About Happs Pottery

Myles Happ and Pottery

My ceramic experience is both broad and limited. 

I’ve nearly 30 years of a largely reduction fired stoneware career behind me and another 15+ years of journey hopefully in front.

Raising a family has perhaps been a higher priority than the studio career as I have developed a well established range of decorations with limited time to allocate to new work. I loved coaching them and going camping… giving the kids practical experiences which have an enduring life memory as well.

Pottery has been a part of me all of my life.

Here’s a few mental images.

As a child of the studio arts movement I grew up digging and preparing clay, making pottery and innocently absorbing a fairly technical education.

Fast forward 40 years and these days I run a pottery and honey shop and the supporting infrastructure in rural West Australia.

I’ve never been an exhibiting artist. My comfort zone is artisanal production pottery that we offer in a wide range of reduction fired stoneware glazes.

25 years of raising children and supporting a family as a craftsman has been a monumental journey and while the cycles have come and gone and come back more recently, the growth has been constant.

Every day presents the opportunity to do whatever I want. This year I’m excited to have committed to the tuition from a master from one of the world’s great ceramic universities as I do a glazing course. Yes, I’m really excited for the outcomes!

Marketing and publishing on the internet and the associated documentation has not been my thing. Or my wife’s thing. I don’t have the confidence to put all the crazy stuff I do out there. Jacquie captures odd moments and shares them.

Happs Pottery is our business and we have Insta, Facebook, Google and Trip Advisor profiles.

Happs Pottery on Caves Road

We began our long pottery production journey at the winery on Commonage Road and then decided to expand our opportunities by opening Happs Pottery on Caves Road, where we live and have the studio.

Pottery took a bit of a dive in the noughties – lots of white wares were around so Myles began his foray into beekeeping. It’s his observation of the bee hive culture that really excited him – the way they all worked together with the Queen Bee. This hobby has become a rather successful business. Our honey is available on site and at a few other special places around the district.

And we managed to get by on the sale of our pottery, educating our four amazing children (now adults fending for themselves) and participating in community life with our various volunteering interests.

We had big dreams though. To build a lesson room and share the tools of the trade, and have more space to fulfill corporate orders, and establishing the gallery and honey shop.

And we are doing it one space at a time!

The gallery and honey shop will one day be upgraded but for now, our work is on display in the old cottage home.

There is a new shed that will be where ‘things’ go when new ideas are generated! It is also a storage area, extraction room and office. Well, it’s mainly those last three.

Pottery Experiences

While Myles was dabbling in giving lessons, the lesson experience began in earnest when Finn came back from New Zealand. He was mucking around with pottery and did some demos for community. He found himself enjoying the teaching part of making pottery.

While he has since moved on, he has established with Myles, a lovely and achievable pottery experience for beginners of all ages. For an hour and a half, people can down phones and concentrate on shaping a piece of clay into something small and maybe functional! They talk to each other and laugh without tech distractions. It is wonderful!

Our pottery lesson room is constantly evolving as we grow towards a new building.

Corporate Giftware

Covid was good to us. People have rediscovered the joy of handmade pottery alongside making bread!

Ramsay Healthcare surprised us with an order for 7,200 gifts for their hardworking hospital staff. We had to create the pottery, gift wrap them in a box, put them up into cartons and ship them out on pallets.

It was an amazing experience and we DID it and know we did it well! So well, that we got another order in 2021 for 7,500 gifts. We understand that we can scale up when we need to. And though the learning journey was steep and mired, the knowledge gained at the end was very significant.

We can do it if we have notice!

Yes, get in touch if you are looking for a corporate gift. Email jacquie@happspottery.com.au

A Bit About Myles and Jacquie

åMyles was a trailblazer of the Cape Mountain Bike Club as founder and president, working to build the trail networks in Meelup Regional Park – Zone 6. One of the black tracks is named Happy Milo – wonder who that is? It brings him great joy to see young people riding their bikes around because more often than not, they have been up on the trails, and there is a healthy culture of outdoors because of that time investment.

Another great project that Myles is proud of is the production of a map of artisans, bringing together potters, metal and timber workers and glass blowers, jewellers and painters that led to the establishment of the Margaret River Artisans. He ran around and collected money to print an A4 map he created and this became a folded colour map. Some are still around if you are lucky!

Myles is a master potter who started when he was a child. He began potting in earnest when he finished high school, and then as a father of four, it became his full time work. In 2023, Myles undertook a course in glazing and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. There are several new glazes that now grace the shelves.

Jacquie has been a president of the Dunsborough & Districts Progress Association for many, many years – and through that manages the Dunsborough Arts Festival (a baby from 2000!), and other civic events. She helped facilitate four stages of street art work in Dunsborough. She is Vice Chair of the award winning Margaret River Region Open Studios and Building Busselton Town Team, and an active member of the Friends of the Busselton Cultural Precinct. She works at the City of Busselton as the Cultural Development Officer and really enjoys this work.

In 2023, after 35 years of watching Myles make pottery, she woke and decided to make pots too! She readily admits there is a long, long way to go but enjoys hand building and some throwing, and seeing what kinds of techniques she can play with.

Jacquie has been awarded the Naturaliste Gratitude Award for Dunsborough & Districts residents; City of Busselton Community Appreciation and Recognition Award; and twice been presented with the Australia Day Active / Community Citizen of the Year within the City of Busselton.

In 2024, Jacquie received an Order of Australia Medal which is a tribute to her community services to the region in tourism and the arts. We are all proud of her achievement, which she says, is for all of the family and the community groups she is a part of.