocus for about a decade, it wasn't until Jessica Schlacter joined the team that the idea that the class could evolve into a functioning collaborative developed.

Jessica, an artist trained in furniture design and metalsmithing, brought her experience teaching ages kindergarden through adult to ReFocus back in 2014.

"Because of the population we are working with, we do get a lot of clients who are more interested in playing with the medium, and not necessarily honing the skill," Jessica said. "But the three clients who are producing right now are very focused and dedicated to doing the work."

Those three are Jackie Silva, Ronald Miranda, and Jillian Walsh. On this day, Jackie and Ronald are working in the bright, airy studio, Jackie glazing a serving bowl and bantering with Jessica while Ronald maintains his focus on the task at hand, meticulously glazing a platter.

"When I first came here, the clay program was more of a day program class and for the first couple of weeks I treated it like that, but I quickly noticed that we had clients that wanted more, and were capable of more," said Jessica.

"It evolved into a collaborative. They can still play with the clay if that's what they want to do, but these clients really enjoy the production, and it's even evolved so they can work without me."

"Oh yeah!" teased Jackie, who, with 10 years experience, is the most seasoned artist in the collaborative. When she is not working on a piece, she enjoys tidying and organizing the studio.

Jessica designs pieces, orders supplies, operates the kiln, and manages marketing and finances for the Little Clay Studio, but the creation of pieces is entirely done by the clients. The producing clients receive the proceeds from the sale of the pieces, after materials are factored in, which nets them about 75 percent of the sales price of each piece.
Over the course of the year, Jessica will work with about 60 clients, a handful of whom emerge with the dedication to do the work to receive compensation.

Jessica's salary is paid by ReFocus; the Little Clay Studio is entirely self-sufficient — something that began when they got some large commercial orders a few years ago, from clients including Gracie's and Waterman Grill in Providence, and Metacom Kitchen in Warren.

"We did those for a few years, then we started getting calls from their customers, who saw our work in their restaurants and liked what they saw," said Jessica. Now doing custom orders is the bulk of their work. Turnover for a typical size custom order for a private client runs about 6 to 8 weeks.

Production work suits most of the artisans, some of whom like the idea of coming up with their own ideas, some days, but many of them often find the idea of coming up with a unique design to be intimidating. The work itself is satisfying for this select group, with the production potters choosing to work 4 or more hours a day, 2 or 3 days a week — with a break for lunch, like today's highly-anticipated Chinese takeout.

In addition to custom orders, The Little Clay Studio also appears at fairs and festivals, including the Looff Festival in Riverside, Art on the Fence in Bristol, and the Warren Walkabout. Their last appearance was in conjunction with Warren's Holiday Festival. Called "The Cup Show" it was composed of individual vignettes, along with an artist statement or a photograph of the creator in a moment of creation. Vignettes have been created by potters along with clients, staff, and supporters of ReFocus. For more information on future events, visit TheLittleClayStudio.org.

The Little Clay Studio is a unique success story, but to hear Jessica tell it, there's nothing unique about her approach to working with adults with developmental needs. "I approach these classes the same as I would if I were teaching a college class….There's a process, so they have the tools and are set up to succeed. You toss in peer mentorship, and that gives them ownership of the studio," she said.

"If you don't give anyone the chance to fail they will never have the chance to succeed."