Today we’d like to introduce you to Joanne D’ Alessandro.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Joanne. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
When I was a child, my mother would say to me, “Jack of all trades, master of none,” since I could never be content doing just one thing. The diagnosis didn’t exist then, but I was/am a poster child for ADHD. My passions include art, music, and literature…all very emotional and all vying for my attention simultaneously. To my surprise, I became a medical researcher, a career that would last 37 years. Then, when most people were starting to think about retirement I came across a local art company for sale. An opportunity to go back to my artistic beginning! And an opportunity to put my ADD traits to good use. Hestia Creations is a very small company: four full time employees (give or take) so we all wear multiple hats and all need to multitask. When I purchased the company twelve years ago, the focus was primarily on creating custom design ornaments. To date, we have over 5,000 custom designs! Since then we have expanded our watercolor offerings, our unique handcrafted Nativity Companions and Santa Collections, our hand-painted ceramics, and even created a Marblehead chess set, using some of our historic buildings as Kings, Queens, Bishops & Knights! (Sailboats are used for the pawns, but you probably guessed that.)
We create most of our custom products for our wholesale customers, consisting of stores, museums, hotels, schools, churches, and philanthropic organizations. We have also enlarged our Marblehead retail store where we feature locally-inspired items, running the gamut from ornaments and miniatures of surrounding towns – including Boston – to coasters, trivets, and other original hand-painted ceramic plates, platters and pitchers. Most recently, we launched a Paint Your Own Pottery Studio. No opportunity to get bored here! As for retirement? What’s that?
Has it been a smooth road?
Owning a business is never without obstacles. Naiveté is probably what gets most people into trouble. Going from an academic science background to the business world presented the biggest challenge. I was not thinking “business,” I was thinking “What a sweet artistic venture I can enjoy. After all, how hard can it be?”
After two years, when I finally began to understand “business,” I ran into the major recession that eliminated many of my customers and could have been the end of my company. Fortunately, Hestia survived, better and wiser for the experience.
The nature of the business is with its own challenges. In an era of mass production and technology, hand-crafted items are a challenge to produce and market competitively next to machine-made items. As my Small Business Advisor once said to me, “You have a 19th century business model operating in the 21st century. I give you a lot of credit.”
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Hestia Creations, a custom design art studio, began over 30 years ago when a group of women, mostly stay-at-home-Moms, started making bread dough ornament (hence the name Hestia, goddess of home & hearth). Today, our relief sculpture ornaments are made of bonded marble dust, but are still hand-cast and hand-painted, miniature ‘works of art’ you can hold in the palm of your hand.
Our signature product is our AmeriScape ornament but it is only the tip of our creative iceberg. We have an extensive water color series as well as unique, heirloom quality Nativity and Santa collections, and themed hand-painted ceramics.
We have a retail store attached to our art studio where we sell our own creations, items you cannot find anywhere else. Many of our retail customers are not even aware that in addition to what we sell in our own shop and online, we create custom pieces for museums, main street associations, school, churches, florists and gift shops across the country. Our customers appreciate all the detail and dimensions our creations offer, and we pride ourselves in our exacting standards. Our wholesale customers also appreciate our low minimums and the personalized attention they receive when designing their exclusive products.
A natural extension of our art studio is a recently launched Paint Your Own Pottery Studio, where others can express their inner artist or just have fun with friends.
What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?
As far as a “Proudest Moment” goes in my Hestia career, I can’t really pick just one. To own a company that is still in business after 30 years is definitely a source of pride; to have local customers tell me that they love shopping in our Hestia retail store makes me very happy; to have our products sent around the world as gifts is undoubtedly an honor.
The fact that our custom, handmade items have received national attention makes me incredibly proud of the company, staff and the artists who work here. One such noteworthy experience was when People Magazine chose our Boston ornament for their holiday issue as the only ornament to represent the entire State of Massachusetts.
I also am reminded of when our Companions Nativity Collection was selected for the special exhibit hosted by the Marian Research Center of the University of Dayton, an exhibit that only included pieces determined to be of ‘museum quality.’
Proud moments such as these have made the day-to-day challenges a lot easier to manage and definitely, more enjoyable.
Contact Info:
- Address: 13 Hawkes Street
Marblehead, MA 01945 - Website: www.hestiacreations.com
- Phone: 781-639-2727
- Email: sales@hestiacreations.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hestiacreations/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HestiaCreations/
- Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/hestiacreations/
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
