Studio ONE: one operating platform for Clay Space

Clay Space runs a Brooklyn ceramics studio on twelve tools that do not talk to each other. I wrote the brief and statement of work for Studio ONE, a single operating surface of fourteen modules, from registration and memberships to kiln firing, payments, and owner reporting, and I am delivering it as a solo build from August 2026 to February 2027.

Challenge

Sawyer, Typeform, Acuity, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Mailchimp, Dropbox, and Square and Stripe each held part of the business, and none of them shared data. Staff re-keyed the same information by hand, members juggled five logins, and every clay purchase and firing fee was charged on its own, so per-transaction payment fees stacked up.

Twelve disconnected tools
Five logins for a member
Payment fees charged on every small transaction

Tool consolidation mapProject brief · Discovery

12 tools5 logins per memberData re-keyed by hand

Tool	Used for	Replaced by Studio ONE module
Sawyer	Class registration and bookings	Registration & household accounts
Typeform	Forms and intake	Registration (versioned waivers, consent)
Acuity · Calendly	Private-lesson scheduling	Automation & workflows
WooCommerce	Online shop	Inventory & shop
Squarespace	Public website	Integrations & web shell
Mailchimp	Email to members	Notifications & messaging
Dropbox	Documents and files	Staff operations hub
Square · Stripe	Card payments, charged one by one	Payments, ledger & reconciliation

QuickBooks and Gusto stay in place and are fed by the platform rather than replaced.

Artifact · Every tool the studio paid for, and the module that absorbs it. Illustrative reconstruction; client details generalized.

Action

I ran paid discovery with the studio's staff before any build, then scoped Studio ONE as fourteen modules: payments and reconciliation, registration and household accounts, memberships and bench time, firing and kiln tracking, member and staff portals, a staff operations hub, inventory and shop, messaging, workflow automation, native apps, owner reporting, integrations, and a platform foundation of role-based access, a durable audit log, and human approval gates. I am building it on Google Cloud as a Next.js web app backed by Python and Rust services. Payments move to ACH first with weekly batching, which ends the fee stacking. QuickBooks and Gusto stay in place and are fed by the platform rather than replaced.

Delivery runs as thirteen two-week sprints with milestone gates M0 to M4. The first four sprints are a scope-firming period, and each milestone gets a ten-business-day review. Generative AI is deliberately deferred to a second phase: the studio does not need it to operate, and the first release should earn trust on the fundamentals.

Studio One sign-in screen beside the Clay Space storefront — Artifact · One login replaces the five a member used to juggle.

Result

In progress, August 2026 to February 2027. The platform is designed to pay for itself within its first year, through retired subscriptions and recovered payment-processing fees. The studio owns its data, and the price is fixed at the end of Definition with a cap that includes every change request.

What will be measured: subscriptions retired, processing fees recovered, hours of manual re-keying removed, and logins per member, from five to one. Results will be added here when they are in.

Studio One Today view: money in, bookings, cash on hand, approvals, the day's sessions, and payments by source — Artifact · Money, bookings, cash, and approvals for the day in one view, drawn from the unified record.

Reference architecture · Google Cloud

Studio ONE: one operating platform for a ceramics studio

Clay Space ran its studio on twelve tools that did not share data, so staff re-keyed records by hand and members juggled five logins. Studio ONE replaces them with one platform: integrations import history and keep data in sync while each tool is retired, one database becomes the record for households, memberships, firings, and payments, and members, staff, and the owner each get one place to work. QuickBooks and Gusto stay in place and are fed by the platform. Generative AI is deferred to Phase 2. See all four reference architectures.

Google Cloud project · Studio ONE

Booking & registration

SawyerClasses

Acuity · CalendlyPrivate lessons

TypeformForms & intake

Webhooks & APIs

Shop, site & email

WooCommerceShop

SquarespaceWebsite

MailchimpEmail

APIs

Payments & files

Square · StripeCard payments

DropboxDocuments

Import & sync

Integrate & migrate

Application IntegrationSaaS connectors

Pub/SubEvent bus

Cloud SchedulerSync jobs

Cloud StorageImport staging

One source of truth

Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL

Import
Match & de-duplicate
Unified record

Ledger & audit logDurable

BigQueryReporting

Studio ONE platform

Cloud RunPython & Rust services

Identity PlatformOne sign-in

Workflow engineRules & approvals

Cloud TasksEmail, SMS & push

Load

Serve

Member portal & app

Next.js web appBook, pay, self-manage

Native appPush notices

Use

Members & families

Staff portal

Rosters & firingsAttendance, kiln log

Use

Staff & instructors

Owner reporting

Owner dashboardOn BigQuery

QuickBooks · GustoFed, not replaced

Use

Owner

Platform foundation

Role-based access

Durable audit log

Human approval gates

Secret ManagerNo raw card or bank data

Cloud KMS

Cloud SQL backupsPoint-in-time recovery

Cloud Monitoring

100%

Drag to pan · Ctrl/⌘ + scroll to zoomDrag to pan · Pinch to zoom

Representative architecture, not a client production design. Adapted from the sources below and redrawn.

Integrate & migrate
Application Integration connects to Sawyer, Acuity, WooCommerce, and the other tools through connectors and webhooks. History is imported once, and sync keeps data current while each tool is retired.
One source of truth
Records are matched and de-duplicated into one Cloud SQL database for households, memberships, bookings, firings, and payments, with a durable ledger and audit log. BigQuery receives a copy for reporting.
Studio ONE platform
Python and Rust services on Cloud Run hold the fourteen modules behind one sign-in, and a Next.js web app serves members, staff, and the owner. A rules engine runs workflows and approvals, and notices go out by email, SMS, and push. Generative AI is deferred to Phase 2.
Use
Members book, pay, and manage their membership in one portal and app; staff run rosters, attendance, and the kiln log; the owner sees the business in one dashboard, and QuickBooks and Gusto are fed by the platform.
Platform foundation
Role-based access, a durable audit log, and human approval gates; no raw card or bank credentials are stored, and the studio owns its data.

Sources