Our Beginnings. Written June 2021

Here is our story, unfiltered, that started in Los Angeles in 2017. We were two gals, living in small apartments with our husbands and kids, and wanted to help add to the family income to help purchase homes. Since then Melissa and I have both moved from LA, and have helped make that dream a reality. We couldn’t have done any of this without the help of our friends, family and you. So here’s a little of our story and the beginnings of Nomad Artisan Company.

*All photography, website, product, production, branding, shipping, wholesale and retail accounts are done by us, Mary and Melissa. We are a two women team that embrace the chaos of being moms and running a business.

It all started here, in this garage in Glendale, CA. Melissa and I worked on our kitchen tables in our apartments creating product and we would fire in Mary’s shared apartment garage. We had to fire at night because it would flip the breaker of the apartment building. ha! Renegade ceramic artists gone rogue. We would have our monthly meetings while letting Melissa’s boys play on the playground at Brand Library Park.

Melissa and I met through church, and she heard that I had a kiln. She had a love for clay from high school, so we started meeting up on Saturdays to create. I had about 10 x 10 feet of space in the garage that was used by all the tenants. We would roll the kiln we called “putt putt” out into the alleyway street, put up a few of my graffiti easels for shade and create for a couple hours. When one of us was on the wheel creating, the other was hand building. We were talking about how we’d like to get out of our apartments, and we had this crazy idea to start a business together… and that’s how it all began. And what a journey it has been!

Here is a glimpse into some of our photo shoots. Melissa and I had $254 each to put toward our business, we also had a used kiln that I had bought off craigslist for $500 bucks, and a few bags of clay, so we knew we could begin. With this budget, we knew that we would have to do website, photography, packaging, business licenses all ourselves. We started by doing a four page branding kit, which composed of finding pictures that we liked on pinterest, and compiling them into a keynote document. We printed those pictures off and took our papers with us while we took photos. We used them as references of how to style and pose our models. We asked our friends to be models for us, and had the best time shooting pics in the alleyways and by buildings around us. On most of our photoshoots we could smell weed and we would have a good laugh and say, “Good things are happening for Nomad.” Even now, whenever Melissa or I smell weed, we chuckle, and text each other and say “Good things are happening for Nomad.” We also want to do a big shoutout and say thank you to all our friends and family who have modeled for us over the past 4 years!!

We are definitely a grassroots company. These pics share a glimpse into our beginnings and our workspaces. Apartment floors, kitchen tables, couches, and countertops. Friends letting us come to their houses, and doing big production parties, husbands and moms, stepping in to do late night hours to fulfill wholesale and product for events. We couldn’t have started this without you!

This is why we do what we do, to make a better life for our sweet babes. To be able to be at home with them and show them that it’s ok to have a dream.

Melissa and I have learned to live in the season that we are in, and that it’s ok to take a few months off to just enjoy being a mom, and then to push when we need to push.

From the beginning, we have worked and still work from our homes and our outdoor studios. Where is the studio that you see in our about page? It’s our friend Sarah Fulton’s studio by skid row in downtown LA. We wanted some beautiful maker shots in the beginning, and our 490 square feet apartments were not cutting it. So we asked her if we could shoot pictures in her studio that she shared with other artists and creators.

We truly are nomads and have worked from our homes in each of the places we've lived since we’ve started. When I relocated with my husband to a new city, we lived on the 41st floor of a high rise. We had just been invited to Silobration, I was very pregnant, and Melissa had just had a baby. I knew that she couldn’t prepare for it alone. So little “putt putt” our kiln had the best view for 3 months, firing nightly, and I would have to unplug it during lightning storms. At that height it was like we were up with Thor, throwing the lightning bolts. Ha! Melissa moved in 2019 and lived with her parents. She worked on their kitchen table, and counters. We bought her a kiln that she fired in her parent’s garage. We have both created studios in our homes to work from and we don’t have to take over the kitchen table very often anymore. :)

We do a couple events each year and always love the opportunities we’ve had to participate in these amazing events. We feel so lucky and blessed to be invited! We always have the best time meeting all of you and meeting other vendors.

From our families to yours, we want to say thank you for being on this crazy, grassroots journey with us. We are so grateful for all the events we have been invited to participate in, and if you happen to be at one of the shows, please stop by and say hi. We would love to meet you and hear your story and where you’re from!

Josh, Mary, Kenzi, David, Melissa and our other babes

Final Thoughts

We hope our story of where we began an our journey inspires you on your creative journey. One of our mindsets is that there is always room in the world for another creative. That means YOU TOO. We love this quote by Henry Van Dyke, “Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. We don’t “sing the best”, but we sure the heck have fun “singing.”

And to all you women and mamas out there, remember to love the season that you are in. Life is too short to compare. Go out spread joy, love where you are, and sing in your way.