Meet Melissa Reese

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Reese.

Hi Melissa, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory. 
For over 12 years, I had a private practice helping people with mental and emotional well-being. I had also dealt with a lot of loss, trauma, and grief myself. Doing the work to heal was life-changing. I loved working with people and getting the opportunity to be a part of their healing journey. After 12 years and some life shifts, I decided I needed to pivot. My decision to pivot was based on my values and principles as a practitioner and student of “doing the work.” Basically, I took the advice I would have given to any client. I needed something else, something different, and I didn’t know exactly what, but it found me. I had wanted to take a pottery class for many years; it just never seemed to work out. In March of 2022, I signed up for a pottery hand-building workshop, and that was it; I was hooked! I became, let’s just say, ‘mesmerized’ (obsessed is such a strong word). I had found a creative outlet that was so cathartic, and that was it; I realized I could still help people, just in a different way. I should also note that I lost all three of my fur-babies in 2021; my grief was deep. Working with clay and doing some healing work was what I needed. This is what led me to the idea of a new purpose and new business: creating pieces that help soothe the soul. I very much brought much of my background as a practitioner into my creativity with pottery. My goal in my pottery is to create meaningful and beautiful things that bring people joy, happiness, peace, and some comfort. Grief is a tricky and hard thing to navigate, and with my background, I feel like I am able to be a safe place for people to bring to life something that helps in their process. Though making pieces that memorialize a loved one (animal or human) is my specialty, I even wrote an insert on grief that I include with people’s orders, I make other special and meaningful pieces as well. I also create pieces that have nothing to do with grief or loss, simply for fun and/or gifts. I enjoy making pieces that bring meaning and joy to a person’s life, whatever that may be. So, whether the piece I make is to memorialize and/or honor someone or to simply bring beauty, joy, or fun, it’s always special.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No. Deciding to close my practice after over 12 years was a big deal, and navigating that was difficult at times. It was like giving up an identity, a part of myself. It was also a little daunting to realize all I had to do again to build another, very different business. But I knew I had to take a break from being a practitioner. I know that we choose our hard, but our hard should add value and build us up, not deplete us and tear us down. Venturing into this new business meant a big investment in materials, oh, and I needed a place to make it all! My husband and I, along with help from a friend, renovated a shed in our backyard and that became my own little studio. It’s 180 square feet. I have my own kiln and all my supplies that I’ve invested in over the last almost 2 years. While getting the studio ready, I didn’t have the opportunity to make anything, so I had to very much hit the ground running after five months of no creating. I worked diligently to make gifts for people and gifts for marketing purposes. I knew that markets could be helpful to get my name out there, though that is not my model of business, I knew I had to start somewhere. I bought booth space at two different markets over the summer of 2023; I made a whopping zero dollars at both. I realized very quickly that I need to be very discerning of which markets I choose to be at. I also learned about pricing my pieces. I ended up doing two more markets in November and December of 2023 and did much better, not as I had hoped, but significant improvement. My goal is really to talk to people and let them know the type of work I do, and yes, I also want to sell all the pieces I’ve made for these events. But I want to get my name out there for people to know that I can help whether it’s memorializing a loved one, creating the most personal and meaningful gift, or creating cool party favor gifts. Custom and meaningful is my goal. And I’m still going to do markets, even though they are not my most favorite thing to do. Sometimes that’s how it is when building a business. And I’m all about organic connections and growth.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in including loved one’s ashes (animal or human) into the clay itself. This adds even more meaning to the piece I’m creating for someone. I love doing commissioned work, and not every potter does, especially for what people are commissioning from me. My goal with anything I’ve ever done is to spread love, provide a safe space, and offer things that help any healing process. I want to be a part of uplifting people and their well-being; before it was through mental and emotional work, and now it’s through pottery.

One thing I make that is unique to me in how I produce it are Calming Peace Stones. They are hearts with a ‘thumb’ indention in the middle of them. I wrote verbiage that goes with the stone. The purpose is to rub the stone and bring in love, calm, and peace. Other people refer to these as worry stones, fidget stones, or something else. My previous work taught me that language and words matter, and how we think about things matters greatly. So, I named them “Calming Peace Stones” to set the intention for what energy it is that a person is really seeking. These have been really popular as gifts and as things for people to personalize for themselves.