Current Obsessions: On the Water
by Remodelista Team
Ahead this weekend? A houseboat spa, a ceramics exhibit, an unexpected host gift, and more. Read on:
Above: Admiring Botnia’s skincare spa on a retrofitted houseboat in Sausalito, CA (hat tip: Margot). Read the Gardenista story on the founder’s nearby herbal garden here.
- Save the date for “Paula Greif Baskets & Buckets”, an exhibit of the ceramicist’s work, at Shaker Outpost in Chatham, New York—with an opening party July 18.
- “Most of life is more like our work-in-progress homes than we’re willing to admit.” Love this, courtesy of Kate Arends (of Wit and Delight).
- The making of the floral arrangements at Chez Panisse.
- Going to a party? Bring some paper crowns (and other ideas).
- A downright dreamy—and slightly surrealist—summer table.
- File under We Want to Go to This: a build-a-lamp workshop at Happy Medium in NYC.
- Long live smokebush arrangements.
- Want to learn more about architecture that takes into account the birds, bees, and bats after reading Laura’s story on habitat masonry? Watch this video.
- Many of us at R/G enjoy collecting leaves, seed heads, rocks, and other little treasures on our walks (especially Margot), so this exhibit by artist Judith Belzer, Walking Project: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, is right up our alley.
- A thoughtful must-read for anyone interested in welcoming more native plants into their garden.
- How clever!
- “For so long, I thought gardening required some secret expertise I didn’t possess. An encyclopedic understanding of plant genera and soil composition, plus special tools and perfect timing. A personality that wears linen and remembers where she left her pruning shears. Instead, it has mostly required showing up. And trying. And when something dies, trying again,” writes Suleika Jaouad in an extraordinary entry on gardening while living with cancer.
- Remember the cool Japanese watering cans and buckets that Margot wrote about? They are now available in more colors, including two new Martha Stewart-approved hues.
- And ICYMI, another great project by Terremoto, this one in West Marin.
Upstate “Clay Slinger” Camille Callahan’s Hand-Built Ceramic Lighting and More
by Margot Guralnick
Camille Callahan started making ceramics at Artshack in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, 10 years ago. An Australian in NYC working in marketing for creative businesses, she spent off-hours taking classes and intensively studying her craft. When her company went under during the pandemic in 2022, Camille realized she was ready to commit to being a full-time creative herself.
By then she and her husband, Thomas Callahan, a builder of custom steel bikes, had relocated to a house they built on 20 acres in the Catskills. Thomas has a large studio on their property and Camille installed a kiln upstairs. But she longed for the community of fellow “clay slingers.” Since the nearest shared ceramics studios were an hour-plus away, Camille took a gamble and opened her own. Clay Ground, on Main Street in nearby Andes, NY, has come together just as she had hoped: it operates as a communal space where other ceramic artists have moved their wheels and kilns, and also offers classes and welcome newcomers of all stripes.
When she’s not teaching, Camille has focused of late on making sconces, pendants, and table lamps, designs she fine-tuned for her own home. Interesting lighting is harder to come by than mugs and tableware, she notes. “I like the idea of creating a permanent fixture in someone’s home.” Her pieces are all hand-built and are intentionally, she says, “a bit wonky.” Count us among the charmed.
Photography by Christian Harder, unless noted, all courtesy of Camille Callahan (@millhause).
Above: We discovered Camille’s work in The Cottage at Bovina Farm and Fermentory: she supplied the Petal Pendant of of unglazed terracotta earthenware; $400. Photograph by Sarah Elliot.
Above: Camille, Thomas, and their 6-year-old son live in a modern barn-style house: the couple worked with architects Henry Smith-Miller and Laurie Hawkinson of esteemed NYC firm Smith-Miller + Hawkinson who are old friends of Thomas’s family: “their wedding gift to us was to help design our house,” says Camille.
The ceramics in their living room include Camille’s Triangular Table Lamp, $300; Terracotta Clock, $200; Petal Pendant, $400; and two-toned Keyhole Vase. Their HearthStone Stove is finished with soapstone, which retains heat; their vintage Copco kettle helps humidify the air.
Above: Camille commissioned the table on their deck from Catskills artist Jason Thomson—she got him to adapt a chair of his into a 10-foot long design with red legs.
Camille and Thomas originally stayed in an unheated cabin on their property while envisioning their future house. “We used a contractor to build the livable shell: walls, floors, ceilings, and electric,” she says. “We moved in and finished the rest at the same time as having a baby.”
Above: Camille specializes in slab-built designs. Here, she’s at work on a pitcher, clock, and Clay Ground sign.
Elders in the ceramics community have donated to Camille’s studio: Frances Palmer contributed a slab roller she wasn’t using. And artist Joelle Hoverson, co-founder of Purl Soho, “gave me her entire studio, all the tools, wheels, kiln—she’s now painting.”
Above: Camille’s signature Shell Candle Sconce in unglazed white stoneware hangs over her pitcher and tumblers. The candle sconce comes in various sizes and finishes starting at $75.
Above: Camille’s White Shell Sconce, $250, is made of unglazed white clay from Sheffield Pottery dug on the company’s grounds in Sheffield, Massachusetts. The Triangular Table Lamp, $300, comes with its pleated fabric shade.
Camille gets her linen bedding on Etsy from LinoTakes of Lithuania.
Above: “I made my first clock as a way to avoid looking at our phones,” Camille writes on Instagram. Now there’s one in almost every room in the house and she offers versions with glazed (shown) and etched numbers. Camille makes all of her pieces to order: see her website and email requests to [email protected].
We recently featured another upstate designer of note: Jennifer June of Loose Parts Kitchens.
More of our favorite ceramics:
For daily dispatches and more favorite finds, head to Remodelista.com. For bonus content—like our weekly Quick Takes column—consider joining us as a paid subscriber.
Remodelista participates in affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on products purchased through our links to retailer sites.
