We were lucky to catch up with Heather Hansen recently and have shared our conversation below.
Heather, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
I was first introduced to pottery in high school ceramics class. At the time, I knew I wanted to be an artist but wasn’t sure the path to take. My parents didn’t want me to be a “starving artist” and refused to help me get into the Academy of Design and Technology, Tampa, Florida. Many years passed and I ended up getting a degree in Business from Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville, Wisconsin. With that degree and my art knowledge, I started my at home business Pottery By Five. It was a slow start and I am still working on growing my home business. With social media and word of mouth, I have become more well known in the community. My wares are sought after and collected by many. Hard work and dedication to my dreams have kept me going. Now that my children are getting older, I am able to work longer hours and take on more orders from local shops and restaurants. Everything I have learned has been from practice, patience and perseverance.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Heather Hansen and I am the owner and artist of Pottery By Five. My business start up was back in 2017 after a few years of practice creating, selling at local markets and donating my work to help my local community. One of the first times I found encouragement was by donating time and wares to Empty Bowls which helps end hunger in Janesville, Wisconsin. So many people came to the event to buy soups and bowls made by locals for our city food pantry. This fed my soul and I craved to help more. My local botanical gardens held a community art project each year to help fund and sustain the gardens. I participated five years in a row by making large garden mosaics that were actioned off at the end of the season to raise money for the gardens. I continue to make projects to help out where I can, including the most recent project of sculpted miniature monarch butterflies to raise money for the Monarch Watch Fund.
My main objective for my business is to make extra money for my family an to be able to pay for my daughter’s violin and my son’s basketball league. It is important to me to have a hand in my family’s financial well being and to have something that I do for me. It was the choice I made to follow my dreams to become an artist. It has never been easy but it is the only thing that I wanted to do for work and for fun. Pottery brings me joy and being creative is what I crave more than anything.
I have found a good balance between raising a family and working from home. It give me flexibility to drop off and pick up my kids from school. I can go to every recital and basketball game. Multitasking at home is throwing on the wheel while doing laundry since my mudroom is located just outside the folding doors to the laundry room. I have a separate room for glazing and my kiln is located in the garage for safety and ventilation. The basement of my home is the best place for me to work while still being a stay at home mom of sorts.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
After many years of making and building a working studio in my home, we had fallen on a bit of a bad luck streak. it was spring time in Wisconsin and all the snow had melted away from the long winter. The ground was very saturated and our landscaping around our home was in dire need of repair. The soil around the home was eroded and rains were washing it away more and more.We had some leaks in one of the basement windows and there was nothing we could do but watch the window well fill up and flood half of the basement which was carpeted and fully furnished with our family room furniture, bedroom, toys, etc. We paid for someone to come in and help us clean up water damage but it had soaked into the drywall and we had to cut out two feet from the floor up. It was not only financially devastating to our family but nothing was covered by insurance. So, we took out a loan and fixed everything. We did a lot of the work ourselves but hired in someone to put in new flooring. This took several months to complete and I was working around the clock to get my studio back in working order. Less than one year later, the basement flooded again but this time it was from the water softener. It dumped about 100 gallons of water into the basement. It was the most devastating feeling to come home and see standing water on top of the new floors and soaked into the freshly drywalled rooms I had just finished painting just months before. This time it was covered by insurance but it took several months to redo it all over again. While this was all happening, I still managed to create and sell. It never really stopped. I found ways to work on small projects and continue to make for my metal wellbeing. The best part of the floods is that I found additional space we weren’t using in a large walk in closet and turned it into what is now the “mudroom” for my potter’s wheel. Also, I was able to add several new rolling racks and an additional desk to the glaze room.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Some of the best ways to help a small business such as myself is by purchasing products locally, rating them in my online shop, sharing posts, commenting on new items and tell your friends. By shopping small businesses, you are keeping money circulating within your local community. Most of the money I receive from selling my wares goes back into my business, help my local community and financial support for my family. I still get excited about every sale I make and it will never get old.
Contact Info:
- Website: potterybyfive.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/potterybyfive
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/potterybyfive
- Other: Etsy: potterybyfive.etsy.com