Interview in the Irish Times
She wished she was back home in Derry. Now she is
Read our recent article in the Irish Times!
Until recently, ceramic artist Babs Belshaw’s work commute involved a 30-minute journey across Dublin city centre, from her rented one-bed apartment in the IFSC to a studio in Harold’s Cross.
“I’d be leaving on my scooter, in my colourful potter clothes and clay-covered shoes, with my little dog Harry sitting in my rucksack, passing all these office people in suits,” she recalls with a smile.
Today, Belshaw (and seven-year-old terrier Harry) can set off from her family home, a Georgian former rectory in rural Co Derry, and reach her new business venture, The Blackheath Pottery, in a matter of seconds.
The night before we meet, she made a bedtime dash across the gravelled courtyard “in my jammies” to switch on the kiln in the 200-year-old converted outbuildings; “which maybe isn’t great work-life balance, but it doesn’t really feel like work to me”.
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