We're Milissa and Eric Beale, ceramic artists. Our story began nearly twenty-four years ago, when we met over the potter's wheel in a dusty basement studio in downtown Valparaiso, Indiana. Our creative energies clicked right away. In the blink of an eye we were renovating an old brick building down the street and running an art academy and gallery with a team of artists from all kinds of backgrounds: jewelry casting, figure drawing, oil painting, sculpture, glass blowing, and more. We taught all the pottery classes and cherished every minute of it. Being part of that group of makers shaped us, and we still carry it with us today. A few short years later we were married, and we left the collective to grow our family.

We moved a little north to my hometown, the gateway to the Indiana Dunes National Park at the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan, and home to the steel mill where Eric spent years working as a Union Carpenter. This industrious, wild landscape is full of diverse ecosystems, and we've spent countless hours exploring them and identifying plant life, especially native wildflowers. The Dunes, and the preserved wild places we've visited since, have come to deeply influence our work.

Once our kids were settled into school, we started finding ways to get back to our roots and make pottery together again. We tucked a potter's wheel into our basement, set up a kiln in the garage, and began making gifts for friends and family. In 2016 we decided to get serious, and Beale Pottery was born.

As the business grew, so did our need for space. We set our sights on finding the right place in the Great Lakes region and found it in Westville, Indiana. We moved in July 2022 and started renovating the 1,500 sq ft pole barn on our property right away. By mid-September we were settled enough to get back to production work, and in March 2023 we finally opened our doors for classes.

Building a space where we could work side by side full time, build a community of like-minded makers, and share our love of pottery has always been the dream, and now we're living it. Today we work alongside our children and a handful of talented friends, including our apprentices, who help with everything from prep, creation and design to shipping and so much more. We share the studio with incredible potters who teach classes and workshops for ages 7 and up, and with a community of studio members whose work inspires us every day. Each year we gather everyone together for summer camp, visiting artist workshops, and our Rhythm + Raku Festival, a celebration of music, fire and clay.

Ten years in, we're more grateful than ever. Thank you for being here and on this creative journey with us. It truly means the world to all of us.