When Lisa Behm picked up pottery as a new hobby ten years ago, she couldn’t expect the profound changes and inspiration it would bring into her life. What began as a simple hobby quickly grew into a second career as an artist.

“My dogs died, my kids all were gone, my daughter was done here at home, and I needed an outlet,” Behm said.

After raising her four kids and with her youngest finishing high school, Behm started taking pottery classes in Kennett Square, while balancing her new hobby with her longtime career in early intervention and special education.

“I quickly became addicted, and was running [to the studio] every chance I could between jobs and work,” she said. “I started wanting to do the art a lot more than I wanted to do work.”

Despite the initial challenges and learning curves that come with the pottery, Behm was not deterred, crediting the community of artists she was surrounded by for supporting her process.

“A lot of people give up because it's really hard, there's so much failure,” Behm said. “Starting off with a teacher in a very small class, only two other people, that was good guidance. Then it was nice to find an art space and have a place where you could just practice, practice, practice and fail and then have a whole community of people there with knowledge and ideas and teachers all around you who had the experience. Having that community was really, really nice.”

The appeal and endless opportunity of making something out of nothing is what captured and kept Behm’s interest in pottery. Even when things don’t always work the way she expected, there is a satisfaction in creating something original and a contagious sense of fun in her creations.

“I just love that you can start with a ball of clay and then build it into something,” she said. “Working on the wheel is so satisfying that the clay just grows on the wheel and you shape it, and you can fail, and then you can pull it back up once you learn the skills. There's a lot of learning that goes into figuring out how the glazes will work and how they are compatible with the clay. It's like Christmas. When you open the kiln, you've got all these fabulous colors that when you put them in the kiln, there was no color.”

In 2020, when Behm retired, she and her husband built a home studio in their basement in New London so that she could continue her art through COVID and grow her hobby into a second career. Even though her pottery is now her job, Behm still feels just as excited by it as she did when she just started.

“I do long, long hours in the studio, I have to force myself to do other things like exercise and socialize because I could be down here from nine to six every day,” Behm said.

Now ten years in, Behm sells her work on her website. From mugs, plates and bowls, to whimsical yoga frogs and gnomes, Behm’s pottery has enabled her to both explore her passion and reconnect with her artistic roots as Behm is not the only one with a dedication to art in her family.

Behm’s husband is a woodworker, creating and selling his work as Trewerk by DTB at some of the same shows and festivals as Behm. Behm shared that while the two stay in their lane and stick to what they know best, they do collaborate, with Behm incorporating some of his wood work as bases for some of her pieces and creating patterns to mimic wood grain.

Behm also shared that her mother, who recently passed away, was artistic as well working as an interior designer and having a talent for painting. Behm shared that she switched to purple bags for her orders to honor her mom’s favorite color. Behm’s mom started her appreciation for art while growing up in Chicago.

“We have a tremendous collection of artwork in our house and I grew up with a very famous sculptor who's a dear friend of our family, so art has been a big part of my family's heritage.”

Behm shared that the sculptor her family was close to was Amir Nour, a Sudanese-American sculptor who has work on display in the National Museum of African Art in Washington D.C.

While Behm had ample examples of artistic expression in her youth, she is now continuing the legacy in passing that artistic heritage down in her family through her five grandchildren.

“It's fun with them coming here and playing with art,” she said. “The colors sometimes are inspired by the kids and things that they like and are interested in. We just made a mug with agave flowers on it because my grandson is totally obsessed with agave.”

While none of Behm’s grandchildren or her dad live in the area, she shared that she is grateful that her artistic career allows her to take time as needed to visit her family.

“I'm blessed that I can do this as a full time job, but it's my own schedule,” she said. “So this allows me to travel a lot, and I go visit my grandchildren frequently, and my parents, now just my dad, very frequently. I have control of this, I can set it aside and go away and then come back and get right back into work.”

This flexibility of work enables Behm to travel around the world, serving as an additional source of inspiration in her work. While Behm was reluctant to name one location as her favorite, she eventually cited Greece and Hawaii as her top contenders.

“They have such wonderful, vibrant colors,” she said. “I also met a lot of ceramic artists in Hawaii, who were really interesting and inspirational.”

While Behm has ample inspiration and creativity to draw from for her pieces, she keeps her work grounded in prioritizing her customers’ experience and interactions with her work.

“Whenever I'm making a piece, I'm always thinking of who might use it,” Behm said. “I'm thinking of how it's going to feel when someone's drinking from the mug, how does the handle feel on your hand? How does the rim feel on your mouth? When I do colors and flowers on big pieces I'm thinking of who might want it or use it or enjoy it.”

Behind it all, what started as a hobby for Behm, has grown into a business with a simple goal of bringing joy and inspiration to herself and all those who encounter her art.

“I want it to be that favorite cup, or that favorite bowl, or that piece that just brings them joy.”