hello.
I'm Heide. Little Bird Studio is my one-person studio in Hope, Alaska, where I make pottery and small-batch botanical skincare — two crafts that take patience, and both of which I love.
the pottery
I've been making pottery for twenty-four years. I started taking classes at the university while I was in nursing school, apprenticed with a studio potter for about a year, stepped away for a while, and came back to it. When I returned, I went deep - surface design, glaze chemistry, the slow work of testing and re-testing. I lead workshops now and then on slab hand-building and surface techniques, and I'm always working on something new.
During COVID I built my own studio out of a 1967 Mallard Drake travel trailer — deconstructed down to the studs and rebuilt from there. The small space pushed me toward hand-building, and I haven't looked back. Most of what I make now is hand-built functional work: pieces meant for daily use, with surfaces that hold up to a closer look.
the place
I've lived in Alaska for about thirty-five years, and in Hope since 2021. Hope is a town of two hundred or so year-round residents at the end of a fifteen-mile road on Turnagain Arm - you have to mean to get here. The summer brings hikers and visitors; the rest of the year is quiet, and I love that. My tiny home and my even tinier studio sit on a piece of wild property where I do most of my making.
the skincare
Plume came out of a problem I had. Working with clay every day is brutal on hands, and the lotion bars I tried were really just body butters in disguise-heavy emollients that sat on top of my skin without sinking in. So I made one that worked differently. From there came soap (because I wanted something nourishing and beautiful to go with my soap dishes), and a cleansing oil (because the ones I'd been buying were greasy and I thought I could do better). The line has grown from there.
I come to formulating with a background in science. My day job is as a nurse practitioner with an integrative psychiatric mental health practice, and I teach pharmacology; which means I approach skincare with a love of chemistry and a respect for what actually works on skin, not what just sounds nice on a label. I'm currently studying through Formula Botanica to deepen the craft.
the name
Little Bird Studio is named after my dog, Magpie - a mini Australian shepherd, and a little bird in her own right. (Tiny Bird Studio was taken. I checked.) I also just love birds, and you'll find them turning up on a lot of my pots.
Pottery and formulating are different crafts but share similar roots - both are creative, scientific, and intuitive. Both have elements of the process that are slow and outcomes that can be surprising. And both feel like I’m making something genuine, useful, and lovely. Little Bird Studio is a side practice for now, though I'd happily make it a full-time endeavor someday (but Magpie’s got to eat!). In the meantime, everything you see here is made by me, in small batches, full of intention and care, with you in mind.
