Upstate “Clay Slinger” Camille Callahan’s Hand-Built Ceramic Lighting and More

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 claygroundcatskills@gmail.com.