Hestia Creations: Sculpting Moments In Time – WorthPoint

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While many of us have packed away the Christmas ornaments for another year, ornaments (and so much else) are on display year-round at a tiny company in the small seaside town of Marblehead, Massachusetts. For over thirty years, Hestia Creations has been creating heirloom ornaments and other figurines for cities, churches, schools, and businesses. Each year, collectors wait anxiously for the studio’s new pieces.

Hestia was a Greek goddess of home and hearth, and the studio takes its name from her. The art created by the studio includes tableware, village building scapes, décor, and ornaments.

WHEN DID HESTIA CREATIONS LAUNCH?

The business began in 1986 when founder and artist Linda MacDonald created bread dough Christmas ornaments. At that time, women in town, primarily mothers with young children, painted the decorations in their homes. MacDonald sold the ornaments at local craft fairs, church sales, and the annual Marblehead Christmas Walk. MacDonald sold the business in 2005 to Joanne D’Alessandro, who runs it today from the cozy studio in Marblehead.

The ornaments became so popular that the studio started making them in a more durable medium of Hydrostone, eventually moving to resin-bonded marble dust. In 1990, Hestia Creations created its first Marblehead Christmas ornament, and it still issues a new local ornament annually. Residents flock to the studio shop in Marblehead every fall to get the latest design to add to their collections.

WorthPoint spoke to D’Alessandro and her colleague Ellie Schnabel Doyle, the studio jack-of-all-trades and COO, about the company and why its pieces are so collectible.

WHERE ARE THEY?

While residents love the company, its artwork and creations are not limited to Marblehead scenes. Other organizations, from libraries and schools to hospitals and churches across the US, have commissioned designs from Hestia Creations for its ornaments, called “AmeriScapes.”

One of their clients, Country Gourmet of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, has Hestia create a yearly signature ornament for their company. The theme is a closely guarded secret until the unveiling party held in early November on Main Street in Historic Murfreesboro. The ornament is always a local building, park, or monument; collectors wait all year to see the newest addition. Additionally, the ornaments are always limited editions; when they are gone, they are gone, so hundreds of customers mob the unveiling party each year.

Inspired by that city’s practice of unveiling the year’s chosen ornament, Hestia threw an unveiling party for its 2023 creation, depicting the local lobstering industry. Dan Dixey, a photographer, archivist, author, and filmmaker, made a documentary on the fleet of Marblehead lobster boats. The film’s release coincided with the ornament debut, and it was a mighty party at the studio celebrating two iconic industries.

Because most of its ornaments are limited editions ranging from five hundred to two thousand pieces, Hestia Creations doesn’t create more once a particular design sells out. The ornaments are also signed and numbered for authenticity. An official mark from the creators makes some of them highly sought after by collectors. My tree fell over one Christmas, and several of mine broke into bits. I was lucky that some of them were still available, but I did have to hunt up two or three on online auction sites.

HOW ARE THEY MADE?

The process for making a Hestia creation has changed a few times over the years. Bread dough and Hydrostone were not especially durable, and the demand for commission orders and local work grew. The current process of creating an AmeriScape ornament starts with a design concept. It could be as simple as a seaside landscape or something more specific like a historic building or event.

The company begins with a prototype made from sketches or photos. The company’s first sculptor, Linda D’Addario, was one of the first women hired to paint the pieces. She grew with the company and was responsible eventually for the complete process from design to finished product. She is no longer at the studio, and owner Joanne D’Alessandro told WorthPoint, “It took us three years to find someone who could conceive, design, and sculpt an ornament for production. No one does this kind of work now.”

Once the design is sculpted, Hestia Creations makes four prototypes with plaster of Paris: two painted and two unpainted ones for molding. The studio then ships them to its production partner in Mexico, where workers create a mold and cast them in resin-bonded marble dust, which is strong and durable to make the ornaments lifelong keepsakes.

Artists at the production location then hand-paint the pieces to match the prototype.

The ornaments come back to Marblehead for the final touches. Ellie Schnabel Doyle told WorthPoint, “They’re incredibly detailed; even the tiniest element, like buttons on a coat or a cloth hat, are done as realistically as possible. They arrive back to us in a state we call naked and bald. In addition to paint, mixed media details like clothing, trim, and other accents are added by the artists in the Marblehead studio.”

D’Alessandro said she had a small business advisor as a mentor when she first bought the business. When she explained the process of creating the pieces, he said, “You have a 19th-century business model operating in the 21st century. I give you a lot of credit.”

WHAT ELSE DO THEY MAKE?

While the ornaments are the signature item for which the studio is known, there are many other items, and the most collectible of them is arguably the Companion Nativity Set. Each year, Hestia Creations adds one piece and retires one, so collectors who might have missed a piece must search online or in antique and vintage stores to find what they need.

The nativity pieces fetch the highest prices, largely because of the details in each figurine. Animals have wicker carrying baskets on them, and shepherds and others wear hand-made robes and clothing the artists attach. The set has the distinction of being included in an exhibit of museum-quality nativity sets at the International Marian Research Center of the University of Dayton.

Hestia Creations also makes hand-painted plates, cups, giftware, and a line of figures called “VillageScapes” depicting local pubs, restaurants, and historic buildings.

Hestia has no plans to stop making the ornaments and other items and has added space for paint-your-own pottery activities for families and children, studio classes, and take-home kits. D’Alessandro said that the community is a vital part of the business, and she believes they might be one of the few shops in the area that makes everything they sell. The Hestia Studio and showroom is located at 13 Hawkes Street in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Be sure to put a visit to the shop on your bucket list!

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Brenda Kelley Kim lives in the Boston area. She is the author of Sink or Swim: Tales From the Deep End of Everywhere and writes a weekly syndicated column for The Marblehead Weekly News/Essex Media Group. When not writing or walking her snorty pug, Penny, she enjoys yard sales, flea markets, and badminton.

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