Local Couple Fires Up Pottery Business

For Matt and Beth Dodd, the journey into making pottery began simply enough: the two of them were looking for a hobby to share.

“We had been trying to find a thing for us to do together as a couple,” Matt begins.

They’d tried sign making, but it hadn’t quite stuck. Meanwhile, Beth had noticed some inconveniences with some of the mugs they had at home.

“I was an avid pottery collector,” Beth says. “It was a bit of a hobby that I had, collecting and sourcing different mugs. Then after I became a mom, a lot of my favorite mugs weren't microwave and dishwasher safe [...] So I was like, let's make the perfect comfortable mug.”

Neither had pottery experience, but they were willing to step into the unknown together: they purchased a pottery wheel, Matt signed up for classes, and they started practicing—picking up tips wherever they could, developing glaze techniques and discovering the aesthetics they liked best.

“It's incredible how many hours of testing goes into making those glazes and how many hundreds of little test tiles, because all of our glazes are handmade,” Beth notes.

The result of all that work is Heart and Hope Studio: unique, handmade mugs that carry a northern, often nature-inspired beauty, and that one can pop in the dishwasher or microwave without any worries. They sell them on their website, Etsy, and a few markets around the area. Some pieces will soon be available in the St. Albert Art Gallery, too.

The name Heart and Hope has two origins: Beth notes it came from their earlier sign-making venture—those signs would often feature catchy, inspirational phrases—while Matt found the idea of heart and hope resonant with having a creative outlet like this.

“It's more about putting my heart into something that we get to make, and giving me hope,” he says. “There's life outside of the office, there's more to life, there's art that you can do, and getting a chance to be creative.”

They’ve put countless hours into honing their techniques, but they note that the journey’s been worth it, to get to a place where they can explore the ideas and techniques that inspire them most.

“The creativity part of it is really important,” Matt says. “That kind of artistic freedom of doing whatever we want to do: what colours we want, what glaze combinations we want—and then also experimenting, 'cause that's the fun stuff.”

Plus, as Beth puts it, “Everything tastes better out of a handmade mug!” More information about Heart and Hope can be found at heartandhopestudio.com.

Article written by Paul Blinov

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