April 30, 2021 Brands We Carry
Brands we Carry : Myrth Ceramics
A Few weeks ago the MINNA team sat down virtually with partners Abby and Eric to discuss how Myrth Ceramics came to be. With a tour of their space (located in the coolest neighborhood in Boston), Abby took us through a tale of a hobby turned into true love, of the success that comes from determination and the beauty of teamwork.
By Andiyah Patrick
Tell us about you!
Hi! I'm Abby. In 2015 founded Myrth with my husband Eric in our hometown of Boston, MA. We design and handcraft high-fired porcelain dinnerware, drinkware, and vases. We aim to provide your home with long-lasting, high-quality goods that exude functional beauty and a timeless aura. Our goods are intended for everyday use and are meticulously crafted to live with you for years and years.
How did you get started with Myrth?
In 2008 a friend invited us to join him for a Thursday night community pottery class. The ceramics studio was an antidote to our busy corporate design jobs, so it didn't take long before we were hooked. We ended up at that class for 6 years and our teacher became our mentor. He encouraged us to explore other larger outlets for ceramics to help us grow our learnings. After a few dead ends and snubs from larger studios, my head-strong Taurus nature led me to start my own studio. I remarkably found an available studio space, a very rare opportunity in Boston in 2015. I convinced Eric, my husband, and another friend from the community studio to join me, and our little side hustle named Myrth was born. These days it's just Eric and I and Myrth is our full time job.
At MINNA we believe in creating beautiful, ethically made products and using business to do good - how do these concepts relate to or inspire your process?
We are thrilled to partner with MINNA, for our missions are so similar. We too see our business and the products we create as a means for good. Our path in ceramics started as almost a response to our day jobs, which centered consumption that ultimately created a lot of waste. We craved making with our hands in a slow and intentional way. Those values became the foundation of our brand. We make and celebrate enduring products that are designed and made to last. Myrth is stylish without chasing trends or novelty, and our product offering is just what it needs to be, nothing more. By crafting our wares to be of the highest quality in timeless designs, we intend for our goods to be around for a long time and for our customers to collect pieces intentionally. From the choice to use a high-fired durable porcelain clay (the strongest!), to our carefully crafted glaze recipes that we designed & tested for excellent wear and everyday use, making lasting goods is both what we do and how we do good.
What about your home makes it feel like home? What's a favorite memory of yours in your home?
Home to me is in the textures: Our vintage mid-century furniture with its cozy wool upholstery. Our fuzzy cat and dog curled up next to us each morning as we sip coffee. A stack of Myrth dinner plates with their calm soothing glazes. Home is also in our meals, which have created some of the best memories. I love cooking on a Sunday afternoon, baking bread or throwing on a big pot of beans. We've also spent many memorable evenings on our deck grilling and sipping wine in the summer until well after the sun goes down.
What are you reading, listening to, watching, or looking at lately?
Truth be told we spend a lot of time in the studio so reading is a bit of a luxury lately, but when I do read I love reading cookbooks on a Sunday afternoon with a big cup of tea. Lately I've been into indian and middle eastern focused cookbooks and have poured through these titles: Falastin, East, Vibrant India, Indinanish, and Flavor. It's no wonder we make dinnerware because I'm food obsessed. When we are working at Myrth, KCRW radio is the soundtrack to our studio, specifically their show Morning Becomes Eclectic. KCRW has a great app that we listen to our fav DJs on. The vibe is just right and it's great to discover the new artists that the DJ (not an algorithm) recommends.
What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
We recently started working with a business coach and she has endowed us with lots of advice that has changed the game for us. The most impactful guidance we have received has been around how what you think can create your future. You create your thoughts, your thoughts create your feelings, and ultimately this drives your productive or unproductive actions. It's a simple concept, but in practice, having this new awareness and agency has given us a method to create the outcomes (or successes) we want for Myrth.