Finding Joy in the Making
July 22, 2026
By Melissa Mitchell
Working with clay demands your attention.
Your hands are busy. The clay responds to every movement. Too much pressure changes its shape. Too little support and it may collapse. You have to feel what is happening beneath your fingers and respond.
For a little while, everything else grows quieter.
For Melissa and John Pisarek, that kind of focus has taken on an entirely new meaning.
Earlier this year, they unexpectedly lost their 25-year-old daughter, Mae, to suicide. In the months that followed, they found themselves searching for healthy ways to navigate a grief that, at times, felt too big for words.
Eventually, they found themselves back in the pottery studio.
Melissa and John had worked with clay for years. They loved pottery, but as their business grew, slowly the reason they were creating began to change.
“Somewhere along the way, creating became producing,” Melissa shared.
Instead of walking into the studio simply to see what they could make, they were creating inventory for the next market, filling custom orders, and making what they thought people wanted to buy.
The joy they once found in creating had begun to feel more like work, and slowly, they found themselves pulling away from it.
After losing their daughter, they returned to clay with an entirely different purpose.
“We made a conscious decision that clay wasn’t going to be about production anymore,” Melissa explained. “We weren’t going to create for everyone else. We were going to create for ourselves.”
If someone else connected with what they made, that would be a blessing.
But it would no longer be the reason they made it.
Creating From the Heart Again
That decision gave them permission to rediscover what they had loved about creating in the first place.
For John, whose first love has always been sculpture and who holds a master’s degree in art, that freedom has opened the door to more sculptural work. His recent pieces include ceramic wind chimes that move well beyond the traditional form, incorporating individually created elements into larger, dimensional works.
Melissa has found herself drawn to functional pottery with a little whimsy—texture, hand building, and playful pieces like animal bells that simply make people smile.
Their individual styles are different, but their strengths often come together in the finished work. John’s wind chimes, for example, may include wire wrapping or jewelry elements added by Melissa.
“Almost every piece we make ends up having some part of each of us in it,” she said.
They each bring something the other doesn’t.
Together, they make it their own.
But what they rediscovered in the studio went far beyond the pieces taking shape in their hands.
Melissa describes grief as something that can pull the mind into a familiar downward spiral. Working with clay interrupts that cycle, if only for a while.
“When you’re throwing on the wheel, there’s no room for all that noise,” she explained. “You have to feel the clay in your hands. You have to be present. Every movement is intentional, and for a little while, everything else fades into the background.”
It doesn’t erase what happened.
It doesn’t make the grief disappear.
But it gives some of those emotions somewhere to go.
“Sometimes the clay says what we can’t.”
Recently, they took another step forward, participating in their first ArtWalk and sharing their new body of work with the public.
Melissa and John plan to participate in more local vendor events, where they’ll offer their handmade pottery and ceramic jewelry, along with opportunities for visitors to experience working with clay on a pottery wheel.
They are also preparing to open their home studio for classes, workshops, and creative gatherings—a place where others can slow down, connect, learn something new, and experience the joy of making something with their own hands.
They don’t claim to have the next chapter completely mapped out. For now, they are continuing to create, one piece at a time.
More Than the Finished Piece
A piece shaped during one of life’s most difficult seasons may eventually find its way into someone else’s home, bringing joy in a way they may never have imagined.
Their faith has also given the process of working with clay deeper meaning.
The biblical imagery of God as the Potter and people as the clay has become especially personal.
“Every movement of the potter’s hands has purpose,” they shared. “Push one way and the clay responds. Support it another way and it grows stronger.”
For them, it has become a reminder that even in a season they never would have chosen, their story is still being shaped.
Melissa and John believe creativity exists in all of us. We simply have to give that part of ourselves room to grow.
Their experience also carries a message for people who may never have considered themselves creative.
Take a class. Pick up an adult coloring book. Paint something. Plant a garden. Work with clay.
You don’t have to be good at it. Finding joy in the making may be reason enough.
Create simply for the experience of creating.
The process cannot erase grief or change the difficult things we experience. But it can give our thoughts and emotions somewhere to go.
What begins as a lump of clay, a blank canvas, or an empty page can become a meaningful expression of what we carry, or simply give us a few quiet moments when we need them most.
The beautiful pieces now emerging from Melissa and John’s studio are a reminder that even in life's most difficult seasons, something extraordinary can still take shape.
A selection of M & J Pottery can be found at Evoke Studio & Gifts.
The Art of Island Life will return next week with more stories and coastal reflections.
Have a story to share or a cause close to your heart? I’d love to hear from you at contact@melissamitchellart.com
14646 Compass Street, Suite 10
The Island—Corpus Christi, Texas 78418
Hours:
Tuesday-Thursday: 11a-4p
Friday & Saturday: 12p-4p
Closed Sunday & Monday
After-hours private shopping appointments may be arranged upon request, based on schedule availability.
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